Author: Tushar Gurjal

UPCS-V Demonstration Update (February, 2017)

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

Earlier today, HUD held a conference call for participants of the UPCS-V Demonstration. The call provided an update of what was occurring with the Demonstration and the next steps in the process.

There are 234 agencies that are participating in the UPCS-V Demonstration. Of these, four agencies are currently doing UPCS-V inspections. Fifteen additional agencies are scheduled to begin doing UPCS-V inspections in April 2017. HUD has been gathering feedback from PHAs to improve the usability of the inspection software and has identified 39 items to improve in the software. Additionally, the protocol and decision trees are being updated from feedback from PHAs. HUD has noted that there are a limited number of electronic devices that will be available for the Demonstration and is prioritizing PHAs who need them and do not have them.

During the call, HUD noted two areas where they were looking for additional feedback. First, HUD would like feedback from landlords. They would like to hear from PHAs about landlord groups in their area. They are also looking to conduct a landlord event–possibly a call or a conference. Second, HUD will hold two IT vendor days in Phoenix, AZ and Jacksonville, FL on April 5th and April 7th respectively. They are encouraging PHAs to attend these events with their software vendors so that HUD is able to “facilitate a conversation.”

Finally, HUD shared this timeline during the update:

  • Past;
    • First PHAs completed inspections of record in January;
    • UPCS-V 2.0 released;
    • Updated software;
    • Updated decision trees;
  • Present;
    • Expand adoption of UPCS-V to larger number of PHAs;
    • In-person and WebEx training;
    • Incorporating weekly updates from weekly trainings;
  • February – June;
    • Increase the number of inspections for statistical valid sample;
    • Understanding potential challenges for PHAs;
    • Release of next version of protocol of refinement of decision trees with PHA input;
    • Continuous software user experience;
    • IT Vendor Day;
  • June – January (2018);
    • Working towards a full online training tool; and
    • Continue training PHAs and evaluating data collected from the Demonstration.

Any questions or feedback can be given to HUD at OED@hud.gov. In the past, HUD has posted a recording of the call and the accompanying slides on their OED website, within a few weeks.

New Presidential Executive Order on Regulatory Reform Agenda

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

On Friday, February 24, the White House published a new executive order titled “ENFORCING THE REGULATORY REFORM AGENDA.” The executive order is meant to create a framework to implement and enforce regulatory reform. The order directs agencies to create regulatory reform task forces to evaluate existing regulations to repeal, replace, or modify.

The executive order has six sections. A brief summary of each section follows.

Section 1 – Sets the policy of the United States to “alleviate unnecessary regulatory burdens.”

Section 2 – The head of each agency (except those receiving waivers) must  designate a Regulatory Reform Officer (RRO) within 60 days of publication of the order. The RRO is to oversee the implementation of the regulatory reform agenda and report to the agency head.

Section 3 – Each agency is instructed to create a regulatory reform task force with an RRO serving to chair each task force, unless another official is designated by the agency head. Entities staffed by multiple agencies are also required to create regulatory reform task forces. The task forces’ objectives are to evaluate existing regulations and make recommendations to repeal, replace, or modify. They should also seek input from entities affected by the regulation and provide a report to the agency head within 90 days detailing the agency’s progress at implementing the regulatory reform agenda and identifying regulations. At a minimum, the task forces are to identify regulations that fall into the following categories:

  1. eliminate jobs, or inhibit job creation;
  2. are outdated, unnecessary, or ineffective;
  3. impose costs that exceed benefits;
  4. create a serious inconsistency or interfere with regulatory reform initiatives and policies;
  5. rely on data or methods that are not publicly available or lack sufficient transparency; and
  6. derive from past executive orders that have been rescinded or substantially modified.

Section 4 – Each agency is required to measure its performance in performing the tasks outlined in the executive order.

Section 5 – The OMB Director may issue a waiver to those agencies that publish few regulations and must publish which agencies receive waivers.

Section 6 – Miscellaneous provisions ensuring that the order does not have unintended adverse effects.

NAHRO commends the administration’s goals to streamline those regulations that are outdated, unnecessary, ineffective, or impose costs that exceed benefits and looks forward to working with HUD’s regulatory reform task force to achieve these goals.

