Policy

President Kicks Off Holiday Weekend With Proposal to Increase HUD Funding

~ Georgi Banna ~ Leave a comment

The President’s full FY 2022 budget proposal released May 28, provides additional details to the topline numbers outlined by the Administration in April. Overall, the President proposes to increase HUD funding by 15%, focusing increases core programs, climate change resiliency, disinvested communities, and HUD staff capacity.  

The Administration proposes full funding for Section 8 On-going Administrative Fees, which HUD estimates to be $2.79 billion. In addition to fully funding Admin Fees, the President calls for an additional $490.7 million in Admin Fee for PHAs to use for mobility-related social services. If funded, it would be the first time since FY 2003 the full cost of operating the voucher program has been met. NAHRO commends the Administration for the recognition of the work that PHAs are doing in communities and the resources needed to continue those vital services.

NAHRO is glad to see the Administration’s support for affordable housing and community development reflected in the FY 2022 proposed budget. This 15% increase in HUD funding includes a significant increase for the public housing capital fund to preserve existing affordable housing, $500 million more for the HOME Program, which will build more affordable housing, and an increase in resources to support the Housing Choice Voucher Program. These are all vital steps in helping to house our nation’s families, seniors and children.

NAHRO President Sunny Shaw, in response to the budget proposal
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HUD Posts First FAQ for Emergency Housing Vouchers

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has posted its first frequently asked questions (FAQ) document on Emergency Housing Vouchers. These vouchers–for people at-risk of homelessness, people experiencing homelessness, people fleeing domestic violence, and people experiencing housing instability–were recently allocated to almost 700 PHAs. The Department released guidance discussing how the vouchers will operate. This FAQ answers questions that may not have been answered by the initial operational guidance notice.

Topics in the FAQ include the following:

  • Eligibility;
  • Partnerships and collaboration;
  • Voucher administration;
  • Portability; and
  • Reporting requirements.

The full FAQ may be found here.

Vera Creates “Looking Beyond Conviction History” Fact Sheet

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

The Vera Institute of Justice has created a fact sheet titled “Looking Beyond Conviction History.” The fact sheet was created by Vera collaborating with multiple PHAs across the country. It provides eight recommendations for PHAs that want to rethink their admission policies for people with criminal conviction histories. While the full fact sheet offers additional details and rationales, the recommendations are the following:

  • Shorten the lookback period to three years or less;
  • Screen for a limited number of convictions and not for arrests;
  • Conduct an individualized assessment of applicants’ conviction histories;
  • Discontinue the use of “one-strike” policies and adopt a case-by-case decision-making approach;
  • Allow people on probation or parole to live in public housing;
  • Limit the use of past evictions to determine successful tenancy in public housing;
  • Specify and limit denials connected to illegal drug use; and
  • Include absence as a result of incarceration as a permitted temporary absence and allow people to stay housed while completing diversion or alternative-to-incarceration programs.

The website hosting the fact sheet can be found here.

The full fact sheet can be found here.

HUD Creates Emergency Housing Vouchers Website

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

HUD has created an Emergency Housing Vouchers website. Emergency Housing Vouchers (EHVs) were created by the American Rescue Plan and provide 70,000 vouchers for people experiencing or at-risk of homelessness, fleeing domestic violence and other categories, or who people who are at a high-risk of housing instability. The website currently includes the following:

The website will also host FAQ documents on EHVs in the near future.

The website can be found here.

HUD Publishes Details on New Emergency Housing Vouchers

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

As part of the American Rescue Plan, Congress allocated $5 billion in funding for Emergency Housing Vouchers. On May 5, 2021, HUD published PIH 2021-15 titled “Emergency Housing Vouchers – Operating Requirements.” HUD is using a portion of that funding to allocate 70,000 vouchers to PHAs. The vouchers are to assist families that are experiencing homelessness (or at risk of homelessness); 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.

For more information about the vouchers, please join us for a webinar on Thursday, May 13: “Emergency Housing Vouchers – What You Need to Know!“

The notice lays out the procedures and requirements of receiving and administering the emergency housing vouchers (EHVs). It states operating requirements; allocation of administrative and other support services fees; the housing assistance payments (HAP) funding renewal process; family eligibility requirements; EHV waivers; the EHV recapture and redistribution procedures; and the prohibition on the reissuance of turnover of EHVs after Sept. 30, 2023.

In structuring this program, HUD reached out to industry groups to ask for feedback. NAHRO provided comments on how the program should be structured. We are pleased that much of NAHRO’s feedback was incorporated into this notice including creating a services fee, using enhanced payment standards, allowing security deposit assistance, allowing utility deposit assistance, allowing rental application assistance, allowing the use of landlord incentives, allowing purchasing essential household items (e.g., furniture), allowing initial self-certification of certain information, and using certain other flexibilities.

