Federal Regulation

New Material on Infectious Disease Preparedness Guidance for Homeless Assistance Providers

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

The HUD Exchange sent an email of links to new material from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for Homeless Assistance Providers. The new materials include the following:

The email also provides a link to the CDC: Interim Environmental Cleaning and Disinfection Recommendations for US Community Facilities with Suspected/Confirmed Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Finally, HUD notes that it has portal where individuals can ask questions about preventing or responding to the threat of infectious diseases, which can be found here.

HUD Creates Online Guidance Portal

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

Tomorrow, HUD will publish a notice in the Federal Register announcing the creation of a HUD guidance portal. In the process of complying with a presidential executive order, the Department conducted a review of all of its guidance and ensured that those documents that remain in effect were linked to a single website that could be searched. The single searchable database containing all of HUD’s guidance can be found at: http://www.hud.gov/guidance.

The National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials applauds HUD for creating this searchable index and looks forward to further refinements.

The pre-publication copy of the notice announcing this portal can be found here.

Infectious Disease Toolkit for CoCs

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

The Department has released a new Infectious Disease Toolkit for Continuums of Care (CoCs). The toolkits provide “structure and specific examples for planning and responding to influenza, coronavirus, and other infectious diseases.” The toolkit is composed of three documents for CoC leadership, homeless service providers, and other partners to use in responding to infectious diseases. The documents include the following:

Additionally, one of our members wanted to share these coronavirus anti-stigma resources. They mostly apply to the local King County / Seattle area, but others may also find them useful.

HUD Publishes PBV Subsidy Layering Review Guidelines

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

Last week, HUD published a notice in the Federal Register titled “Administrative Guidelines: Subsidy Layering Review for Project-Based Vouchers.” Subsidy layering reviews (SLRs) ensure that excessive public assistance is not used when combining Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) from project-based vouchers with other forms of public assistance from federal, state, or local agencies including through tax assistance or credits. Subsidy layering reviews are not required when a project is already subject to a project-based voucher (PBV) contract (even if it is recapitalized with outside funding) or when PBVs are the only assistance provided to a development. Subsidy layering requirements are required when a PBV project includes other governmental assistance. The Department and, in certain cases, the local Housing Credit Agency are the entities that conduct the review. This notice provides information about subsidy layering reviews with appendices on PHA submissions required, a sample notice of intent to participate in subsidy layering reviews by housing credit agencies, and a sample housing credit agency certification.

Continue reading →

Housing Choice Voucher Dashboard Published

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

Earlier today, HUD announced that it published a Housing Choice Voucher Dashboard. The dashboard provides information about vouchers at both the state and national levels. It includes budget and leasing utilization information, reserve balance information (it highlights PHAs that have high reserves as a percentage of their budget authority and in absolute terms), attrition, per unit cost trends, and leasing potential. There is also utilization data on special purpose vouchers (HUD-VASH, FUP, Mainstream, etc.). The data is mostly taken from the voucher management system.

A tutorial on the dashboard can be found above.

The dashboard data dictionary can be found here.

The dashboard itself can be found here.

Public Charge Rule Implementation Begins February 24, 2020

~ Georgi Banna ~ Leave a comment

Except for in the State of Illinois, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will begin applying the Public Charge Final Rule to immigration applications and petitions postmarked or submitted electronically on or after February 24, 2020.

As a reminder the Public Charge Final Rule primarily applies to individuals that are applying for entry into the United States and to individuals that are temporarily in the United States and are applying for permanent residency in the United States. NAHRO has also issued an informational one-pager on the Public Charge Final Rule to provide PHAs an overview of the rule. 

USCIS as issued a press release, Question and Answer Legal Resource, and updated the USCIS Policy Manual to provide additional information on the implementation of the Public Charge Final Rule. USCIS will provide additional information on implementation in Illinois if the injunction is lifted.

HUD Posts First HCV Landlord Participation webinar

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

Earlier this week, HUD was supposed to livestream a Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Landlord Participation webinar, but was unable to stream it because of technical difficulties. Despite the difficulties, the Department was able to record the webinar and has now made it publicly available. It can be found here.

Slides for the webinar can be found here.

