The Department of Housing and Urban Development [1] announced that it served over 990,000 single-family homebuyers through HUD’s Federal Housing Administration-issued mortgage programs.
"The Trump Administration continues to deliver on its promise to create greater economic opportunity for low-income families and revitalize underserved communities," said HUD Secretary Benjamin Carson. "HUD is committed to doing its part to help families get on the path to self-sufficiency and I look forward to working with President Trump to continue building on these successes in the new year."
Among the accomplishments touted by HUD, is the Capital Reserve Ratio hit 4.84%—the strongest ratio since 2007—saved $2.7 million by lowering agency costs for shared services, and began implementing new oversight processes for Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery funds for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The Department in December announced the allocation of more than $2.3 billion [2]to support disaster-relief efforts in 15 states, including Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Island, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the North Mariana Islands.
California received the most funds from this announcement, bringing in $525 million for disasters that occured in 2018. The state has received a total of more than $1 billion over the past two years.
Puerto Rico will reportedly receive $277 million, on top of the $19.9 billion it received for disasters linked to 2017. The island has been granted more than $20 billion stemming from disasters in 2017.
Additionally, Carson announced in October [3]that HUD will address FHA perimeters, which will impact how the False Claims Act is invoked, during a segment on CNBC’s Squawk Box.
Carson cited the need for "depository lenders to come back" as a key reason for this change.
“Almost 50% of the people who originated loans that were originated by FHA were depository banks,” Carson said. “That number is down to less than 15% because of the way people fled. We really looked at that and said ‘what can we do to fix this?’”