30-Day Notification Requirement Prior To Termination of Lease for Nonpayment of Rent

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT <CFR>24 CFR Parts 247, 880, 884, 886, 891, and 966</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. FR-6387-F-02]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2501-AE09</RIN> <SUBJECT>30-Day Notification Requirement Prior To Termination of Lease for Nonpayment of Rent</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> This final rule provides that public housing agencies (PHAs) and owners of properties receiving project-based rental assistance (PBRA) must provide written notification to tenants facing eviction for nonpayment of rent 30 days prior to filing a formal judicial eviction procedure. For purposes of this rule, PBRA and other forms of project rental assistance includes projects in the following programs: Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance, Section 202/162 Project Assistance Contract (PAC), Section 202 Project Rental Assistance Contract (PRAC), Section 811 PRAC, Section 811 Project Rental Assistance Program (811 PRA), and Senior Preservation Rental Assistance Contract Projects (SPRAC). This final rule largely adopts the proposed rule and, in response to public comments, has been revised to include additional requirements in the 30-day notice and to clarify the timing of the notice. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> <E T="03">Effective date:</E> January 13, 2025. <E T="03">Compliance dates:</E> Compliance with this rule is required no later than January 13, 2025, except PHA compliance with 24 CFR 966.4(q) is required no later than June 15, 2026. PBRA owner compliance with certain requirements in new 24 CFR 880.606(b), 884.215, 886.127(c), 886.327(c), and 891.425(d), is required no later than 14 months from the date that HUD publishes final model leases that incorporates these requirements. </EFFDATE> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> For Public and Indian Housing: Danielle Bastarache, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Housing and Voucher Programs, 451 7th Street SW, Room 4204, Washington, DC 20410, telephone number 202-402-1380 (this is not a toll-free number). For a quicker response, email <E T="03">publichousingpolicyquestions@hud.gov.</E> For Multifamily: Ethan Handelman, Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Multifamily Housing Programs, 451 7th Street SW, Room 6106, Washington, DC 20410, telephone number 202-708-2495 (this is not a toll-free number). For a quicker response, email <E T="03">mfcommunications@hud.gov.</E> 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 <E T="03">https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/telecommunications-relay-service-trs.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Background</HD> On October 7, 2021, HUD published an interim final rule titled “Extension of Time and Required Disclosures for Notification of Nonpayment of Rent” (the “interim final rule”), to assist with the response to the national COVID-19 pandemic and future national emergencies (86 FR 55693, October 7, 2021). HUD, along with other Federal agencies, responded to the national emergency declaration during the COVID-19 pandemic with efforts to support families impacted financially by the COVID-19 pandemic and at risk of losing their housing. Pursuant to the interim final rule, HUD also issued a joint Public and Indian Housing (PIH) and Housing notice on October 7, 2021 (Notice PIH 2021-29 and H 2021-06). On December 1, 2023, HUD published for public comment the “30-Day Notification Requirement Prior to Termination of Lease for Nonpayment of Rent” proposed rule (the “proposed rule”) (88 FR 83877, December 1, 2023). The proposed rule sought to make the interim final rule generally applicable and no longer contingent on the existence of a national emergency or the availability of emergency rental assistance funds by revising HUD's regulations to provide for a 30-day notification requirement prior to initiating an eviction proceeding against a tenant for nonpayment of rent. Prior to 2021 when the interim final rule was implemented, certain HUD programs had requirements for non-payment of rent evictions and timing of eviction notices. <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> For example, PBRA programs require 30 days' notice for a termination of tenancy for “other good cause.” Public Housing and Section 8 Moderate Rehabilitation Program require a 14-day, or 5 business day, notice respectively before initiating a termination of tenancy action for nonpayment of rent. However, absent a Federal rule, tenants in HUD-subsidized housing are subject to varying State and local notice requirements. PHAs and owners have had to comply with State and local tenant laws and only the District of Columbia requires 30 days' notice prior to the initiation of eviction proceedings for the nonpayment of rent, while two States require 30 days' notice in certain cases. <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  88 FR 83880. