Author: Tushar Gurjal

UPCS-V Version 1.0 Protocol Posted

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HUD REAC has publicly posted Version 1.0 of the UPCS-V protocol. NAHRO is currently in the process of reading through the protocol, but here is a quote and chart from page 8 of the document about the UPCS-V inspection structure.

UPCS-V contains five inspectable areas: building exterior, unit, building systems, common areas, and site. UPCS-V is primarily centered on the unit, but includes items within the other four areas that negatively affect the habitability of the unit or the health and safety of its tenants.

Each inspectable area has one or more  inspectable items. An inspectable item is a component of an inspectable area that is to be evaluated under the UPCS-V protocol (see Figure 1 for the association of inspectable areas and items.) During an inspection, an inspector must evaluate all applicable inspectable items within each inspectable area for defects.

UPCS-V-Inspection-Structure

Read the entire 1.0 version of the protocol here.

UPCS-V Conference Call Recording Now Available

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HUD REAC’s Oversight and Evaluation Division (OED) has made available a recording of the UPCS-V conference call with UPCS-V Demonstration participants.

The link to the recording can be found on OED’s webpage.

A direct link to the recording can be found here.

New Proposed Administrative Fee HUD FAQ posted

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HUD has posted a new proposed administrative fee frequently asked questions (FAQ) document on its Housing Choice Voucher New Administrative Fee Formula Proposed Rule webpage. The new FAQ answers four questions:

  1. How is the benefit load calculated?
  2. How will the formula be applied to MTW sites?
  3. How are “per unit fees” and “total funding” calculated under the proposed rule formula and the existing formula?
  4. What does HUD mean by fee “received” under the current formula? How does proration fit in to the comparisons between the proposed formula and the existing formula?

Read the FAQ here.

For additional HUD analysis tools of the new proposed administrative fee formula, see our prior post.

New CRS Report on Federal Spending Trends

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The Congressional Research Service recently created a report titled “Federal Benefits and Services for People with Low Income: Overview of Spending Trends, FY2008-FY2015.” The report is the latest in a series that attempts to identify and discuss programs and services oriented toward low-income populations, while focusing on aggregate spending trends.

The report contains some interesting charts that show how spending on housing compares to other categories of federal spending. The chart below from page 6 of the report shows spending by category. Notice that health care spending dwarfs the other categories, while “housing and development” is in the middle.

Federal-Spending-Chart-FY2015-CRS-Report

Read the full report here.

HUD Offering $2 million in ROSS Grants to Help Students Navigate College and Continuing Education Financial Aid Assistance

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On August 2, HUD announced $2 million in grants to “help low-income families and young people apply for federal aid for college and other post-secondary educational opportunities.” The program is being funded through the Resident Opportunities and Self Sufficiency (ROSS) Program. The program will allow up to six public housing agencies (PHAs) to support “Education Navigators.”

HUD’s ROSS for Education Program is known as Project SOAR (Students + Opportunities + Achievements = Results).  It will “support hundreds of young people between the ages of 15 – 20 to apply for [the] U.S. Department of Education’s Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).” HUD is also working with the Department of Education to share data about FAFSA completion and is working with the White House’s Social and Behavioral Sciences Team to develop methods to increase completion rates of the FAFSA among students with housing assistance.

Read HUD’s full press release here.

Read HUD’s Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) here.

Read more about how behavioral economics can be used to “nudge” applicants receiving housing assistance to seek Federal Student Aid here.

Administration Announces Steep Decline in Veteran Homelessness

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Today–HUD, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) announced that the number of veterans experiencing homelessness in the United States has declined significantly since 2010. According to HUD’s Point-in-Time (PIT) estimates, there has been a 47 percent decrease in the number of veterans experiencing homelessness since 2010 and a 17 percent decrease since 2015.

HUD believes that this decline is a function of partnerships between HUD and VA, USICH, and other partners at all levels of government (i.e., federal, state, and local) and the HUD-VASH program. The partnerships were a result of Opening Doors, the federal strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness.

Read HUD’s full press release here.

Read more about Opening Doors here.

View HUD’s PIT Estimates of Veteran Homelessness in the U.S. here.

Closing the Digital Divide Guide for Financial Institutions

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Our friends at the National Housing Conference have informed us that the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas has published a guide titled “Closing the Digital Divide A Framework for Meeting CRA Obligation.” The guide explains how financial institutions can meet Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) obligations by helping to close a community’s digital divide.

The full guide can be read here.

TAC’s Section 8 Made Simple Guide

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The Technical Assistance Collaborative has published a Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program guide titled “Section 8 Made Simple – Special Edition: Using the Housing Choice Voucher Program to End Chronic Homelessness.”

Thanks to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities for bringing this to our attention.

Better Know a HUD Official

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HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R) has published a message from Richard Green, Senior Advisor on Housing Finance in Edge, their online magazine. He makes five points, but there are two that are particularly interesting (and are related to the Federal Government) and are reproduced below:

The federal government relies too much on obsolete technology.

. . . Within HUD, for example, the FHA program relies on systems that are driven by coding in COBOL, a mainframe (!) language developed in 1959 (!!). Because almost no one uses COBOL anymore, our university computer science departments don’t train students in its use. As COBOL programmers retire, it will become impossible to find people to maintain the system.

On a more personal level, I was stunned to learn that my HUD PC had a 32-bit operating system in a world where 64-bit system have been around for PCs for 13 years. As a practical matter, 32 bit systems are limited in the amount of data they can analyze, whereas 64 bit systems are nearly unlimited. Many doing HUD work rely on large data sets (for example the Public Use Microsamples of the Census and the American Community Survey). The current standard for operating systems makes it relatively easy to use these datasets; the old standard requires compromises.

Few people know who the third most powerful person is in the Federal Government.

My guess is that the name Shaun Donovan is not well known outside the Beltway. But pretty much nothing gets done without the approval of the director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Assuming the most powerful person in the Federal Government  is the President, and third most powerful person is OMB Director, then who’s the second most powerful person? The Speaker of the House? The Senate Majority Leader? The Vice-President?

Read the full message here.

 

MTW Expansion Committee Conference Call and Summary of Policies

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As mentioned in a prior blog post, the Moving to Work (MTW) Expansion Committee Conference Call is occurring now [Edit: The call ended at 4 pm]. HUD has also posted a summary of the policy proposals it has received to be potentially studied in MTW cohorts. Here are the numbers to call in:

  • United States –  (800) 230-1766;
  • Outside the United States – (612) 288-0329; and
  • Persons with hearing impairments – (800) 977-8339 and providing the FRS operator with the conference call toll-free number: (800) 230-1766.

The call is until 4 pm today. The next call will be at the following time:

  • July 28, 2016 – Cost-Effectiveness and Incentives to Increase Self-Sufficiency for Families with Children (1 pm to 4 pm).

Read the summary of policy proposals here.