On March 11, 2021, the President signed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (the âActâ), Pub. L. No. 117-2. Title III, Subtitle B, Section 3206 of the Act established the Homeowner Assistance Fund and provides $9.961 billion for the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) to make payments to States (defined to include the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa), Indian tribes or tribally designated housing entities, as applicable, and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (collectively the âeligible entitiesâ) to mitigate financial hardships associated with the coronavirus pandemic, including for the purposes of preventing homeowner mortgage delinquencies, defaults, foreclosures, loss of utilities or home energy services, and displacements of homeowners experiencing financial hardship after January 21, 2020, through qualified expenses related to mortgages and housing.
Section 3206(c)(1) requires the eligible entities to use the funds for the purpose of preventing homeowner mortgage delinquencies, defaults, foreclosures, loss of utilities or home energy services, and displacements of homeowners experiencing financial hardship after January 21, 2020, through qualified expenses related to mortgages and housing. Section 3206(e)(1) provides that not later than 45 days after March 11, 2021, the Secretary shall pay each eligible entity. Treasury intends to begin making payments as soon as possible given the urgent need for the funds being disbursed.
Pursuant to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) procedures established at 5 C.F.R. § 1320.13, the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) requests emergency processing for the Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF) programâs Interim Report Guidance and FAQs and templates, revising OMB Control Number 1505-0269.
On March 11, 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act was signed into law, and established the Homeowner Assistance Fund program. This program is intended to mitigate financial hardships associated with the coronavirus pandemic by providing funds to eligible entities for the purpose of preventing homeowner mortgage delinquencies, defaults, foreclosures, loss of utilities or home energy services, and displacements of homeowners experiencing financial hardship after January 21, 2020, through qualified expenses related to mortgages and housing.
On April 14, 2021, Treasury published the Homeowner Assistance Fund Guidance that HAF participants need to comply with to fulfill their reporting requirements. Treasury has directly engaged with various interested agencies and stakeholders as well as required HAF Participants submitting plans to provide input on reporting and metrics. In recognition of open questions from recipients and external stakeholders on HAF eligible uses, the HAF program, in coordination with policy, Office of General Counsel (OGC) and Office of Recovery Programs (ORP) leadership, recommended a series of updates to reporting requirements and timelines included in the FAQs and Reporting Guidance.
Treasury is currently working on developing the interim reporting portal that is expected to go live around February 14, 2022 but will also require outreach and communication with recipients throughout the remainder of December and January. Recipients will use this portal to transmit the necessary reporting information. As a result, Treasury is requesting a waiver from the requirement to publish notice in the Federal Register seeking public comment for the following reasons:
⢠Treasury will need to provide the Interim Report guidance to recipients well ahead of the Portal launch date and provide a high degree of certainty that it will not change, so that recipients can gather the necessary information and build their own tools/processes to comply within a 2 month timeframe. Similarly, the recipients will also need the final templates published to have confidence to invent in properly building out their processes for compliance and reporting.
⢠The Interim Report is intended as a one-time, preliminary report that will include information that will also be collected as part of the upcoming Quarterly Reports expected to launch in April, 2022. Given the overlap in information collected and the timeframe for interim reporting, Treasury believes it will be more constructive to seek public comment on the Quarterly Report.
⢠An emergency approval of the Interim Report and opportunity for public comment for the Quarterly Report will also reduce duplication of efforts and align the timing better with the expected PRA renewal for the HAF program information collections prior to 05/31/2022.
For these reasons, Treasury requests emergency processing and approval as soon as possible for the FAQs and Reporting Guidance, which set forth substantially all the information collections of the interim reporting. Treasury plans to publish the FAQs and Reporting Guidance on December 8, 2021.
The changes since the previous approval include the burden increases of 1,302 hours associated with performing compliance reporting, including the one-time Interim Report.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that the collection of information encompassed by this request complies with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding the proposed collection of information, that the certification covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.
Interim Reporting
Emergency Justification Memo-HAF Updated Reporting Guidance_signed.pdf
1505-0269 - HAF Supporting Statement - Interim Reports.docx
Interim Reporting