Guidance on Assessing a Person’s Request to Have an Animal as a Reasonable Accommodation Released

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Labradoodle_Assistance_Dogs

Yesterday, HUD released a notice (FHEO-2020-01) titled “Assessing a Person’s Request to Have an Animal as a Reasonable Accommodation Under the Fair Housing Act.” The notice provides PHAs (and other housing providers) with a set of best practices to assess requests for reasonable accommodations to keep animals in housing while complying with the Fair Housing Act (FHA).

The notice states that FHA complaints involving requests for reasonable accommodations for assistance animals are on the rise. One of the purposes of this guidance is to help housing providers distinguish between a person with a non-obvious disability who has a legitimate need for an assistance animal and a person without a disability who wants to have a pet (or otherwise circumvent a rule applicable to a pet).

The guidance does several things. First, it provides a framework for identifying service animals. Second, it provides a framework to analyze reasonable accommodation requests under the Fair Housing Act for assistance animals other than service animals (There are two types of assistance animals–“service animals” and “support animals”; the latter are trained or untrained animals that do work, perform tasks, provide assistance, or emotional support for individuals with disabilities that do not fall under the service animals category). Third, the guidance provides criteria for assessing whether to grant a requested accommodation. Fourth, the guidance provides information on which types of animals (i.e., species of animals) are acceptable in which situations. Fifth, the guidance provides additional considerations that must be taken into account.

Additionally, there is a second section of the notice which provides a section on documenting an individual’s need for assistance animals in housing and provides a series of frequently-asked questions and accompanying answers.

The full guidance can be found here.

Supreme Court Allows Implementation of Public Charge Rule

~ Georgi Banna ~ Leave a comment

The United States Supreme Court permitted the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to make effective the administration’s public charge rule. The rule had been blocked from taking effect by a federal judge in New York. The Supreme Court allows it to be implemented in most of the country—except Illinois where it is still blocked. The rule states that any individual seeking a green card to become a lawful permanent resident (and individuals within the United States who hold non-immigrant visas and wish to extend their stay in the same non-immigrant classification or change their status to a different non-immigrant classification) is inadmissible if they are likely to become a public charge.

The rule defines a “public charge” based on the receipt of financial support from the general public through government funding, including federal rental assistance. The individual would need to receive one or more designated public benefits, including but not limited to federal rental assistance, for more than 12 months in the aggregate within any 36-month period to meet the threshold.

The Department of Homeland Security is not imposing any requirements on benefit-granting agencies through this final rule or a requirement that these agencies specifically verify information individuals submit to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). This rule does not change any of the Public Housing, HCV, or PBRA program requirements. The Department of Homeland Security plans to enter into information-sharing agreements with specific agencies (e.g., the Department of Housing and Urban Development) to obtain verification of the information supplied by applicants. Any information sharing will depend on the ability of the relevant agencies to share such information with DHS.

The final rule can be found here.

The Supreme Court’s opinion can be found here.

NAHRO’s one-page guidance on the Public Charge rule can be found here.

Policies and Procedures for Mainstream Vouchers Published

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

Earlier this week, HUD published a notice (PIH 2020-01) titled “Revised Policies and Procedures for the Mainstream Voucher Program.” The notice updates HUD’s policies related to the mainstream voucher program and applies to all mainstream vouchers. It became effective upon publication.

The notice lists mainstream  voucher policies. It clarifies who the eligible population for these vouchers are (households that include a non-elderly person with disabilities); clarifies that participants do not “age out” of eligibility; highlights that at turnover, all mainstream vouchers must be reissued to the next mainstream-eligible family; reiterates that mainstream vouchers are regular housing choice vouchers (HCVs) with special eligibility criteria; restates that the vouchers are for new admissions of households; and states that a PHA may only have one waiting list for all tenant-based assistance.

Additionally, the Department discusses admissions preferences. First, preferences apply to all vouchers, not only Mainstream vouchers. If a PHA claimed a preference in its notice of funding availability (NOFA) application, then the PHA must adopt a preference for at least one of the targeted groups in the NOFA. Additionally, PHAs may limit the number of applicants who qualify for the preference. The PHA also has the option to open the PHA waiting list for a limited preference. Finally, the PHA must update preference policies and procedures on how preferences will be applied.

The notice also discusses waiting list updates, portability, funding, tracking and monitoring these vouchers, and partnerships and supportive services.  Questions about the program can be directed to MainstreamVouchers@hud.gov.

The full notice can be found here.