The House can’t seem to agree on the COVID-19 relief bill. Yesterday, the Senate and the White House came to an agreement on a $2 trillion economic stimulus package. Today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has publicly stated that the House will be reviewing the bill, but there is no commitment as to whether the bill will pass or not. The Hill reported that some House Democrats are concerned that they have not provided any input.

What’s in the measure?

According to CBS News, the actual text of the measure hasn’t been released, but they did get information from Minority Leader Chuck Schumer about some of the contents:

• Expanded unemployment benefits to boost the maximum benefit and to give laid-off workers full pay for four months
• Direct payments to individuals making less than $99,000
• $130 billion for hospitals
• $367 billion in loans for small business
• $150 billion for state and local governments
• $500 billion for large businesses
• Creates an oversight board to govern large loans
• Prohibitions to prevent President Trump and family from getting federal relief

Will the measure pass?

Pelosi has said that this relief bill is a big improvement over the Republican’s first proposal. It seems as if she is working hard to move the measure through the House, but given the current state of politics, it’s hard to believe that anything will be done without some debate. 

Many Democrats have pushed for a food stamp increase, which is not in the current measure. However, the Democrats did win on the oversight board that protects the employees of the companies who are getting loans. Money for states was another Democrat victory in the current measure.

If the bill can pass the House unanimously, lawmakers won’t have to vote on the floor.

If the House can’t agree, the House will need to reconvene and amend the Senate measure or pass their own measure.

Under the COVID-19 travel restrictions and quarantine issues, it might be difficult to get anything done quickly. The urgency is real, but so is the responsibility. Representatives want the money to do what Congress intends, not for CEO compensation or stock buyouts.

President Trump announced Wednesday that the administration has ordered the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to suspend all evictions and foreclosures through April, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

At a White House press briefing, he stated, “The Department of Housing and Urban Development is providing immediate relief to renters and homeowners by suspending all foreclosures and evictions until the end of April,” adding that they are “working very closely with Dr. Ben Carson and everybody from HUD.”

Under guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), state and local leaders in many states have looked at the possibility of suspending evictions during the COVID-19 fallout, and looking at ways to insure both renters and property owners are protected.

Mass gatherings have been cancelled indefinitely across the nation, and most states have already shut down restaurants, bars, entertainment venues, and retail locations.

President Trump was asked during the press briefing to respond to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s statements on Tuesday (to Senate Republicans that unemployment could surge to 20% in a worst-case scenario), stating simply, “I don’t agree with that. That’s an absolute total, worst-case scenario.” Mnuchin reiterated the statement is only a depiction of the worst-case scenario.

HUD has not yet put out a press statement or offered commentary.

Fear and uncertainty remains high – many employees were sent home to work remotely, others to wait on more information regarding their employment status. It is likely that a huge swath of the nation won’t have any capacity to pay rent in coming weeks, perhaps months.

Congress and the Trump Administration continue to negotiate an economic rescue package to address business closings and layoffs, but no agreement has been reached yet.

In this time of uncertainty, one thing is certain – HUD won’t be kicking anyone out of their homes right now.

As we all embark on our New Year’s resolutions, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) is making its own changes. This week, NAR leadership met in Washington where they unanimously passed a Fair Housing Action Plan, invigorating a commitment to provide Americans with fair housing opportunities. These members then met with Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and other senior department officials to discuss the new plan and the issues surrounding fair housing.

The unfairness of fair housing is nothing new. In 2016, twelve percent of the discrimination complaints submitted to the HUD were based on familial status, raising complex issues proxying for racial discrimination and/or LGBTQIA individuals and families. The NAR has taken steps to crack down on discrimination by realtors, however, landlords don’t have the same repercussions at the federal level.

Per the recent meeting, the NAR and the HUD will work together to reinforce the new plan, ACT, to highlight (A)ccountability, (C)ulture Change, and (T)raining for 1.5 million REALTORS® (realtors licensed by the NAR) to uphold fair housing for all Americans. In a NAR press release further commitments in the plan are as follows:

• Ensure that state licensing laws include effective fair-housing training requirements and hold real estate agents accountable to their fair housing obligations;
• Launch a Public-Service Announcement Campaign that reaffirm NAR’s commitment to fair housing, and how consumers can report problems;
• Integrate fair housing into all REALTOR® conferences and engagements
• Explore the creation of a voluntary self-testing program, in partnership with a fair housing organization, as a resource for brokers and others who want confidential reports on agent practices so they can address problems;
• Create more robust fair housing education, including unconscious-bias training, and education on how the actions of REALTORS® shape communities.
• Conduct a national study to determine what factors motivate discrimination in sales market.
• Profile leaders who exemplify the best fair housing practices and workplace diversity.
• Develop materials to help REALTORS® provide consumers with information on schools that avoids fair housing pitfalls.

We can hope that with new energy between both the NAR and the government, Americans will find some relief in the housing market entering into 2020.