Author: Tushar Gurjal

HUD Creates Emergency Housing Vouchers Website

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

HUD has created an Emergency Housing Vouchers website. Emergency Housing Vouchers (EHVs) were created by the American Rescue Plan and provide 70,000 vouchers for people experiencing or at-risk of homelessness, fleeing domestic violence and other categories, or who people who are at a high-risk of housing instability. The website currently includes the following:

The website will also host FAQ documents on EHVs in the near future.

The website can be found here.

HUD Publishes Details on New Emergency Housing Vouchers

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

As part of the American Rescue Plan, Congress allocated $5 billion in funding for Emergency Housing Vouchers. On May 5, 2021, HUD published PIH 2021-15 titled “Emergency Housing Vouchers – Operating Requirements.” HUD is using a portion of that funding to allocate 70,000 vouchers to PHAs. The vouchers are to assist families that are experiencing homelessness (or at risk of homelessness); attempting to flee, domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking or human trafficking; or were recently homeless and for whom providing rental assistance will prevent the family’s homelessness or having high risk of housing instability.

For more information about the vouchers, please join us for a webinar on Thursday, May 13: “Emergency Housing Vouchers – What You Need to Know!“

The notice lays out the procedures and requirements of receiving and administering the emergency housing vouchers (EHVs). It states operating requirements; allocation of administrative and other support services fees; the housing assistance payments (HAP) funding renewal process; family eligibility requirements; EHV waivers; the EHV recapture and redistribution procedures; and the prohibition on the reissuance of turnover of EHVs after Sept. 30, 2023.

In structuring this program, HUD reached out to industry groups to ask for feedback. NAHRO provided comments on how the program should be structured. We are pleased that much of NAHRO’s feedback was incorporated into this notice including creating a services fee, using enhanced payment standards, allowing security deposit assistance, allowing utility deposit assistance, allowing rental application assistance, allowing the use of landlord incentives, allowing purchasing essential household items (e.g., furniture), allowing initial self-certification of certain information, and using certain other flexibilities.

NAHRO members will receive additional information in the near future.

The full notice can be found here.

Mobility Demonstration PHAs selected

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In a press release, HUD has selected PHAs to participate in its new mobility demonstration. The mobility demonstration serves as a research evaluation to demonstrate the efficacy of a bundle of mobility-related interventions (i.e., services offered to families that help remove barriers moving to areas of opportunity). Recent research has shown that moving to areas of opportunity has positive impacts on health and the future lifetime earnings of children.

Program participants will be divided into three groups: a control group; a treatment group which receives comprehensive mobility-related services; and a second treatment group which receives selected mobility related-services. The Department, PHAs, and researchers will then evaluate the efficacy and cost of the bundles of mobility-related services provided.

The PHAs selected for the demonstration can be found below.

PHA CodePHA NameTotal Mobility-related Services AwardTotal Vouchers AwardedTotal Voucher Funding Awarded
NY041Rochester Housing Authority$4,089,54074$724,106
NY110New York Housing Preservation and Development$4,013,10074$1,501,480
MN002Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (Lead PHA)$4,013,10037$637,341
MN163Metropolitan HRAPartner to MN00237$585,649
CA004Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles$4,013,10037$812,372
CA002Housing Authority of the County of Los AngelesPartner to CA00437$761,339
PA006Allegheny County Housing Authority$4,089,54056$565,805
PA001Housing Authority of PittsburghPartner to PA00618$249,419
OH003Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority$4,089,54074$881,419
LA001Housing Authority of New Orleans$4,089,54074$1,114,333
PA046Housing Authority of Chester County$3,461,85018$249,803
PA007Chester Housing AuthorityPartner to PA04656$803,120
TN005Metropolitan Housing and Redevelopment$4,013,10074$971,554
Total$35,872,410666$9,857,740
Taken from https://www.hud.gov/press/press_releases_media_advisories/HUD_No_21_076.

The Department’s full press release can be found here.

2021 HCV Implementation Webinar Added to Youtube

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The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has uploaded their 2021 Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Implementation webinar. This presentation focuses on Notice PIH 2021-10 and discusses how the funding for the voucher program in 2021 will be implemented along with key deadlines for additional funding (e.g., housing assistance payment [HAP] set-aside funding and special administrative fees).

