20356 Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 79 / Tuesday, April 25, 1995 / Rules and Regulations

1Section 101 of the Housing and Urban

Development Act of 1965.

2Section 236 of the National Housing Act.

3The United States Housing Act of 1937.

4Section 202 of the Housing Act of 1959, as

amended by section 801 of the Cranston-Gonzalez

National Affordable Housing Act.

5Section 811 of the Cranston-Gonzalez National

Affordable Housing Act.

6Section 235 of the National Housing Act. New

business under this program was terminated

effective October 1, 1989, by section 401(d) of the

Housing and Community Development Act of 1987.

7Title IV of the Cranston-Gonzalez National

Affordable Housing Act.

8Title VI of the Housing and Community

Development Act of 1987, repealed by section

289(b) of the Cranston-Gonzalez National

Affordable Housing Act.

9Section 23 of the U.S. Housing Act of 1937,

repealed by section 201(a) of the Housing and

Community Development Act of 1974.

10See the following regulations, as they existed

before April 23, 1993: Rent Supplement—24 CFR 21

5.21(b)(7); Section 236—24 CFR 236.3(b)(4); Section

8—24 CFR 813.106(b)(4); and Public Housing—24

CFR 913.106(b)(4).

11 58 FR 15773, effective April 23, 1993.

12This final rule did not include amendments to

the Section 235 regulations. The Department

intends to implement the exclusion of reparation

payments from income in this program through

administrative instructions. Anyone who believes

his or her reparation payments were included in

DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND

URBAN DEVELOPMENT

Office of the Secretary

24 CFR Parts 215, 235, 236, 280, 813,

913, and 950

[Docket No. N–95–3900; FR–3856–N–01]

Treatment of Holocaust Reparation

Payments in Assisted Housing

Programs: Notification of Affected

Individuals

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, HUD.

ACTION: Notification of policy.

SUMMARY: Before April 23, 1993, the

Department of Housing and Urban

Development counted Holocaust

reparation payments made by foreign

governments as income in its meanstested rental housing assistance

programs. This policy may have caused

some applicants to be denied admission

to assisted housing, and some residents

of the housing to pay a higher

contribution to rent, because these

payments were included in their

income.

This document announces that the

Department will attempt to provide

relief to individuals adversely affected

by this policy. As described more fully

below, the Department will attempt to

inform those who were denied

eligibility of their potential current

eligibility for rental assistance. For those

whose rents were increased, the

Department will attempt to find an

administrative way to recompense them

for the increased rent they paid.

The policy announced in this

document applies to all initial and

continuing income determinations that

were conducted before April 23, 1993.

The policy also applies to the Section

235 Homeownership Program. Members

of the public who believe they may

qualify for relief are encouraged to

contact the appropriate Departmental

official listed below for more

information. It should be noted that in

some cases, recompense may not be

possible without further congressional

action.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For

Public and Indian Housing programs:

Contact Sherone Ivey, Acting Director,

Office of Assisted Housing, Room 4206,

telephone (202) 708–0744 (voice), (202)

708–9300 (TDD).

For the Rent Supplement Program; the

Section 236 Program (including RAP);

Section 8 Programs (including New

Construction, Substantial

Rehabilitation, State Agency Set-Aside,

and Loan Management Set-Aside); the

Section 515/8 Farmers Home Set-Aside

Program, and the Nehemiah Housing

Opportunity Grants Program: Contact

Barbara Hunter, Acting Division

Director, Planning and Procedures

Division, Office of Multifamily Housing

Management, Room 6180, telephone

(202) 708–3944 (voice), (202) 708–4594

(TDD).

For the Section 202 and Section 202/

8 Housing for the Elderly and

Handicapped Programs; the Section 202

Supportive Housing for the Elderly

Program; the Section 811 Supportive

Housing for Persons with Disabilities

Program; and the HOPE 2 Program:

Contact Margaret Milner, Acting

Director, Office of Elderly and Assisted

Housing, Room 6130, telephone (202)

708–4542 (voice), (202) 708–4594

(TDD).

For the Section 235 Homeownership

Program: Contact Joseph Bates, Director,

Single Family Servicing Division, Room

9178, telephone (202) 708–1672 (voice),

(202) 708–4594 (TDD).

For the HOPE 3 Program: Contact

Clifford Taffet, Program Policy Division,

Office of Community Planning and

Development, Room 7168, telephone

(202) 708–3226 (voice), (202) 708–2565

(TDD).

