On Tuesday, May 28th, HUD will publish in the Federal Register a notice titled “Notice of Continuation of Demonstration to Test Proposed New Method of Assessing the Physical Conditions of Voucher-Assisted Housing.” The notice states that the UPCS-V Demonstration–the program testing the in-development UPCS-V inspection protocol, used by certain testing agencies in the housing choice voucher program–will be extended for an additional two years.

The Demonstration will have three goals. First, to validate the UPCS-V beta protocol through active field testing. Second, to provide PHAs with inspection data and standardize inspection procedures. Third, to glean insight for improvement.

The notice notes that the additional time will be used to test and validate the UPCS-V beta protocol. Currently, version 2.5 of the UPCS-V protocol is active and being tested in the field. The extension will allow the newest version (i.e., the beta version) of the UPCS-V protocol to be tested.

Moving forward, HUD wishes to consider several additional questions:

• Does the protocol meet PHA needs?
• Is UPCS-V clear, accurate, objective, and consistent?
• Is it practical for all inspectors, from entry level to experienced?
• Does it provide valuable insight to PHAs, and is it cost effective for them to use?

Additionally, HUD would like to recruit more PHAs to the demonstration to gather more representative data. Agencies that wish to participate should contact HUD at ISDV@hud.gov.

Finally, the notice notes that in the long-term, public housing, the housing choice voucher program, and multifamily programs will all shift to a uniform inspection standard. This standard–called the National Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real Estate (NSPIRE)–“will leverage the infrastructure of UPCS-V to demonstrate, test, and validate NSPIRE protocols.”

A pre-publication copy of the notice can be found here.