The full order can be read here.

HUD Publishes CY 2017 Administrative Fee Rates

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

HUD has published its Administrative Fee Rates for Calendar Year (CY) 2017. The administrative fees are paid on the basis of units leased on the first of each month as taken from the Voucher Management System (VMS). There are two fee rates: the Column A fee rate applies to the first 7200 unit months leased in CY 2017, while the Column B fee rate applies to all remaining unit months leased in CY 2017. In cases where the CY 2017 fee rates were lower than those provided CY 2016, PHAs will continue to receive CY 2016 rates. PHAs that have been receiving blended fee rates will continue to receive blended fee rates. PHAs that are eligible and wish to receive blended fee rates, can send their request to the Financial Management Division at HUD. Instructions for applying will be detailed in the 2017 Housing Choice Voucher funding implementation notice.

The CY 2017 Administrative Fee Rates Description can be found here.

The CY 2017 Administrative Fee Rate Table can be found here.

(2/14/17 Edit – the link to the “CY 2017 Administrative Fee Rate Table” pointed to last year’s rates. It has been updated to point to the correct CY 2017 rates.)

HUD Updates HCV Forecasting Tool

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

According to a HUD official, HUD has updated the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program forecasting tool. The updated tool now includes updated information, including a higher inflation renewal factor; a default forecasting HAP proration of 94% for year 2–i.e., 2017–but the proration can be changed depending on scenarios that the user would like to test; and the ability to forecast up until a fourth year. To access the tool, the user needs to log in through WASS.

Additional information about accessing the tool can be found here.

New Executive Order Mandates Two Regulations Be Identified For Repeal For Every New Regulation Promulgated

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

On January 30, days after publishing its regulatory freeze memorandum, the new administration published an executive order titled “REDUCING REGULATION AND CONTROLLING REGULATORY COSTS.” The order mandates that “for every one new regulation issued, at least two prior regulations be identified for elimination.”

For FY 2017, the order directs agencies and executive departments to identify two existing regulations to be repealed for every new regulation to be issued. Additionally, a regulatory cap is established, which directs agencies to establish a limit such that the total incremental cost of all new regulations and repealed regulations finalized in FY 2017 does not exceed zero, unless required by law or consistent with the advice of the Director of Office of Management and Budget. Any new incremental costs associated with new regulations must be offset by the elimination of  existing costs associated with two prior regulations. The Director will provide guidance to the agencies to implement this order.

For FY 2018 and future fiscal years, agency heads will identify two offsetting regulations for each regulation that increases incremental costs and provide the agency’s best approximation of costs or savings with each new regulation or repealed regulation. Each regulation approved by the Director will be included in the Unified Regulatory Agenda and will not be issued by an agency, if it is not included, unless required by law. During the presidential budget process, the Director will identify the total amount of incremental costs that will be allowed for each agency. No regulations exceeding the agency’s total incremental costs for the fiscal year will be permitted, unless required by law or approved by the Director. The Director will provide the heads of the agencies with guidance to implement this order.

It is unclear how this order will affect the regulatory process at HUD. NAHRO awaits further published guidance.

The full executive order can be found here.

Additional analysis on how the order impacts the federal bureaucracy as a whole can be found here and here.

 

CBPP Updates Blog Post on The Need for HCV Funding

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

On January 25, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (the Center) updated a blog post titled “Substantial Funding Boost Needed to Renew Housing Vouchers in 2017.” In its blog post, the Center discusses the need for additional funding for the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program Housing Assistance Payments (HAP). NAHRO agrees with the Center that Congress must pass a budget that fully funds the Housing Choice Voucher program for FY 2017, instead of extending the current continuing resolution, set to expire in April, for a full year.

Two key points from the blog post are the following:

  1. A full-year continuing resolution could cause over 100,000 families to lose their vouchers.
  2. Funding of $18.86 billion should cover the cost of renewing all vouchers in 2017. According to the Center, this would “still be less than renewal funding in 2010, after adjusting for rent and utilities inflation.”

The full blog post can be found here.

HUD Publishes Interim Guidance on AFFH

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

Earlier this January, HUD published Interim Guidance on the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) tools. The Interim Guidance gives the status of the Assessment of Fair Housing tools (AFHs) (reproduced below) and gives general guidance for program participants.