The address for all the above-listed

persons is: Department of Housing and

Urban Development, 451 Seventh Street,

SW, Washington, DC 20410. The

telephone numbers listed above are not

toll-free.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Paperwork Reduction Act Statement

The information collection

requirements in this notice have been

submitted to the Office of Management

and Budget (OMB) for review. These

information collection requirements are

not effective until such time that OMB

grants its approval. The approval

numbers will be published in the

Federal Register through separate

notice.

Background

The Department provides meanstested housing assistance to eligible

low-income families under a variety of

programs. Rental assistance programs

include the following: Rent

Supplement,1 Section 236,2 Section 8

and Public and Indian Housing,3 and

Supportive Housing for Elderly 4 and

Disabled Persons.5 Programs using

Section 8 assistance include Section 8

new construction, substantial

rehabilitation, certificate/voucher, State

Housing Agency, Farmers Home

Administration, moderate rehabilitation,

loan management, property disposition,

and Section 202/Section 8. The

Department also provides means-tested

subsidies in the Section 235

Homeownership Program.6

In these programs, the Department

takes family income into account in

determining initial program eligibility,

and uses periodic income

reexaminations to determine the level of

benefits to be provided eligible families.

The Department also uses family

income to determine eligibility for the

HOPE Programs (1, 2, and 3),7 the

Nehemiah Housing Opportunity Grants

program,8 and the Section 23 Housing

Assistance Payments Program.9

In establishing criteria for calculating

family income, the Department

historically counted the full amount of

periodic payments received by program

applicants and participants.10 Since

reparation payments made by foreign

governments in connection with the

Holocaust are made periodically

(normally on a monthly basis), they

were traditionally included in family

income.

Almost two years ago, the Department

reversed this position. On March 24,

1993, the Department published a final

rule in the Federal Register 11 that

excluded reparation payments, paid by

a foreign government pursuant to claims

filed under the laws of that government

by persons who were persecuted during

the Nazi era, from family income under

the rental assistance programs described

above.12
Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 79 / Tuesday, April 25, 1995 / Rules and Regulations 20357

income on or after April 23, 1993 should contact

the person identified above for this program.

The Department took this action

voluntarily, under its general authority

to define ‘‘income’’ for the programs

involved. As indicated in the preamble

to the final rule, the Department

believes that the Holocaust—in both its

scope and severity—represents a unique

situation, and that payments by foreign

governments intended to atone for

atrocities committed during the Nazi era

should not be taken into account with

respect to the housing assistance

programs involved.

The final rule was prospective only. It

applied to all initial and continuing

income determinations conducted on or

after its effective date—April 23, 1993.

It also made clear that any assisted

housing residents who had been asked

to repay assistance because of their

failure to include past reparation

payments in income would be excused

from further repayment beginning on

April 23, 1993.

The rule did not, however, provide

retroactive relief to those for whom

reparation payments were included in

income pursuant to initial and

continuing income determinations

conducted before April 23, 1993. The

preamble to the rule indicated that the

Department was reviewing the

feasibility, practicality, and desirability

of making the new policy retroactive,

and would advise the public of its

conclusions in a later Federal Register

publication.

This notice announces that as a result

of this review, the Department will take

steps to provide appropriate retroactive

relief where possible under current law.

This notice is part of an outreach effort

to identify individuals who may be

eligible for this relief. This outreach will

include, among other efforts, contacting

Survivors’ groups. The relief has two

aspects.

1. Those who were denied eligibility

in the Department’s assisted rental

housing programs as a result of

including reparation payments in family

income.

Section 1(d) of Pub. L. 103–286

(approved August 1, 1994) (42 U.S.C.

1437a note) requires any Federal agency

that denied individuals eligibility for

means-tested programs by reason of

counting reparation payments as income

to make a good faith effort to notify

them of their potential eligibility under

the programs. This notice, and the

outreach effort described above,

constitute the Department’s good faith

effort to identify potential affected

individuals.

The Department encourages anyone

who believes that he or she was found

to be income-ineligible for any of the

above rental assistance programs by

reason of counting reparation payments

in income, to notify the person listed

above in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

CONTACT section of this notice for the

program involved. Consistent with

section 1(d) of the above statute, the

Department will determine the

individual’s current potential eligibility

for rental housing assistance.

2. Those whose rents under the

Department’s assisted rental housing

programs were increased as a result of

including reparation payments in family

income.

