Reducing the Regulatory Barriers

In June 2003, HUD launched a department-wide effort called the America's Affordable Communities Initiative to work with states and local communities to reduce regulatory barriers that impede the production and rehabilitation of affordable housing throughout America. The AACI team is not only developing new approaches and incentives that encourage efforts at the local level, the team is also reviewing and reforming HUD's internal regulations that may be impacting housing affordability. Leading by example, the AACI team is aggressively pursuing the reduction of unnecessary barriers to affordable housing. In addition, the Federal Housing Administration has taken a number of steps to reduce federal regulatory barriers to homeownership. FHA created and deployed in 2004 an empirical-derived, statistically proven mortgage scorecard for installation in various automated underwriting systems. By using automated underwriting systems, lenders are able to dramatically reduce the paperwork associated with underwriting FHA insured mortgages, and reduce underwriting staff costs as well.