[3/11/2020 – 12:59 ET Correction: This post originally incorrectly identified this webinar as the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness’s webinar. It is actually the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s webinar.]
A recording of HUD’s webinar on Infectious Disease Preparedness for Homeless Assistance Providers and Their Partners has been posted. It can be found below.
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.
[3/11/2020 3:39 pm ET edit – the recorded webinar can be found here.]
The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness is presenting a webinar titled “Infectious Disease Preparedness for Homeless Assistance Providers and Their Partners” on March 10, 2020 at 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm ET. Presenters for the webinar include the following:
The webinar can be joined here.
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.
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.
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.
10/25/2019 edit – correct application due date added.
The Department has released the 2019 Family Unification Program Notice of Funding Availability (i.e., the 2019 FUP NOFA). The NOFA makes available $20 million in funding. Applications are due by December 17, 2019. The Department expects to make approximately 40 awards from this NOFA.
The Family Unification Program serves two categories of people. The first is families for whom the lack of adequate housing is a primary factor in the imminent placement of the family’s child in out-of-home care or the delay in the discharge of the child to the family in out-of-home care. The second category is composed of youth at least 18 years and not more than 24 years of age who left foster care (or will leave foster care within 90 days) and are homeless or are at risk of becoming homeless at age 16 or older.
In addition to meeting certain threshold criteria, HUD will be using rating factors in deciding how to allocate FUP funding. In making its decisions, HUD will also look at a PHA’s past performance in managing funds and assess a PHA’s risk (e.g., financial stability, quality of management, history of performance, etc.). Additionally, the Department will look at the following seven rating factors:
The Frequently Asked Questions document on the NOFA can be found here.
The 2019 FUP NOFA can be found here.
An official at HUD has let me know that the Department has updated the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program Two-Year Tool. The Two-Year Tool allows PHAs to model HCV program behavior so that they can make informed decisions on how to manage their HCV programs.
To use the tool, PHAs should enter their PHA code and click “Open and Populate Tool.” End users may need to enable macros in Excel for the tool to work properly.
The following changes have been made to the tool:
Questions on the Two-Year tool can be directed to Patrick Hatch.
The tool can be found here.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD or the Department) has posted several new resources for its foster youth to independence initiative (See Notice PIH 2019-20). The initiative allows for PHAs without a Family Unification Program to request tenant protection vouchers (TPVs) for youth aging out of foster care on an as-needed basis. The Department has posted several resources related to the initiative.
These resources include the following:
All of these resources can also be found on HUD’s Foster Youth to Independence website here.
Yesterday, HUD updated its Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document on the fiscal year (FY) 2019 Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for mainstream vouchers.
The FY 2019 NOFA would make an additional $150 million available for mainstream vouchers (a previous NOFA allocated $98 million). The application deadline for this additional round of funding is September 5, 2019.
The updated FAQ can be found here.
The Department’s Mainstream Voucher page can be found here.
[Edit: Some of the links above were corrected to point to the correct documents or websites and the correct deadline has been added.]
The NAHRO Blog: Legislative & Policy Updates from Washington, DC 