NAHRO members will receive additional information in the near future.

The full notice can be found here.

Federal Judge Vacates CDC Eviction Moratorium

~ Georgi Banna ~ Leave a comment

A federal judge has set aside and vacated the eviction moratorium put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). On May 5, Judge Dabney Friedrich of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia issued an opinion that was narrowly focused on one question, “Does the Public Health Service Act grant the CDC the legal authority to impose a nationwide eviction moratorium?” Judge Friedrich answered the question, “It does not” and further explains that the CDC and the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services exceeded the authority granted to them by the Public Health Service Act by issuing a nationwide eviction moratorium.

Judge Friedrich’s opinion can be found here. PHAs must continue to follow all local (state, county, city) eviction moratoriums and local landlord tenant laws. NAHRO will continue to follow this case and share additional information as it becomes available.

UPDATE (5/5/2021, 2:26pm ET) – The US Justice Department is appealing to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit the US District Court’s order vacating the CDC eviction moratorium.

UPDATE (5/5/2021, 3:31pm ET) – The US Justice Department has issued a statement respectfully disagreeing with the District Court’s decision and confirming that they have filed a notice of appeal of the decision. The statement is available here.

UPDATE (5/6/2021, 8:48am ET) – Judge Friedrich has issued an administrative stay putting her order vacating the CDC eviction moratorium on hold. The court will allow both parties to submit briefs against and in support of the stay and will then make a further decision on to keep the stay in place or not. As of this update, the CDC eviction moratorium remains in effect.

Mobility Demonstration PHAs selected

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

In a press release, HUD has selected PHAs to participate in its new mobility demonstration. The mobility demonstration serves as a research evaluation to demonstrate the efficacy of a bundle of mobility-related interventions (i.e., services offered to families that help remove barriers moving to areas of opportunity). Recent research has shown that moving to areas of opportunity has positive impacts on health and the future lifetime earnings of children.

Program participants will be divided into three groups: a control group; a treatment group which receives comprehensive mobility-related services; and a second treatment group which receives selected mobility related-services. The Department, PHAs, and researchers will then evaluate the efficacy and cost of the bundles of mobility-related services provided.

The PHAs selected for the demonstration can be found below.

PHA CodePHA NameTotal Mobility-related Services AwardTotal Vouchers AwardedTotal Voucher Funding Awarded
NY041Rochester Housing Authority$4,089,54074$724,106
NY110New York Housing Preservation and Development$4,013,10074$1,501,480
MN002Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (Lead PHA)$4,013,10037$637,341
MN163Metropolitan HRAPartner to MN00237$585,649
CA004Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles$4,013,10037$812,372
CA002Housing Authority of the County of Los AngelesPartner to CA00437$761,339
PA006Allegheny County Housing Authority$4,089,54056$565,805
PA001Housing Authority of PittsburghPartner to PA00618$249,419
OH003Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority$4,089,54074$881,419
LA001Housing Authority of New Orleans$4,089,54074$1,114,333
PA046Housing Authority of Chester County$3,461,85018$249,803
PA007Chester Housing AuthorityPartner to PA04656$803,120
TN005Metropolitan Housing and Redevelopment$4,013,10074$971,554
Total$35,872,410666$9,857,740
Taken from https://www.hud.gov/press/press_releases_media_advisories/HUD_No_21_076.

The Department’s full press release can be found here.

2021 HCV Implementation Webinar Added to Youtube

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has uploaded their 2021 Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Implementation webinar. This presentation focuses on Notice PIH 2021-10 and discusses how the funding for the voucher program in 2021 will be implemented along with key deadlines for additional funding (e.g., housing assistance payment [HAP] set-aside funding and special administrative fees).

The video can be found here or below.

HUD Updates HCV Dashboard

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

The Department has updated the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) dashboard. The HCV dashboard presents visualizations of HCV program statistics based on most recently available data taken from, among other places, the Voucher Management System (VMS). The updated dashboard now includes pages on leasing changes, percentages of HCV programs devoted to special purpose vouchers, leasing potential, project-based voucher portfolios, comparing budget and reserves between two programs, and comparing leasing and per unit cost (PUC) between two programs.

The dashboard shows data both in the national aggregate and by individual PHA.

In addition, the Department has also updated the “HCV Dashboard User Guide & Data Dictionary.”

Finally, the Department has posted a YouTube video discussing and explaining the expansion.

The HCV Data Dashboard can be found here.

HUD Posts CY 2021 Admin. Fee Rates

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

Earlier today, HUD posted to its Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) website, the HCV administrative fee rates. These rates determine the amount of administrative fee a HCV program receives from HUD. There are two rates. The second rate applies after the first 7,200 unit months.