The video can be found here or below.

Landlord Strategy Guidebook for PHAs Updated

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The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has updated their Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Landlord Strategy Guidebook for PHAs. New chapters have been posted on monetary incentives and reimbursement funds, inspections, matching local rental markets, and partnerships. The guidebook provides suggestions and ideas for PHAs looking to recruit new landlords and retain current landlords to the HCV program.

The guidebook has the following chapters:

The Department’s HCV Landlord Resources webpage can be found here.

The full HCV Landlord Strategy Guidebook for PHAs can be found here.

HUD Updates HCV Dashboard

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The Department has updated the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) dashboard. The HCV dashboard presents visualizations of HCV program statistics based on most recently available data taken from, among other places, the Voucher Management System (VMS). The updated dashboard now includes pages on leasing changes, percentages of HCV programs devoted to special purpose vouchers, leasing potential, project-based voucher portfolios, comparing budget and reserves between two programs, and comparing leasing and per unit cost (PUC) between two programs.

The dashboard shows data both in the national aggregate and by individual PHA.

In addition, the Department has also updated the “HCV Dashboard User Guide & Data Dictionary.”

Finally, the Department has posted a YouTube video discussing and explaining the expansion.

The HCV Data Dashboard can be found here.

HUD Posts CY 2021 Admin. Fee Rates

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Earlier today, HUD posted to its Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) website, the HCV administrative fee rates. These rates determine the amount of administrative fee a HCV program receives from HUD. There are two rates. The second rate applies after the first 7,200 unit months.

CARES Act Reporting FAQ Updated

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In late-Jan., HUD updated the CARES Act Reporting Answers to Frequently Asked Questions for PHAs document. It has been updated to version 2. The document provides clarifications on CARES act fund usage, continuing to track COVID expenses after CARES act fund usage, reporting requirements, and other items.

The full document can be found here.

Notice on HCV Financial Reporting Requirements

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In late-Jan., HUD published a notice titled “Financial Reporting Requirements for the Housing Choice Voucher and Mainstream Voucher Program Submitted through the Financial Assessment Subsystem for Public Housing (FASS-PH) and the Voucher Management System (VMS)” (PIH 2021-08). The notice details the requirement for submitting year-end financial information and submitting leasing and cost information through VMS.

There are certain entity-wide reporting requirements for entities with HCV programs and certain other financial reporting requirements. It states that for PHAs with both a public housing program and HCV program, entity-wide information should be submitted through the FASS-PH system. For PHAs that only have HCV programs, the notice provides alternative requirements, depending on whether the PHA with the HCV program is a stand-alone reporting entity; a part of a non-profit agency or non-general-purpose government entity; or part of a larger general-purpose government entity. Certain general-purpose government entities may also be required to procure independent public accountant services for financial and compliance procedures. The Department also requires that the financial data schedule (FDS) be issued as supplementary information to the financial statements.

Housing agencies with HCV programs are required to submit financial statements based on their fiscal year-end date. For those agencies that have a different fiscal year-end dated (based on the larger government entity’s or the larger non-profit’s fiscal year-end date), the notice provides information to align their organization’s fiscal year-end date with HUD’s systems.

The notice provides information on certain other topics. The notice provides information on the financial data schedule due dates depending on the agency’s fiscal year end. The notice also provides information on times when it is appropriate to request a FASS waiver or extension and the process to do so. There is also information on the programs that are required to reported in the financial data schedule (including CARES Act funding). There is also very basic information on the deadlines for VMS data entry. Finally, the notice provides information about non-compliance with HUD requirements and information on the possible administrative fee sanctions.

The full notice can be found here.

HHS Extends CDC Eviction Moratorium to March 31

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Earlier today, the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department made available a pre-publication copy of an order extending the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) eviction moratorium. The eviction moratorium has been extended to March 31, 2021. Additionally, the order now also applies to American Samoa–although it had not previously–because COVID-19 cases have now been reported there.

NAHRO members will receive additional information on this order.

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