The Department will, on a voluntary

basis, attempt to repay the amount of

any such rent increases and any

repayments made by individuals to the

extent permissible. Since there is no

specific appropriation for these

purposes, the critical question in

determining whether the Department

can provide this relief is the availability

of the necessary funding under the

particular program involved.

a. Budget-based Section 202/8

projects. Based on the circumstances of

one claimant, the Department has

determined that there are funds to

recompense residents of Section 202/

Section 8 elderly projects that receive

rent adjustments on the basis of project

budgets, rather than through Annual

Adjustment Factors. To be eligible, the

individual:

—must be a current resident of the

project, and

—must have resided in a Section 202/

8 project during the period in which

the reparation payments were counted

as income.

For any eligible residents of these

projects, the Department will attempt to

repay, or offset against any increased

future tenant rental payments, the full

amount of any increased rental

payments stemming from the inclusion

of reparation payments in income. The

Department will also attempt to repay

the full amount of any repayments of

assistance paid by tenants because of

their failure to include past reparation

payments in income. The Department

encourages residents of these projects

who believe they may qualify for

recompense to contact the individual

listed under Section 8 project-based

programs in the FOR FURTHER

INFORMATION CONTACT section of this

notice.

b. Other projects. Similarly, the

Department encourages current

residents of other assisted projects who

resided in the project during the period

in which the reparation payments were

counted as income to contact the

persons listed in the FOR FURTHER

INFORMATION CONTACT section of this

notice for the appropriate program.

Public housing authorities (PHAs) with

locally-owned projects receiving

operating subsidies under the

Performance Funding System may, after

HUD review of the calculations, utilize

the regulatory provision at § 990.110(g)

to recalculate operating subsidy

eligibility, and request current year

funds to cover the payment of

retroactive payments to eligible

recipients. For other programs, the

Department will determine the

eligibility of the individual, as well as

the availability of funds to provide the

recompense administratively without

the need for further congressional

action. Since the Department’s assisted

rental housing programs use a variety of

funding techniques, the ability to

provide the necessary relief

administratively, without the need for

further congressional appropriation

action, depends on the program

involved.

It should be noted that section 1(e) of

Pub. L. 103–286 also purports to

provide retroactive relief for those

whose rents were increased by reason of

counting reparation payments. The

relief is limited, however, to rental

payments from February 1, 1993

through April 30, 1993. In addition, the

authority to make any recompense

under Pub. L. 103–286 is conditioned

on approval in an appropriation Act.

Since no such approval was provided,

Pub. L. 103–286 may NOT be used as a

source of recompensing eligible

individuals.

In contrast, the Department’s

voluntary action announced in this

notice is designed to provide full

compensation not just for a three-month

period, but for the entire time in which

reparation payments were taken into

account. It also provides a mechanism

for recompensing at least some eligible

claimants, without the necessity of

further appropriation action. Any

recompense that cannot be provided

pursuant to the provisions set forth in

this notice requires further

congressional action.

3. Those who were denied eligibility,

or whose level of subsidy was

determined, as a result of including

reparation payments in family income

in the Section 235 Homeownership

Program.

Although the Department did not

include the Section 235

Homeownership Program in its March

24, 1993 final rule (58 FR 15773), the

Department is including in its outreach
20358 Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 79 / Tuesday, April 25, 1995 / Rules and Regulations

effort those individuals who may have

been affected in this program. Any such

individuals should notify the person

listed above in the FOR FURTHER

INFORMATION CONTACT section for this

program.

Other Matters

National Environmental Policy Act

(NEPA)

This action is categorically excluded

from the NEPA requirements at 24 CFR

part 50 in accordance with 24 CFR

50.20(k), because it relates to an internal

administrative procedure, the content of

which does not constitute a

development decision nor affect the

physical condition of project areas or

building sites.

Executive Order 12612, Federalism

The General Counsel, as the

Designated Official under section 6(a) of

the Executive Order 12612, Federalism,

has determined that the policies

contained in this notice would not have

substantial direct effects on States or

their political subdivisions, or the

relationship between the Federal

government and the States, or on the

distribution of power and

responsibilities among the various

levels of government. The notice simply

announces the Department’s intent to

provide relief to those whose eligibility

or rental payments under HUD’s

assisted rental housing programs were

adversely affected by counting

reparation payments as family income.

Executive Order 12606, The Family

The General Counsel, as the

Designated Officer under Executive

Order 12606, The Family, has

determined that this notice does not

have potential for significant impact on

family formation, maintenance, and

general well-being, and thus is not

subject to review under the Order. The

notice simply announces the

Department’s intent to provide relief to

those whose eligibility or rental

payments under HUD’s assisted rental

housing programs were adversely

affected by counting reparation

payments as family income.

Dated: March 30, 1995.

Henry G. Cisneros,

Secretary.

[FR Doc. 95–10087 Filed 4–24–95; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4210–32–P