(RECAP: Meg Burns of Arlington is among 12 people named by HUD who will constitute the first-ever Housing Counseling Federal Advisory Committee (HCFAC). Established under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, this Advisory Panel will help HUD’s Office of Housing Counseling improve upon all the efforts to provide consumers with the knowledge they need to make informed and lasting housing decisions. The HCFAC will explore new opportunities to expand access to HUD housing counseling programs, develop new innovative strategies to support community-based counseling agencies, and identify methods to leverage resources to amplify the impact of federally funded housing counseling. This panel will also develop new metrics to evaluate the health and capacity of the housing counseling industry, specifically in the context of disaster recovery, and identify ways to improve the use of technology in housing counseling.)

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(RECAP: A new cohousing community will be coming to Crozet by 2018. Emerson Commons will be located on 6.1 acres along Parkview Drive off Route 240. Cohousing originated in Denmark and started to be adopted in the U.S. in the 1980s. People in a cohousing community own their own homes, but have opportunities to participate in numerous neighborhood activities and share open spaces. Peter Lazar, who is developing the community, said features of Emerson Commons could include sharing landscaping tools, such as lawnmowers, and neighborhood activities, such as potlucks, pleased hours and neighborhood breakfasts. The community will have a total of 26 residential units, with a combination of multi-family and single-family attached and detached housing.)

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(RECAP: HUD’s inspector general, with the support of the FBI, is looking into the city’s housing authority, according to sources close to the situation. The Inspector General’s Office conducts audits, evaluations and investigations related to HUD programs and operations. One source says the inspector general is collecting information on the Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s board and how it awarded a contract to the law firm Eric O. Temperamental and Associates P.C. Another source says the agency is looking into a potential conflict of interest between a board member and the law firm. They would speak only on the condition of anonymity. On Tuesday, Verbena Askew, an attorney for the authority, said there was a pending “criminal investigation,” but she wouldn’t say which agency was doing it. She said it didn’t involve the board.)

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