HUD Resumption of Multifamily Production and Asset Management Activities

The HUD Office of Multifamily Housing (MFH) issued two memorandums on February 1, 2019 outlining the departments plan for prioritizing the backlog of work from the shutdown. One memo deals with the resumption of multifamily production activities and the other with asset management activities.

Production Activities

HUD is prioritizing its production activities as follows:

1. Identify and prioritize work on loans that have been issued a firm commitment and are in a position to reach initial or final endorsement, meaning the complete closing package was submitted prior to 12/21/18, with only minor corrections necessary to close. Priority will be given to loans that have critical external deadlines such as LIHTCs, rate lock extension fees, and purchase sales agreements with substantial penalties.
2. Conduct an inventory of applications currently in process that were received prior to the shutdown. Applications that were submitted during the shutdown will be date stamped 1/28/19 (the end of the shutdown) and assigned to underwriters for future processing. These assignments should be made by 2/5/19.
3. Process applications that were in process prior to the shutdown. HUD will begin with applications that are close to issuance of either a commitment or an invite letter as determined by the HUD Regional Office.
4. Address applications that were in mid-process or received immediately prior to the shutdown.
5. Applications that were submitted during the shutdown.

Lenders may continue to submit new applications for mortgage insurance. New concept meetings will not be scheduled until 2/19/19. Concept meetings already scheduled may be conducted at the discretion of the HUD field office.

Third party reports (appraisals, market studies, environmental reports and CNA submissions) whose expiration dates have lapsed pending submission of an application due to the shutdown may have the expiration waived at the discretion of the Regional Office.

For the foreseeable future, it is likely that lenders, borrowers, and other affected program participants will experience longer than normal application processing times.

HUD expects to issue another update on development processing timing in a few weeks.

Asset Management Activities

HUD asset management priorities are as follows:

1. Work related to tenant health and safety, including contract renewals and subsidy payments. HUD is currently allocating new funding provided by the Continuing Resolution (CR) to support the renewal of expiring Section 8 Project Based Rental Assistance (PBRA), Section 202 and Section 811 contracts. Additional funding is now available for ongoing Section 8 PBRA contracts to ensure timely payments through April 1. There are some properties with expiring contracts whose renewals were not fully processed by February 1. If affected properties have HUD-controlled reserves, loans may be requested from the reserve accounts. Requests may be sent to the assigned incoming field email box and must include a completed HUD-9250, the current balance in the account, the withdrawal amount, and a statement certifying that released funds will be reimbursed to the reserve account once subsidy payments are received.
2. Meeting critical external deadlines, such as servicing actions in connection with FHA closings, and property sales that require HAP Assignment processing or 2530 clearance. If your property is in this category, you should submit a request for HUD to prioritize your action via the assigned incoming field email box.
3. Other requests such as standard reserve for replacement withdrawals will be processed in the order received.

Questions should be directed to assigned multifamily field offices as shown below. The HUD HQ contact is Brian Murray, Acting Director of the Office of Asset Management and Portfolio Oversight at Brian.A.Murray@HUD.gov or 202-402-2059.

Office                   Email

Atlanta                  Atl.incoming@HUD.gov

Baltimore               BAL.incoming@HUD.gov

Boston                  Bos.incoming@HUD.gov

Chicago                 Chi.incoming@HUD.gov

Detroit                  Det.incoming@HUD.gov

Denver                  Den.incoming@HUD.gov

Fort Worth             MFSoutwest@HUD.gov

Jacksonville           Jax.incoming@HUD.gov

Kansas City           MFSouthwest@HUD.gov

Minneapolis            Mn.incoming@HUD.gov

New York              NYC.incoming@HUD.gov

San Francisco         SF.incoming@HUD.gov