Mobility

HUD Expands Uses of EHV Services Fees

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

On Aug. 29, HUD published a notice titled “Emergency Housing Vouchers (EHV): Expanded Use of the EHV Services Fee” [PIH 2023-23 (HA)]. Emergency housing vouchers are vouchers for families who are experiencing homelessness; at risk of experiencing homelessness; fleeing, or 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. This notice expands the scope of eligible activities for which EHV services fees may be used.

New activities for which EHV services fees may be used include the following:

  • Housing search assistance – funds may be used to provide housing mobility services to encourage moves to high opportunity neighborhoods;
  • Rental arrears – a PHA may provide applicants funding for some or all of an applicant’s rental arrears to a private landlord if the rental arrear is a barrier to leasing an EHV unit;
  • Owner incentive payments – funds may be used for owners that have accessible units or will make units accessible for a person with disabilities;
  • Moving expenses – funds may now be used for storage expenses and lock change fees;
  • Services that support EHV families in fulfilling their family obligations under the EHV program – PHAs may use funds to mitigate barriers that a family may face in maintaining occupancy of an EHV units; Examples include the following:
    • case-management;
    • wrap-around services;
    • life skills training (e.g., balancing a budget, paying bills on time, opening a savings account, maintaining a living space, securing a credit card, and paying off debt, etc.);
    • financial stability training;
    • mental health care (e.g., travel costs to counseling, co-pay charges, etc.);
    • providing a stability counselor;
    • remedying a lease violation;
    • preventing an eviction (e.g., rectifying unsanitary living conditions, property damage);
    • Paying fees to obtain vital documents to establish program eligibility or documents required by a landlord (application fees and costs for birth certifications, reasonable transportation costs for social security cards or other eligibility documentation, etc.);
  • Essential household items – funds may be used for furniture, toiletries, and cleaning supplies; the PHA may also provide a pre-paid gift card to the family, if the PHA verifies that family purchased essential household items through appropriate supporting documentation.

The full notice notes certain restrictions (e.g., services and training must be voluntary) and can be read here.

HUD Publishes HCV Mobility NOFO

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

On June 1, HUD published a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) titled “Housing Mobility-Related Services.” The NOFO makes available $25 million for PHAs with voucher programs to use for mobility purposes. The Department expects to make 11 awards with a minimum award of $750,000 and a maximum award of $5 million. The application deadline is 11:59:59 pm ET on Aug. 30, 2023.

Eligible housing agencies are those with Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) annual contributions contracts (ACC) with HUD. Housing agencies may apply jointly, but the grant lead will be the lead PHA. Additionally, HUD will only consider one funding application per PHA.

Funds will be available for five years, and housing agencies must serve at least 300 families with at least one child aged 17 or younger. A PHA’s average annual caseload must be between 50 and 200 families.

As a part of their application, PHAs will have to submit a detailed housing mobility plan. The plan should discuss mobility related services (including financial assistance), administrative policies, and a cost proposal. The Department estimates that the average cost per family will be between $2,500 and $4,500. Program funds will only be disbursed to the lead PHA.

After the award, PHAs will have six months for a planning phase. This phase can be extended to a full year. After the planning phase, HUD will review the housing mobility plan and detail required changes.

Housing agencies must provide certain minimum mobility-related services and enact certain policies. Minimum services provided must include pre-move services; housing search assistance; direct outreach to opportunity area (defined as census tracts with a family poverty rate of 10% or lower) landlords; lease-up assistance; security deposit assistance only for rental units in opportunity areas; flexible family financial assistance; salaries and benefits for qualified staff; and program participant engagement in designing the mobility plan. Housing agencies must also adopt certain policies including high payment standards (110% of the Fair Market Rent [FMR], Small Area FMR, or an explanation of the rationale for not having high payment standards); minimum voucher search time of 90 days with a 30 day extension; permitting non-resident applicants to participating in the mobility program to port. There are certain optional mobility related services that PHAs may allow too.

Finally, PHAs may use up to 15% of the award for reasonable administrative costs.

The full mobility NOFO may be found here.

HUD Publishes Housing Mobility Toolkit

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The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently published a Housing Mobility Toolkit. The toolkit provides “examples and sample materials for Public Housing [Agencies] and their partners to adapt and implement a Housing Mobility Program in their community.” Mobility programs allow voucher program participants greater ability to move into areas of opportunity, if they choose. Research shows that moving to areas of opportunity can have positive impacts on physical health, mental health, and the lifetime earnings for children under the age of 13.

The Housing Mobility Toolkit includes a variety of documents:

  • Program Manual – this document describes best practices and emerging practices on how mobility services should be delivered;
  • Program Manual Attachments – these documents are referenced in the Program Manual; they are provided for PHAs and their partners to adapt and use;
  • Program Setup – this document helps PHA set up their mobility programs;
  • Program Setup Attachments – these documents are there to help PHAs set up their programs;
  • Housing Search Workshop Materials – sample materials for PHAs to create a Housing Search Workshop for participants in a mobility program;
  • Renter’s Workshop Materials – sample materials for creating a renter’s workshop for program participants who may have limited knowledge of being a renter;
  • Money Management Workshop Materials – these documents help PHAs set up a money management workshop for program participants who may have had trouble managing their finances in the past.

Webinar on the Toolkit

The Department will be hosting a webinar on the toolkit on April 26 at 1 pm ET. You can register for the webinar here. The webinar will be recorded and will eventually be posted here.

The full toolkit can be found here.