  • Local and Government and Joint / Regional Tool – Final tool available.
  • PHA and PHA-only collaboration – Final tool available. HUD will issue another Notice specifying PHAs’ new submission date.
  • Qualified PHA (QPHA) – Tool still under development. Not publicly available.
  • State and Insular Area Tool – Tool still under development. Still going through the notice-and-comment process.

The guidance also provides a table to help choose tools and understand appropriate AFH deadline dates.

The full AFFH Interim Guidance can be read here.

HUD Publishes MTW Expansion Application

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

HUD has posted pre-publication versions of the Moving To Work (MTW) Expansion Application and the MTW Expansion Operations Document. There will be multiple cohorts to the expansion with each cohort testing a different policy to be researched. The first cohort will test the overall impact of MTW flexibility. The cohorts will test the following (in no particular order, except for the first, which will test the overall impact of MTW flexibility):

  • Overall Impact of MTW Flexibility – the overall effects of the MTW “bundle” will be tested.
  • Rent Reform – PHAs will test different rent reform models, including “flat rents, tiered rents, and stepped-up rents.” PHAs “may also evaluate the interaction of these rent reform models with or without work requirements or time limits.”
  • Work Requirements – this will be a work requirements only cohort (i.e., additional rent reforms or time limits will not be evaluated). PHAs will provide supportive services.
  • Landlord Incentives – this cohort will investigate various landlord incentives (e.g., participation payments, vacancy payments, alternate inspection schedules and other methods).

The first cohort will include 30 PHAs with “1,000 or fewer aggregate public housing and HCV units.” To select applicants HUD will make sure each applicant meets eligibility requirements and certain geographic diversity requirements. Each potential cohort participant will then be selected via a lottery. These PHAs will then be randomly assigned to a treatment group (receiving MTW designation) or a control group (not receiving MTW designation). HUD will research the cost effectiveness, ability to create self-sufficiency, and ability to provide housing choice for this first cohort.

The application due date will be revealed, when the notice is formally posted in the Federal Register. NAHRO will continue to have more detailed coverage on both of these documents and the perspectives of the new administration in the coming days and weeks.

The pre-publication MTW Expansion Application can be found here.

The pre-publication MTW Expansion Operations document can be found here.

HUD to Publish HOTMA Section 8 Voucher Provision Implementation Notice

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

Tomorrow, January 18, 2017, HUD will publish in the Federal Register a notice implementing certain Section 8 provisions of the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act of 2016 (HOTMA) titled “Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act of 2016: Implementation of Various Section 8 Voucher Provisions.” These provisions include the following:

  • “certain inspection requirements for both HCV tenant-based and PBV assistance [including provisions regarding occupancy prior to meeting HQS and alternative inspections],”
  • “changes to the PBV program [including changes to calculating the PBV cap, raises to the cap in certain scenarios, and changes to the PBV income-mixing cap among other things],” and
  • “guidance . . . [for] the statutory change to the HCV housing assistance payment (HAP) calculation for families who own manufactured housing and are renting the manufactured home space.”

HUD is also soliciting information regarding the implementation of many of the provisions. NAHRO is still reading through the notice, but will provide more detailed coverage in the coming days to our members.

The provisions in the notice will take effect 90 days after tomorrow’s publication. [1/18/17 Edit – April 18, 2017.]

The comment deadline for the provisions will occur 60 days after tomorrow’s publication. [1/18/17 Edit – March 20, 2017.]

The pre-publication notice can be found here.

[1/18/17 Edit – The published notice can be found here.]

 

HUD Publishes RAD Notice Revision 3

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

HUD has published the third revision of the RAD Notice (PIH 2012-32 / H 2017-03 Rev 3). According to a RADBlast email, the notice makes the following changes:

First Component – the revisions “simplify certain program requirements, create new flexibilities . . . and strengthen tenant rights.”

Second Component – the revisions “improve the rent-setting options available to owners.”

HUD has created a “blackline version” which tracks the changes made from Revision 2 to Revision 3. NAHRO will provide additional information in the coming days as we delve deeper into the notice.

The Third Revision of the RAD Notice can be found here.

The “Blackline Version” which tracks changes from the previous notice can be found here.