NLIHC joined the National Housing Law Project (NHLP) and the Housing Assistance Council (HAC) in submitting a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Rural Housing Service regarding its efforts to improve tenant communication procedures in the Rural Housing Voucher program (Section 542). The comment letter follows a Prepayment/Voucher Letter Listening Session held on March 9 during which USDA staff presented an improved process for notifying tenants that their USDA property had been prepaid and that their voucher terms would change.
Because USDA Section 521 Rental Assistance (RA) is available only while USDA financing is in place, when a USDA mortgage is fully paid off, the property loses its RA status. The USDA can offer Section 542 vouchers for tenants when a mortgage is prepaid but not when a mortgage matures. During the March 9 Listening Session, USDA staff presented new notice letters to tenants with regard to the Section 515 mortgage prepayment process and RD Voucher program (Section 542).
“While the letters that RD has developed are an improvement over the ones currently used by the Agency,” the letter states, “additional modifications are needed to the letters and attachments so that they clearly and correctly communicate to tenants the RD prepayment process, the tenants’ rights and options when the prepayment is being considered, and the forms of assistance that are available to them once a prepayment decision is made.”
NLIHC, NHLP, and HAC provided general recommendations for the tenant notification process, as well as recommendations for each draft letter and recommendations on tenants’ rights in the USDA programs. The organizations also listed five proposals for USDA model letters to tenants.
View the comment letter at: https://bit.ly/40NSIlL
Read more about USDA’s Rural Rental Housing Programs in the 2023 Advocate’s Guide at: https://bit.ly/3zhUTCf