[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 187 (Tuesday, September 30, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 46912-46914]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-18988]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
[Docket No. FR-6086-N-11]
Economic Growth Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act:
Implementation of National Standards for the Physical Inspection of
Real Estate (NSPIRE); Extension of NSPIRE Compliance Date for CPD
Programs
AGENCY: Office of Community Planning and Development, U.S. Department
of
[[Page 46913]]
Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: This notice further 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, the Department is extending the compliance date for the
Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG), Continuum of Care (CoC) HOME
Investment Partnerships Program (HOME), and Housing Trust Fund (HTF)
programs (``CPD programs''), until October 1, 2026. HUD is taking this
action to allow recipients and grantees additional time to implement
the Department's NSPIRE standards.
DATES: Compliance Date: Recipients and grantees subject to 24 CFR parts
92, 93, 576, and 578 are not required to comply with the changes to
these parts in the NSPIRE final rule until October 1, 2026.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For the ESG and CoC programs: Norm
Suchar, Director, for the Office of Special Needs Assistance Programs
(SNAPs), Room 7262, Department of Housing and Urban Development, 451
Seventh Street SW, Washington, DC 20410-7000; telephone (202) 708-5015,
(this is not a toll-free number).
For the HOME and HTF programs: Peter Huber, Acting Director, for
the Office of Affordable Housing Programs (OAHP), Room 7160, Department
of Housing and Urban Development, 451 Seventh Street SW, Washington, DC
20410-7000; telephone (202) 402-3941 (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
For CPD programs, the NSPIRE final rule included amendments to 24
CFR parts 92, 93, 576, and 578 to conform their various inspection
requirements to NSPIRE and established an effective date for these
amendments of October 1, 2023. In September 2023, the Department
delayed the compliance date for CPD programs (88 FR 63971) and for the
Housing Choice Voucher and Project-Based Voucher programs (88 FR 66882)
until October 1, 2024, to allow Public Housing Agencies (PHA),
jurisdictions, participants, and HUD grantees additional time for
implementation. In July 2024, the Department again delayed the
compliance date for CPD programs until October 1, 2025, to allow PHAs,
jurisdictions, participants, and HUD grantees additional time for
implementation (89 FR 55645).
II. Basis for Delay of Compliance Date
Through this notice, the Department further delays the compliance
date for CPD programs until October 1, 2026. HUD encourages any
recipients and grantees that are ready to implement NSPIRE to do so at
their earliest convenience. However, the Department has determined that
some types of units funded under the CoC and ESG programs may not meet
certain requirements of the NSPIRE standards as they are applied to
other HUD programs. Previously stated in the last compliance date
extension for CPD programs, the Department intends to publish standards
specific to each of these programs before the compliance date. These
notices have not yet been published, and it will be a challenge for
grantees to revise their inspection procedures in time. HUD seeks to
ensure that all unit types currently funded by the CoC and ESG programs
can meet the NSPIRE Standards for the ESG and CoC Programs when they
are published.
In addition, the NSPIRE final rule provides that the Department
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. Participating
jurisdictions and HTF grantees must develop rehabilitation and ongoing
property standards, as well as policies and procedures that incorporate
these specific deficiencies, applicable requirements in the NSPIRE
final rule, other applicable requirements in the HOME and HTF
regulations, and state and local codes and requirements. The Federal
Register notice will not be published by October 1, 2025, and
participating jurisdictions and HTF grantees are not able to update
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. The Department
intends to publish the notice before the compliance date and to provide
a reasonable timeframe for implementation.
III. Instructions for CoC and ESG Programs
Nothing in this extension of the compliance date prevents CoC and
ESG recipients, or subrecipients, from using NSPIRE standards before
October 1, 2026. Those that choose to implement NSPIRE standards prior
to October 1, 2026, must document the chosen compliance date in program
records. Those that have adopted the standards established at 88 FR
40832 must continue to follow those standards. Those that wish to
follow the former program requirements may do so until the new
compliance date. However, when HUD issues the standards specific to the
ESG and CoC programs, all grantees and recipients will be expected to
prepare for the compliance date by updating their policies and
procedures to reflect the program-specific standards.
CoC and ESG recipients who will implement NSPIRE prior to the new
compliance date of October 1, 2026, must document the chosen compliance
date in program records. Nothing in this extension of the compliance
date prevents CoC and ESG recipients from using NSPIRE standards prior
to October 1, 2026. The Department also intends to publish, through a
Federal Register notice, guidance on which NSPIRE standards apply to
CoC, ESG, HOME and HTF programs.
HUD-assisted rental housing is required to comply with Federal Fire
Safety Act of 1992 which requires smoke alarms installed in accordance
with the National Fire Protection Association Standard 72, or any
successor standard thereto.
IV. Instructions for HOME and HTF Programs
Participating jurisdictions and HTF grantees should prepare for the
compliance date by updating property standard regulatory citations and
requirements in written agreement templates with State recipients,
subrecipients, and project owners, as required by 24 CFR 92.504(c) and
24 CFR 93.404(c). However, nothing in this extension of the compliance
date prevents participating jurisdictions and HTF grantees from
implementing the NSPIRE final rule immediately. Participating
jurisdictions and 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
[[Page 46914]]
procedures and checklists. While the Department 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.
In addition, 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.
V. Conclusion
Accordingly, the Department revises the October 1, 2025, compliance
date for the changes made to 24 CFR parts 92, 93, 576, and 578 to
October 1, 2026, at which time recipients subject to these parts must
comply with the NSPIRE final rule. Until October 1, 2026, recipients
and grantees subject to these parts may instead choose to comply with
these parts as they existed prior to October 1, 2023.
Bryan W. Horn,
Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and
Development.
[FR Doc. 2025-18988 Filed 9-29-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4210-67-P