[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 179 (Monday, September 18, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 63971-63972]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-20130]
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DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
[Docket No. FR-6086-N-07]
RIN 2577-AD05
Economic Growth Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act:
Implementation of National Standards for the Physical Inspection of
Real Estate (NSPIRE); Extension of Compliance Date
AGENCY: Office of the Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and
Development, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: This notice extends the compliance date for HUD's National
Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real Estate (NSPIRE) final
rule for Community Planning and Development (CPD) programs.
Specifically, HUD is extending the compliance date for the HOME
Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) and Housing Trust Fund (HTF),
Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA), Emergency Solution
Grants (ESG) and Continuum of Care (COC) programs (``CPD programs'')
until October 1, 2024. HUD is taking this action to allow
jurisdictions, participants, and grantees additional time to
incorporate HUD's NSPIRE standards specific to their own programs and
the flexibility to transition to NSPIRE under their own timelines.
DATES: Compliance Date: Jurisdictions, participants, and grantees
subject to 24 CFR parts 92, 93, 574, 576, and 578, are not required to
comply with the changes to these parts in the NSPIRE final rule until
October 1, 2024.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Caitlin Renner, Supervisory Affordable
Housing Specialist, Room 7160, Department of Housing and Urban
Development, 451 Seventh Street SW, Washington, DC 20410-7000;
telephone (202) 708-2684. (This is not a toll-free number). HUD
welcomes and is prepared to receive calls from individuals who are deaf
or hard of hearing, as well as individuals with speech or communication
disabilities. To learn more about how to make an accessible telephone
call, please visit: https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/telecommunications-relay-service-trs.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The Economic Growth Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act:
Implementation of National Standards for Physical Inspection of Real
Estate (NSPIRE) final rule (``NSPIRE final rule'') was published on May
11, 2023 (88 FR 30442). The NSPIRE final rule strengthens HUD's
physical condition standards and re-envisions how HUD-assisted housing
is inspected by aligning and consolidating the inspection regulations.
The NSPIRE final rule included amendments to 24 CFR parts 92, 93, 574,
576, and 578 to conform their various inspection requirements to NSPIRE
and established an effective date for these amendments of October 1,
2023.
The amendments for HOME and HTF require participating jurisdictions
to develop property standards that apply the requirements in 24 CFR
5.703 to rental or homeownership projects involving rehabilitation,
ongoing inspections of HOME- and HTF-assisted rental housing during the
period of affordability, and acquisition of standard housing for
homeownership. For HOME, these requirements also apply to units
occupied by tenants receiving HOME tenant-based rental assistance. The
changes in the NSPIRE final rule further provide that HUD will publish
lists of specific deficiencies in a Federal Register notice that must
be corrected before HOME or HTF project completion or during the period
of affordability for occupied units. HUD has not yet published this
notice for HOME or HTF deficiencies, but these deficiencies for HOME
and HTF will be a subset of the deficiencies in the NSPIRE Inspection
Standards published on June 22, 2023 (the ``NSPIRE Standards'') for
public housing, multifamily housing, and housing choice vouchers/
project based vouchers (88 FR 40832). To fully implement the NSPIRE
final rule, HOME participating jurisdictions and HTF grantees must
develop rehabilitation and ongoing property standards, as well as
policies and procedures that incorporate the specific deficiencies that
will be published in the notice, applicable requirements in the NSPIRE
final rule, and other applicable requirements in the HOME and HTF
regulations.
II. Basis for Delay of Compliance Date
Under the NSPIRE final rule, CPD programs are subject to only the
portions of 24 CFR part 5, subpart G that apply to their particular
programs. Additionally, different participants may have different
implementation needs. For example, some PHAs may be implementing NSPIRE
in their voucher program right away, and would therefore benefit from
immediate implementation of NSPIRE in their CPD programs, while other
participants may have no external need to transition to NSPIRE and
would benefit from additional time to implement NSPIRE into their own
program.
In particular, HOME participating jurisdictions and HTF grantees
are not able to update their rehabilitation and ongoing property
standards and policies and procedures in accordance with the NSPIRE
final rule until HUD publishes the lists of specific deficiencies for
HOME and HTF in the Federal Register. This notice will not be published
by the effective date of October 1, 2023. HUD recognizes that
participating jurisdictions and HTF grantees will not have all the
tools to fully implement NSPIRE for HOME and HTF by the effective date.
