Certification of Tribal Housing Counselors

Document 2023-01345 is a Proposed Rule published by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the Federal Register on January 26, 2023. HUD's Housing Counseling Program provides, through HUD- approved counseling agencies and State housing finance agencies, counseling to individuals seeking information about financing, maintaining, renting, or owning a home. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act amended the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968 to improve the effectiveness of the housing counseling program by, among other things, requiring that entities and individual counselors be certified by HUD as competent to provide such counseling services. In 2016, HUD implemented these requirements for most HUD programs but agreed to conduct consultation with Tribes before implementing the new housing counselor certification requirement for Tribes. After consulting with Tribes, HUD proposes a housing counselor certification option for employees of Tribes, Tribally Designated Housing Entities (TDHE), and other Tribal entities conducting housing counseling required or provided in connection with the Indian Housing Block Grant (IHBG) and the Indian Community Development Block Grant (ICDBG) programs. The proposed rule provides an alternative regulatory standard for compliance with the Dodd-Frank Act's counselor certification requirement that recognizes Tribal sovereignty and self- determination, and accounts for the unique status of Tribal land and housing programs in Indian Country. View the original at https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/01/26/2023-01345/certification-of-tribal-housing-counselors.

No. Document 2023-01345 is not classified as economically significant under Executive Order 12866. Economically significant rules require OIRA review and are estimated to have impacts of $100 million or more per year.