President Obama has issued a disaster declaration for 20 parishes affected by the historic flooding in southeastern Louisiana. This qualifies individuals and local governments for assistance that can help clean-up and rebuild. Furthermore, the President’s declaration allows HUD to offer relief and other assistance to families living in affected areas.For more information on this assistance, please see HUD’s press release here.

As this is a presidentially declared natural disaster, housing authorities in the region will not be eligible to use emergency capital funds to address any damages resulting from the floods. Rather, emergency funding will be made available through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Please visit www.disasterassistance.gov to apply for assistance.

NAHRO is keeping those affected by this disaster in our thoughts. For those of you in the affected area, please stay safe.

HUD recently released their Renewable Energy Toolkit to help recipients of HUD Community Planning and Development (CPD) grants to integrate renewable energies into their affordable housing programs. These include groups receiving HOME, CDBG, HOPWA, or ESG dollars. The toolkit walks users through 4 phases of incorporating renewable energy in their affordable housing developments: feasibility analyses, prioritizing and soliciting renewable energy projects, project evaluation and selection, and implementation. HUD hopes to encourage grantees to integrate renewable energy into more affordable housing developments as it helps to maintain affordability through reduced energy costs, which can facilitate improved operations and maintenance.

On July 29, President Obama signed the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act (HOTMA/HR 3700) officially making it law. HUD is now in charge of implementation. The law provides common-sense reforms to our industry and contains numerous provisions supported by NAHRO. NAHRO will be working closely with HUD as they begin the implementation process.

On August 2, NAHRO released an In-Depth Summary (members only) of the law and the provisions found within. NAHRO also previously released a one-pager (members only) of the specific provisions NAHRO has supported and promoted over the years.

We encourage all NAHRO members to thank their Senators and Representatives for getting this important piece of legislation passed. More information on how to thank your members of Congress can found at NAHRO’s Advocacy Action Center as a part of our August Advocacy Month.

On a personal note, we’d also like to thank all of you for helping get this passed. Your outreach and efforts paid off, and we wouldn’t be at juncture without all of you!

On Monday, July 11, HUD announced the schedule and proposed agenda for two MTW Advisory Committee meetings. The meetings will be held via conference call on Tuesday, July 26, 2016, and Thursday, July 28. The meeting is open to the public and is accessible to individuals with disabilities. Tuesday’s call will focus on increasing housing choices for low-income families. Thursday’s call will focus on cost-effectiveness and incentives to increase self-sufficiency for families with children.

In its FY 2016 Appropriations bill, Congress directed HUD to expand the MTW by 100 additional public housing agencies (PHAs) over the next seven years. Congress also called on HUD to establish a federal research advisory committee. The research advisory committee is responsible for advising HUD on specific policy proposals and methods of research and evaluation for MTW.

The public is invited to call-in to both meetings by using the following toll-free number in the United States: (800) 230-1766, or the following International number for those outside the United States: (612) 288-0329. Please be advised that the operator will ask callers to provide their names and their organizational affiliations (if any) prior to placing callers into the conference line.

More information can be found here. Background information on the MTW Expansion can be found here (members only). NAHRO’s MTW policy proposals and research evaluation recommendations can be found here (members only).

On Tuesday, July 12, HUD will hold a webinar on the FY2016 HUD-VASH Project-Based Voucher Set-Aside Notice published on Friday, July 1. The webinar will run from 2-3PM, EST, and will allow time for questions. The webinar is intended for PHA staff, Department of Veteran’s Affairs staff, low-income housing developers, and other interested stakeholders. More information on the Notice can be found here.

Register for the webinar here.

On July 1, HUD released Notice PIH 2016-11 (HA) entitled, “Set-Aside Funding Availability for Project-Basing HUD-VASH Vouchers.” The Notice announces the availability of approximately $15 million in HUD-VASH funding that will support 2,000 units of project based voucher (PBV) assistance to enable homeless veterans and their families to access affordable housing with an array of supportive services. The vouchers are being made available from a set-aside contained in the 2016 omnibus that provided approximately $60 million dollars of funding for HUD-VASH vouchers.

Any PHA that administers a Housing Choice Voucher program may apply for up to 150 units to be placed under PBV HAP contract(s). Applications are due no later than midnight in the time zone of the PHA on September 9, 2016. All applications must be submitted electronically to VASH@hud.gov.

Please see HUD’s Notice for more information on application requirements and scoring.

For in-depth information on the 2016 omnibus’ Section 8 program funding, click here (members only).

On June 30, HUD, in collaboration with the Federal Interagency Reentry Council, released the “It Starts with Housing: Public Housing Agencies are Making Second Chances Real,” toolkit. The toolkit highlights  innovative models that PHAs can use to improve housing opportunities for individuals that have been involved with the criminal justice system. The goal of the toolkit is to help PHAs improve housing opportunities, promote family reunification, and reduce recidivism. The toolkit discusses how to build a successful reentry program, determine who should be served,  outreach to potential participants,  service provision, and  collaborations to achieve the policy changes necessary to serve this population.

HUD has been actively promoting increased housing opportunities for individuals with criminal backgrounds. This includes recent HUD guidance prohibiting the use of arrest records  as the basis for denying admission, terminating assistance, or evicting tenants, and recent HUD OGC guidance on the use of criminal records to determine housing eligibility. Past NAHRO coverage on the arrest records guidance can be found here and past NAHRO coverage on the OGC guidance can be found here (members only). NAHRO’s letter to HUD regarding the use of arrest records can be found here (members only).