HUD Participates in the Southeast Mortgage Advisory Council Conference in Atlanta

(left to right) - HUD Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary, Robert G. "Bob" Iber, Carolyn Whatley, SMAC President, Ruben J. Brooks, HUD Multifamily Southeast Regional Center Director and Michael German, HUD Georgia.

HUD Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary, Robert G. "Bob" Iber, addressing the SMAC audience.

The 16th Annual Southeast Mortgage Advisory Council (SMAC) Conference recently convened in Atlanta with a focus on the "Multifamily for Tomorrow's" progress. HUD Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary, Robert G. "Bob" Iber provided a national prospective of multifamily housing, growth and progress, before a packed crowd of over 200 SMAC members and affiliates. Ruben J. Brooks, Multifamily Southeast Regional Center Director provided a detailed breakdown of the state of the region to include performance results, staffing, initiatives and goals.

Carolyn Whatley, SMAC President kicked off the program as instruction included throughout the first day lender engagement and concept, HUD panel discussion on concept package review and decision process consisting of LaDonna Mills, Acting Production Division Director & Underwriting Branch 2 Chief, Charles Hugghins, Economic & Market Analysis Field Director, SE, Jon Bonner, Technical Branch Chief and Bonitta Smith, Asset Management Branch 1 Chief, Atlanta. Later in the day presentations and discussion were held on new construction and pre-application training and firm application training, commitment issuance and rate locks and reprocessing. Closing out the first day attendees learned about coordination, timing and best practices. Day two was as informative as attendees learned about LIHTC, RAD and 221(d)(4), LEAN program, asset management, closings and environmental compliance and REACs. The third day attendees were provided updates on energy efficiency and PCNA, Davis bacon and cost trends and the CAN E-Tool. HUD participated in most the panel and informational sessions adding much needed technical assistance with regards to basic underwriting, new construction application process, best practices for housing, legal lender and lender counsel, advanced underwriting and technical training, asset management, multifamily legal and closings, environmental, energy efficiency and PCNA, A&E and costs as well as Davis Bacon, cost trends, and commercial space and the CAN E-Tool.

"The SMAC brings together professionals from all over the region to include leading experts from HUD in an ongoing effort to be current and outcome based in our efforts to better help those we mutually serve," said Brooks, Multifamily Southeast Regional Center Director.

The Southeast Mortgagee Advisory Council (http://www.smaconline.net/)is established to provide constructive advice and support to HUD's Multifamily Hub office leadership and staff, to improve the effective delivery of the FHA multifamily insurance program in the Atlanta, Greensboro and Jacksonville Multifamily Housing Hubs. The Council exists to: (a) Provide a permanent forum for FHA mortgagees active in these Hub office jurisdictions to identify potential improvements in the consistent application of FHA program, underwriting and processing guidelines; (b) Develop and present to HUD leadership and staff potential solutions representing the shared position of the participating mortgagees; and (c) Provide the respective Hub offices with regular access to a group of active mortgagees for the purpose of a dialogue on issues related to the administration of the FHA mortgage insurance programs.

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