Innovation

HUD: Action Taken on Junk Fees in Rental Housing

Major online rental search platforms agree to provide tens of millions of consumers with better information about fees. Today, President Biden and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Marcia L. Fudge announced new commitments by several of the biggest rental housing search platforms to increase transparency of housing fees, and released new…

SBA: America’s Seed Fund Tour Coming to the Midwest to Engage Small Businesses Working on High-Tech, High-Impact Ideas

SBA will stop in Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Iowa between July 17-21 Today, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced it will launch a road tour to Midwest states connecting entrepreneurs working on advanced technology to the country’s largest source of early-stage funding – America’s Seed Fund. America’s Seed Fund, comprised of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and…

HUD: Agency and Terner Housing Innovation Labs Announce Event Series on Impact of Technology on the Housing Field

During last Friday’s kickoff ceremony for the Innovative Housing Showcase, Secretary Marcia L. Fudge announced a new partnership between the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Terner Housing Innovation Labs at UC Berkeley (Terner Labs) to convene an event series focused on the implications of new technologies for housing supply, access,…

HUD: Agency Commemorates National Homeownership Month with Launch of Housing Counseling Awareness Campaign

Secretary Fudge announces June 10 House Party 2.0: “Make Home the Goal” on the National Mall “Let’s Make Home the Goal” campaign highlights the benefits of housing counseling and supports efforts to close the racial homeownership gap As declared by President Biden’s Presidential Proclamation, the month of June is commemorated as National Homeownership Month. The U.S….

HUD: New Details Announced for 2023 Innovative Housing Showcase

General public invited to visit the Showcase on the National Mall June 9 – 11 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) today announced new details regarding the Innovative Housing Showcase, including the first round of exhibitors. The Showcase will be an open-to-the-public event on the National…

EDA: First Tech Hubs Funding Opportunity Launched

As part of the President’s Investing in America Agenda, the U.S. Department of Commerce seeks applications to develop regional centers of innovation and job creation The Biden-Harris administration, through the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA), today launched the Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs (Tech Hubs) competition. This program will create tech hubs in regions…

HUD: Action Taken to Highlight and Research Land Use and Zoning Reforms

Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released a new publication that summarizes the effects of restrictive land use policies on housing supply, location and affordability in addition to highlighting reforms that state and local governments can adopt to increase the supply of housing. This land use and zoning-focused brief is the…

FHFA: Inaugural Housing Finance TechSprint Announced

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) today announced its inaugural TechSprint, a team-based problem-solving event hosted by FHFA’s Office of Financial Technology, designed to secure the free and fair flow of data in a safe and sound housing finance system.​​​  Named “Velocity,” the TechSprint will bring together experts and practitioners from the technology and the…

OCC: Office of Financial Technology Established

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) today announced the establishment of its Office of Financial Technology and the selection of Prashant Bhardwaj to lead the office as Deputy Comptroller and Chief Financial Technology Officer, effective April 10, 2023. In October 2022, the OCC announced that it would expand upon its Office of Innovation and…

SBA: DoD and SBA Sign Joint Agreement to Drive Investment to U.S. Critical Technologies at South by Southwest Festival in Austin

Today, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) announced that on Friday, March 10, they intend to sign a historic Memorandum of Agreement at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas.  This agreement establishes the framework for DoD’s newly established Office of Strategic Capital (OSC) and the SBA’s Office of…