The budget, which carries a 6.8% increase over last year, includes funding for project-based Section 8 projects that are up for renewal, boosts loan limits for FHA multifamily units, includes plans to help communities better manage growth and it also paves the way for renovating brownfields. All of those are measures called for by the NMHC and other groups earlier this year.

"What we're seeing in the budget are very solid steps," says Clarine Nardi Riddle, vice president for government affairs at NHMC. "There are also some pieces where we think they should review the program to make certain they are working as soundly as possible."

The budget proposes to raise FHA multifamily loan limits by 25%, as called for by the NMHC and the Coalition for Affordable Rental Housing. The limits hadn't been boosted since 1992 at the same time construction costs had risen 25%. According to HUD, the increase, when combined with the existing ability to multiply loan limits by up to 240%, should help to increase production of new apartment buildings throughout the country.

The budget also adds $197 million for 34,000 additional Section 8 housing vouchers. The budget renews all expiring contracts with landlords at a cost of $15.1 billion to continue to provide rental assistance to more than 2.8 million families. Also included is a measure to reform regulations that would pave the way for redevelopers to clean up the nation's brownfields, paving the way for redevelopment of as many as 450,000 abandoned industrial sites.

"There is funding for brownfields at about $25 million and although we don't know if this is totally adequate, we think it is a great first investment on HUD's part," says Riddle.

Among other proposals in the budget: allowing FHT to offer families a hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage that starts with a low fixed rate in the early rates and a rate that later adjusts to the market; increasing public housing subsidies by $150 million; $80 million for a presidential initiative for community technology centers through the Community Development Block Grant program; increases funding to reduce lead paint hazards by $10 million; eliminates one-time project funding for CDBG programs; terminates the public housing drug elimination program and the rural housing and economic development program.

"One area we are proposing they review is the lead-based paint hazard adjustment. There is a 10% increase in that budget, yet at the same time federal studies show the problem is diminishing and will be eliminated in 2010," says Riddle, who also noted that there is the possibility of some overlap in efforts to enforce fair housing regulations, since both government and private groups are involved in investigations.

The budget mainly addresses low-income housing, although the Coalition for Affordable Rental Housing has pointed to a critical need in some cities for housing for moderate-income working families. "We're hoping that HUD's leadership will start to look at the whole picture, including housing options for low, medium and even higher income groups in both the rental and home ownership areas," says Riddle.