The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today released its 2019 Year in Review outlining the major accomplishments of the agency under Secretary Ben Carson.
“The Trump Administration continues to deliver on its promise to create greater economic opportunity for low-income families and revitalize underserved communities,” said, Secretary Carson. “HUD is committed to doing its part to help families get on the path to self-sufficiency and I look forward to working with President Trump to continue building on these successes in the new year.”
HUD’s achievements in 2019 include:
Advancing Economic Opportunity
- Served over 990,000 single-family homebuyers through HUD’s Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured mortgage programs.
- Oversaw the production or preservation of over 2.6 million insured and assisted multifamily rental units and provided over $4.3 billion in insurance for hospitals and residential care facilities.
- Expanded the Moving to Work Demonstration Program from 39 to 139 public housing authorities across the country.
- Distributed the one-millionth book to low-income children through the Book Rich Environments Initiative.
- Nearly doubled the number of EnVision Centers across the nation.
Protecting Taxpayers
- Achieved a 4.84 percent FHA Capital Reserve Ratio, the strongest ratio since 2007.
- Began development work on a state-of-the-art technology infrastructure for FHA insurance programs, which will replace some technology that is more than 30 years old.
- Saved $2.7 million by lowering agency costs for shared services.
- Began implementing a new oversight process for Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Reducing Regulatory Barriers
- Removed over 600 pieces of outdated or unnecessary subregulatory guidance documents from external websites.
- Signed a landmark agreement with the Department of Justice on the appropriate use of the False Claims Act with FHA Single Family lenders.
- Collaborated across the Executive Branch to establish the White House Council on Eliminating Barriers to Affordable Housing, covering eight federal agencies, led by Secretary Ben Carson.
- Developed a portal enabling Tribally Designated Housing Entities (TDHEs) to submit Tribal HUD-VASH data electronically for the first time in HUD’s history, improving and streamlining this grant process.
Helping Disaster Victims Recover
- Made more than $7.5 billion of funding available to 15 states, local governments, and territories.
- Expanded the use of the Disaster Standalone Partial Claim to assist victims of disasters in all Presidentially declared Major Disaster Areas by helping homeowners stay current on their mortgage payments, which reduces the number of foreclosures and subsequent claims paid by the FHA.
Reducing Homelessness Among Extremely Vulnerable Populations
- Launched the Foster Youth to Independence (FYI) Initiative to provide youth exiting foster programs who are at risk for homelessness with Housing Choice Vouchers. In the eight months since the start of the initiative, 166 youths have received vouchers.
- Announced approximately 5,000 new HUD-VASH vouchers to help homeless veterans and their families find and sustain permanent housing.
- Awarded more than $2.45 billion to help end homelessness.
Providing Safe & Fair Housing
- Registered more than 1,500 properties to test HUD’s new inspection pilot program, the National Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real Estate (NSPIRE) demonstration.
- Expanded Safety and Security grants to include carbon monoxide detectors.
- Provided $28 million to address lead-based paint hazards in public housing.
- Negotiated the largest disability compliance settlement of its kind which put motion a plan to produce over 4,600 fully accessible homes for persons with disabilities in Los Angeles.
- Reached a major agreement with the City of New York and the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) that requires supervision of a Federal Monitor and obligates New York City to provide $1.2 billion in new capital funding over the next five years.
- Undertook a Secretary-initiated Fair Housing Act complaint against Facebook, to ensure housing-related ads on Facebook’s platforms comply with the law.
Spurring Reinvestment in Communities
- Preserved and renovated over 17,000 public housing units in FY2019 through the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program and expanded the program to include housing for very-low income elderly persons.
- Invested $3.4 billion in CDBG funds in our nation’s communities and insular areas, creating 19,933 jobs.
- Announced funding for 1,200 affordable housing units on Indian reservations and in other Indian areas.
- Implemented program incentives for lenders intending to build or refinance multifamily properties, hospitals, and residential care facilities located in Opportunity Zones.
- Established new program incentives to facilitate purchases and rehabilitation of single-family primary residences located in Opportunity Zones.
Read more of HUD’s 2019 accomplishments here and learn more about many of the individuals and families who have been impacted by HUD’s programs and services at HUD.gov/humansofhud.