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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 8 / Wednesday, January 13, 2021 / Proposed Rules programs administered by local governments subject to local decision making. CPD programs have their own means of enforcement specified in each program regulation. These functions are instead performed by HUD CPD staff, and can include requiring the participating jurisdiction or grantee repaying the full amount of subsidy provided to the project. Amended 5.703a through e consolidates and replaces both 5.703 and 982.401.
These provisions parallel the specific directives at 42 U.S.C. 1437f2 and 42
U.S.C. 1437o8B that require the Secretary to establish quality standards that ensure housing is safe and habitable. In these provisions, HUD
proposes to define safe, habitable dwellings as those for which the items and components located inside the building, outside the building, and within the units of HUD housing . . .
are functionally adequate, operable, and free of health and safety hazards.
HUD believes the requirement of functionally adequate, operable, and free of health and safety hazards is generally equivalent to decent, safe, and sanitary. The intentional shift in language would serve as a uniting phrase across programs. Additionally, the shift would help the public differentiate between the old and the new regulatory frameworks. It would further allow HUD to establish clear, objective, and aligned property inspection standards described later in this rule at 5.705a and 5.709 by creating identifiable limits that are comparable across housing programs.
For example, the terms functionally adequate and operable may be defined based on universal habitability requirements and design specifications for an item or component. In contrast, decent, is a highly subjective term.
Perceptions of decency vary from person to person and location to location. The terms health and safety can also be measured universally and quantitatively by using standard public health and safety metrics related to morbidity and mortality. Health as used here would be inclusive of sanitary; HUD believes that term health would be more useful for assessment of a broader range of impacts. HUD intends this new description to make clear that the built environments effect on the health and safety of residents is more important than any building damage that is strictly cosmetic in nature. The new definition would also simplify the way in which this rule names the inspectable areas of a property by reducing the number of areas from five to three. This change is
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intended to increase readability, streamline the inspection process, and emphasize to stakeholders the importance of resident units.
Section 5.703a would limit the ways in which the quality requirements apply to units occupied by HCV and PBV
participants, as well as common areas and exterior areas which either service or are associated with such units. This limitation is generally derived from the unique statutory requirements for these programs related to the application of housing quality standards to units as opposed to projects. Other factors that make this limitation appropriate is the entity responsible for conducting the inspections the PHA, the relationship of the housing quality standards to local codes, and the frequency of those inspections.
HUD also proposes to consolidate into 5.703d several provisions currently found in one section of the regulations but implied in others. For example, the proposed rule would make it clear that certain unit features, like having a kitchen area, are minimum habitability requirements across programs. Most renters would expect to have the ability to store and prepare food in their home.
While not new requirements, they reinforce the importance that this rule places on residents units and the primarily residential nature of HUD
housing. Similarly, amended 5.703d would add the word safe to the current requirement that units have an adequate source of potable water. Safe in this context would be defined by HUD through future rulemaking after receiving public comments.
This portion of the rule would also incorporate requirements currently described more clearly by the HCV
regulations for smoke detectors, including those for hearing impaired persons and the requirement for hot and cold running water, and would replace current paragraph f concerning health and safety concerns. So that all the habitability provisions are in one place, paragraph e2 would maintain language found in the current regulation at 5.703f regarding lead-based paint but would add information on applicability.
The remaining provisions in f through h discuss the relationship of local codes to HUD housing and identify when alternatives to 5.703 would apply.
New paragraph g would clarify that 5.703 may be replaced or supplemented by a state or local standard under the HCV and PBV
program in line with the statutory exception for those programs found at 42 U.S.C. 1437fo8B. Additionally,
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for special housing types, such as Single Room Occupancies or congregate housing, that may have incompatible design requirements, like shared bathroom or kitchen facilities, paragraph h would clarify that the provisions in 5.703 may be modified by program specific requirements which would continue to be found in the same program-specific sections of the regulations as they are today.
With regard to standards, HUD is requesting public comments on the following questions:
Question for Comment 2: HUD has the following questions regarding water safety:
a How can HUD best define what is meant by safe or potable water?
b Should safe mean water provided by a public water system that is in compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act 42 U.S.C. 300f et seq. as implemented by the EPA?
c How should HUD monitor whether water is safe?
d What elements should be reviewed during the physical inspection to determine water safety?
e Should inspectors verify that a municipal water supply authority is in compliance with EPAs Safe Drinking Water Act? How would they best do this?
Question for Comment 3: HUD is specifically seeking comment on whether the site and neighborhood standards as found in 24 CFR 982.401l, should be included in the regulation or only in the inspection standards? HUD
also seeks comments on whether all of the explicit standards should be included or if there are certain site and neighborhood standards that HUD
should consider changing?
Question for Comment 4: The proposed rule would establish a subset of minimum NSPIRE standards to apply to rehabilitation of rental and owneroccupied or homebuyer housing and homebuyer acquisition of standard housing i.e., down payment assistance assisted with HOME or HTF at 92.251b and c3 and 93.301b and c3, and to HOMEand HTFassisted rental projects throughout the affordability period at 92.251f and 93.301e, and for units occupied by tenants receiving HOME Tenant-based rental assistance TBRA in accordance with 92.251fWhat minimum housing condition standards should HUD apply to HOMEand HTF-assisted rehabilitation activities for rental or owner-occupied housing and what minimum condition standard should apply to HOME-assisted homebuyer acquisition activities at completion to ensure that the housing is decent, safe,
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