WASHINGTON, DC – January 26, 2012 – (RealEstateRama) — The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced today that it is charging the owner of a 24-unit apartment building in Holyoke, Massachusetts, with housing discrimination for denying units to families that have children. HUD’s charge alleges that Nilma Fichera, who owns and manages New York-based N.A.G. Realty, LLC, violated the Fair Housing Act when she refused to show or rent apartments to families with children because she could not certify that the building was free of lead-based paint.

WASHINGTON, DC – January 20, 2012 – (RealEstateRama) — U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan today allocated $400 million in emergency aid to help communities in eight states to recover from presidentially declared natural disasters in 2011. Provided through HUD’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program, these grants will support long-term disaster recovery efforts in areas with the greatest extent of ‘unmet need.’

WASHINGTON, DC – January 20, 2012 – (RealEstateRama) — Today, Acting Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Commissioner Carol J. Galante announced the latest in a series of steps to protect and strengthen the FHA’s Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, while enabling the agency to continue to fulfill its mission to provide access to homeownership for qualified borrowers.

WASHINGTON, DC – January 19, 2012 – (RealEstateRama) — The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today awarded $6.8 million to help local communities across this country to assess the nature and scope of their homeless challenge as part of a broader Administration goal of preventing and ending homelessness. The technical assistance grants awarded today will ultimately help state and local planning organizations or ‘continuums of care’ to improve data collection and reporting that is a critical part of designing their responses to homelessness.

WASHINGTON, DC – January 18, 2012 – (RealEstateRama) — The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today announced that it is launching a Section 3 Business Registry pilot program in Washington, D.C. that will expand job opportunities for low-income people and public housing residents by maintaining a registry of businesses that currently hire them. Additionally, HUD will implement the pilot program in New Orleans, Detroit, Los Angeles and Miami, to give contracting agencies and low-income residents a single source of information to find eligible Section 3 businesses and job opportunities.

WASHINGTON, DC – January 11, 2012 – (RealEstateRama) — The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced today that it is making available $110 million in grants to transform public and assisted housing and to revitalize communities. Appearing in today’s Federal Register is the Notice of Funding Availability, the federal application, for the FY 2012 Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Program. Read HUD’s funding notice.

WASHINGTON, DC – January 11, 2012 – (RealEstateRama) — As part of its continuing effort to provide quality housing counseling to the nation’s homeowners, buyers and renters, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today announced the availability of $2 million in grants for housing counseling training. HUD’s goal is to fund eligible organizations to deliver training across the full spectrum of counseling services.

WASHINGTON, DC – January 10, 2012 – (RealEstateRama) — The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of the Treasury today released the December edition of the Obama Administration’s Housing Scorecard – a comprehensive report on the nation’s housing market. Data in the December Housing Scorecard show some subtle improvements in the market over the past year, but underscore fragility as the overall outlook remains mixed. For example, new and existing home sales rose compared to the prior month and remain higher than a year ago, and homes are more affordable than they have been since 1971.

WASHINGTON, DC – January 10, 2012 – (RealEstateRama) — U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan announced today that 13 communities across the U.S. will receive $3.6 million in Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grants. (See attached list (PDF)and project summary for this all of the grantees (PDF).)

WASHINGTON, DC – December 29, 2011 – (RealEstateRama) — In an effort to continue stabilizing home values and improve conditions in communities experiencing high foreclosure activity, Acting Federal Housing Administration Commissioner Carol J. Galante today extended a temporary waiver of FHA’s anti-flipping regulations through 2012. Read FHA’s anti-flipping waiver.

WASHINGTON, DC – December 22, 2011 – (RealEstateRama) — The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today announced that it has launched the HUD Language Line, a telephone language service pilot that will offer live, one-on-one interpretation services in more than 175 languages. Accessible throughout the nation, the language line will help HUD staff to better communicate with Limited English Proficient (LEP) individuals and families about HUD housing programs, services, and activities.

WASHINGTON, DC – December 21, 2011 – (RealEstateRama) — U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan today awarded $1.47 billion to renew funding to more than 7,100 local homeless programs operating across the country. The funding announced today will ensure these housing and service programs remain operating in 2012 and are a critical part of the Obama Administration’s strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness.

WASHINGTON, DC – December 15, 2011 – (RealEstateRama) — U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki announced today that HUD will provide $2.4 million to public housing agencies to supply permanent housing and case management for homeless veterans in the U.S.

WASHINGTON, DC – December 14, 2011 – (RealEstateRama) — On a single night last January, 636,017 people were homeless in the United States, a 2.1 percent decline from the year before. That’s the key finding of a new count on homelessness announced today by U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan. Donovan made the announcement at a meeting of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness where he was joined by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.

WASHINGTON, DC – December 6, 2011 – (RealEstateRama) — U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Assistant Secretary Sandra B. Henriquez announced today that HUD is joining forces with GreatSchools, a national non-profit educational resource for parents. The intent of this new partnership is to give parents living in public housing or who receive HUD Housing Choice Voucher rental assistance greater access to local school information that will help them make more informed decisions about where to send their children to school.

WASHINGTON, DC – December 6, 2011 – (RealEstateRama) — Elderly Americans in Connecticut, Indiana, Minnesota, New York and Ohio will soon find themselves living in upgraded apartments equipped to meet their physical needs because of $23.7 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD today announced the grants to help convert existing multifamily projects into assisted living facility for the elderly. A detailed summary of each grant is attached to this release.

WASHINGTON, DC – December 5, 2011 – (RealEstateRama) — Immediately after a raging E-5 tornado destroyed thousands of homes in Joplin, Missouri last May, Matt Moran jumped into action. The executive director of the Housing Authority of Joplin immediately made certain residents were safe and worked quickly to provide housing for those forced from their homes.

Washington, D.C. – December 2, 2011 – (RealEstateRama) — Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced its selection of the German Marshall Fund (GMF) partnership as the recipient of the $2.5 million award to manage the Strong Cities, Strong Communities (SC2) fellowship program for HUD. The partnership is comprised of the German Marshall Fund, Cleveland State University and Virginia Tech. The fellowship program is one of four capacity building strategies that are part of the White House-led, federal interagency SC2 initiative. SC2 is a pilot program focused on retooling and rebuilding the capacity of cities facing long-term economic challenges. Up to 30 fellows will be assigned to the six SC2 cities (Chester, PA; Detroit, MI; New Orleans, LA; Fresno, CA; Memphis, TN; and Cleveland, OH.

Washington, DC – December 2, 2011 – (RealEstateRama) — Public and private sector workers in the northwestern U.S. have limited access for affordable housing. In response, the National Association of Realtors®, in partnership with the National Housing Conference, will host a forum today in Portland, Ore., to address this crisis and encourage efforts to make housing more affordable to working class families.

WASHINGTON, DC – December 2, 2011 – (RealEstateRama) — U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan today announced HUD will speed federal disaster assistance to the State of New Jersey and provide support to homeowners and low-income re…