Rural Development Multifamily Housing Section 538 Federal Register Notice

CARH’S BROADCAST E-MAIL – Regulatory Alert

December 20, 2024

In today’s Federal Register, USDA’s Rural Housing Service (RHS) published a Notice entitled, Loan Guarantees Under the Section 538 Guaranteed Rural Rental Housing Program. The Notice provides updates in the process for lender application submissions regarding proposed properties for the Section 538 Guaranteed Rural Rental Housing Program (GRRHP). The effective date of the process updates is December 20, 2024.

Rural Development sent out the following information to stakeholders after publication of the notice:

The Rural Housing Service (RHS) published a notice in Federal Register Vol. 89, No. 245, announcing updates in the application submissions process for the Section 538 Guaranteed Rural Rental Housing Program (GRHHP). This Notice replaces the previous Notice that published in the Federal Register on April 28, 2023 (Vol. 88, No. 82) and the correction Notice that published on July 19, 2023 (Vol. 88, No. 137).

Many of the updates and additions include, but are not limited to, the Agency’s response to regulatory requirements related to priority point scoring, clarification on Do Not Pay reporting requirements, and SAM’s registration requirements. The new notice also addressed the process of submitting complete applications both for projects and lender applications, requiring applicants to disclose if the property is associated with commercial space and to include the proposed closing date of the Section 538 GRRHP loan.

The Agency is no longer requiring applicants to submit a NOSA Response prior to submission of an application. Therefore, there will no longer be a “two-part” submission process. Applicants will submit a complete application to the Agency in one step.

The Agency updated and renamed the NOSA Response Form. The form will now be referred to as the Section 538 GRRHP Response Template. The template reflects the changes to the priority point scoring. The updated fillable Template is available on the Rural Development Multifamily Housing Loan Guarantees website. Click on the “To Apply” tab to access the updated template. Submitting the template is not mandatory, however, applicants are strongly encouraged to use the template and submit it to the Agency along with the other documents that are required to be submitted as part of the complete application package.

If you have questions, please contact Tammy Daniels, Program Support Branch – Production and Preservation Division at tammy.daniels@usda.gov.

Please contact the CARH national office at carh@carh.org or 703-837-9001 should you have questions or concerns. For other news and information affecting the affordable rural housing industry, please visit the Newsroom on CARH’s website, www.carh.org.