Federal Housing Law

United States Federal

Federal laws and regulations governing housing, tenant rights, and fair housing nationwide.

Code of Federal Regulations, Title 24 (Housing and Urban Development)

HUD-administered regulations: fair housing, Section 8, public housing, multifamily mortgage insurance, lead-based paint, accessibility, and more.

HUD Handbook 4350.3 REV-1 CHG-4 — Occupancy Requirements of Subsidized Multifamily Housing Programs

HUD agency guidance (not codified law) on occupancy requirements for HUD-subsidized multifamily housing programs, including Section 8, Section 236, and related programs. Covers eligibility, income determination, lease requirements, termination, and the Enterprise Income Verification (EIV) system. Verified 2026-09-24 (794 pages, REV-1 CHG-4, November 2013).

HUD Handbook 7465.1 REV-2 CHG-2 — Public Housing Occupancy Handbook

HUD agency guidance (not codified law) on occupancy requirements for the public housing program: admission policies, applications, eligibility, suitability for tenancy, tenant selection and waiting-list management, and special situations (shared housing, disaster victims). Verified 2026-09-25: 6 chapters (74651c1pihh.pdf through 74651c6pihh.pdf; chapter 7 confirmed absent), individually revised — chapter 5 alone is at REV-2 CHG-1 while the rest are REV-2, against the handbook's overall REV-2 CHG-2 title-page designation.

HUD Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Guidebook

HUD agency guidance (not codified law) on administering the tenant-based Housing Choice Voucher program: eligibility and denial of assistance, housing search and leasing, payment standards, rent reasonableness, calculating rent and HAP payments, utility allowances, moves and portability, reexaminations, special housing types, fair housing and nondiscrimination, HAP contracts, and HUD-VASH. Verified 2026-09-25: 12 chapters exist as separate PDFs, independently dated (2019-2025); "Family Self-Sufficiency," listed on HUD's index page, links to an external hudexchange.info training course rather than a hud.gov PDF and is out of scope. Three further chapters ("Waiting List & Tenant Selection," "Terminations," "Informal Hearings & Reviews") are announced on the index page as not yet written.

HUD Public and Indian Housing (PIH) Notices

HUD agency guidance (not codified law): individual Public and Indian Housing Notices that change tenant or occupancy rules — voucher payment standards, tenant protection voucher eligibility, tenant screening, income/rent recertification (HOTMA), and habitability inspection standards, among others. Scoped under DEC-045/DEC-049: only notices an LLM triage step, followed by human review, determines actually change a tenant-facing rule are ingested — the full PIH Notice stream is far broader (grant administration, PHA finance, procurement) and is deliberately excluded. A notice displays as superseded rather than disappearing once HUD rescinds or replaces it.

HUD Housing (HSG) Notices

HUD agency guidance (not codified law): individual Housing Notices that change tenant or occupancy rules — tenant selection policy, income/rent recertification (HOTMA), habitability inspection standards (NSPIRE), and tenant screening policy (e.g. use of arrest records), among others. Scoped under DEC-045/DEC-049: only notices an LLM triage step, followed by human review, determines actually change a tenant-facing rule are ingested — the full Housing Notice stream skews heavily toward finance/underwriting content (MAP Guide thresholds, mortgage insurance, capital advance mechanics) that is deliberately excluded, the same category DEC-045 already excluded for the handbooks. A notice displays as superseded rather than disappearing once HUD rescinds or replaces it.

United States Code, Title 42 (Public Health and Welfare)

Federal statutory law covering Fair Housing Act, Section 8, LIHTC, HOTMA, and other housing programs.

EPA Lead Renovation, Repair, and Painting Rules

EPA regulations for lead-based paint activities in pre-1978 housing and child-occupied facilities.