HUD also recognizes that, after HUD publishes the list of specific
deficiencies, participating jurisdictions and HTF grantees will need
additional time to incorporate the list of specific deficiencies into
their rehabilitation and ongoing property standards and policies and
procedures.
Therefore, for all the reasons stated above, HUD has determined
that it is in the public interest to extend the compliance date for all
CPD programs to October 1, 2024, to allow participants additional time
to transition to NSPIRE.
III. Instructions
HUD provides the below instructions and guidance specific to
particular CPD programs.
Instructions for HOME Participating Jurisdictions and HTF Grantees
While the NSPIRE final rule applies to projects with HOME or HTF
funds committed on or after the effective date of October 1, 2023, HOME
participating jurisdictions and HTF grantees do not have to complete
implementation of the changes in the NSPIRE rule until the compliance
date of October 1, 2024. Participating jurisdictions and grantees
should prepare for the compliance date by updating property standard
regulatory citations and requirements in
[[Page 63972]]
written agreement templates with State recipients, subrecipients, and
project owners, as required by 24 CFR 92.504(c) and 24 CFR 93.404(c).
In addition, participating jurisdictions or HTF grantees that
intend to comply with the changes in the NSPIRE final rule as of the
effective date should review the deficiencies established in the NSPIRE
Standards notice at 88 FR 40832 and compare these requirements to their
existing rehabilitation and property standards and their inspection
procedures and checklists. While HUD intends to publish a subset of the
deficiencies in the NSPIRE Standards that are applicable to HOME and
HTF projects, participating jurisdictions and HTF grantees that
implement the changes in the NSPIRE final rule before publication of
the subset of deficiencies for HOME and HTF must implement the full set
of deficiencies in the NSPIRE Standards in their rehabilitation and
ongoing property standards and policies and procedures. Further,
participating jurisdictions and HTF grantees may not implement the
changes in the NSPIRE final rule until such rehabilitation and ongoing
property standards and policies and procedures are updated consistent
with NSPIRE.
Participating jurisdictions and HTF grantees are required to manage
the day-to-day operations of their programs in accordance with all
program requirements and written agreements as required at 24 CFR
92.504(a) and 24 CFR 93.404(a) respectively. However, participating
jurisdictions and HTF grantees cannot impose new requirements resulting
from updated regulations on project owners unless the written
agreements with owners for the funds permit the participating
jurisdiction or HTF grantee to do so. Consequently, participating
jurisdictions or HTF grantees must determine whether the requirements
applied in the written agreements that are fully executed before the
effective date of the NSPIRE final rule are automatically updated when
regulatory changes take effect or if such agreements must be amended to
apply the new or updated requirements. This is an important
consideration when participating jurisdictions or HTF grantees would
like to apply the NSPIRE final rule rehabilitation and ongoing HOME or
HTF property standard requirements to projects with commitments made
prior to the effective date of the NSPIRE final rule and for HOME or
HTF projects that are jointly funded by another HUD program with an
earlier NSPIRE final rule effective date.
Instructions for CoC, ESG, and HOPWA
Many CoC, ESG, and HOPWA recipients administer housing choice
vouchers or project based vouchers and may adopt NSPIRE standards for
those programs beginning October 1, 2023. Nothing in this extension of
the compliance date prevents CoC, ESG, and HOPWA recipients or
subrecipients from using NSPIRE standards beginning October 1, 2023.
HUD also intends to publish, through a Federal Register notice,
guidance on which NSPIRE standards apply to CoC, ESG, and HOPWA
programs.
IV. Conclusion
Accordingly, HUD revises the October 1, 2023, compliance date for
the changes made to 24 CFR parts 92, 93, 574, 576, and 578 to October
1, 2024, at which time jurisdictions subject to these parts must comply
with the NSPIRE final rule. Until October 1, 2024, participants subject
to these parts may instead choose to comply with these parts as they
existed prior to October 1, 2023.
Marion McFadden,
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and
Development.
[FR Doc. 2023-20130 Filed 9-15-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4210-67-P