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>  Estimate based on HUD's cross-reference on distribution of subsidized households across states with external analysis of legal requirements per state for non-payment of rent notice ( <E T="03">https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/state-laws-on-termination-for-nonpayment-of-rent.html</E> ). The following States require 30 days' notice: Wisconsin (only if the lease term is longer than one year) and Minnesota (only if the lease term is longer than twenty years). </FTNT> HUD seeks to remove the variable patchwork of notice requirements and reduce the number of preventable evictions filed against HUD-assisted tenants. Most households in HUD-subsidized housing are low-income, with annual household incomes in public housing and project-based Section 8 PBRA both under $16,000. <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> Studies have shown that evictions cause housing instability, an increased risk of homelessness, loss of employment, physical and mental health issues, and long-term negative consequences to families, especially children. <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> Studies have also shown that evictions are unequally distributed as people of color, women, and families with children are more likely to be evicted. <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> Yet, evictions for HUD-assisted housing could be prevented with more time and notice which might help all parties work together to pay the rent owed or attain a rent hardship exemption, rent recalculation, and/or other financial rental assistance. <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>  Data available at <E T="03">https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/assthsg.html.</E> </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>  Sandel, Megan, et al. (2018). Unstable housing and caregiver and child health in renter families. Pediatrics 141(2); Cutts, Diana B., et al. (2022). Eviction and household health and hardships in families with very young children. Pediatrics 150(4); Treglia, Daniel, Thomas Byrne, and Vijaya Tamla Rai. 2023. “Quantifying the Impact of Evictions and Eviction Filings on Homelessness Rates in the United States.” Housing Policy Debate; Desmond, Matthew and Carl Gershenson. 2016. “Housing and Employment Insecurity among the Working Poor.” Social Problems. 63(1): 46-67; Desmond, M., Gershenson, C., & Kiviat, B., Forced Relocation and Residential Instability Among Urban Renters, Journal of Urban Health, 92(2), 254-267 (2015), <E T="03">https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-015-9932-2;</E> and Desmond, M., & Shollenberger, T., Forced Displacement from Rental Housing: Prevalence and Neighborhood Consequences, Demography, 52(5), 1751-1772 (2015), <E T="03">https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-015-0424-y;</E> Cutts, D.B., Darby, M.L., & Billings, J., The Role of Housing Assistance in Achieving Educational Goals for Low-Income Children, American Journal of Public Health, 100(S1), S84-S90 (2010), <E T="03">https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2009.170910;</E> Desmond, M., & Kimbro, R.T., Eviction's Fallout: Housing, Hardship, and Health, Social Forces, 94(1), 295-324 (2015), <E T="03">https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/sou065;</E> HUD (2021), Affordable Housing, Eviction, and Health, Evidence Matters, <E T="03">https://www.huduser.gov/portal/periodicals/em/Summer21/highlight1.html. See also</E> Desmond, Matthew, Unaffordable America: Poverty, housing, and eviction, Fast Focus, 22-2015, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Institute for Research on Poverty, 4. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>  Hepburn, P., Louis, R., & Desmond, M., Racial and Gender Disparities among Evicted Americans. Sociological Science 7, 657 (2020), <E T="03">https://doi.org/10.15195/v7.a27.</E> </FTNT> There are other tools to employ before reaching an eviction. For example, when a tenant or household's income is reduced, they can request an interim reexamination to determine whether the current amount that they pay in rent can be changed, and the PHA or owner must process this request within a reasonable time. <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> Tenants can also request a rent hardship exemption which is an exemption from paying the minimum rent that the PHA or owner normally charges if the household experiences a qualifying financial hardship. <SU>7</SU> <FTREF/> A rent recalculation may be granted based on the household's income reduction. <SU>8</SU> <FTREF/> Even if a tenant or household does not qualify for a rent hardship exemption, repayment agreements are another option to prevent evictions at the PHA's and owner's discretion. <FTNT> <SU>6</SU>  24 CFR 960.257(b); <E T="03">see also https://www.hud.gov/sites/dfiles/PIH/documents/PHOG_Reexaminations_FINAL.pdf</E> and <E T="03">https://www.hud.gov/sites/documents/435 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 264k characters. 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