Policy

HUD Allocates New Vouchers and Administrative Fees

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

On August 2, HUD published a notice titled “Allocation of New Incremental Housing Choice Vouchers and Special Administrative Fees” (Notice PIH 2023-21 (HA)). The notice explains the process for awarding approximately four thousand new general purpose vouchers to PHAs and also explains how administrative fees related to these vouchers will be distributed. To be eligible for these vouchers, an entity must be a PHA that administers the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program through an existing Consolidated Annual Contributions Contract.

The Department will notify PHAs of their allocation. The notification will specify the number of vouchers allocated and provide instructions for declining the vouchers. Agencies may decline a voucher by replying to NewHCVs@hud.gov by the deadline indicated in the notice.

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HUD Publishes MTW Flexibility II Cohort Request for Applications

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

On July 31, HUD published a notice titled “Request for Applications under the Moving to Work Demonstration Program: Overall Impact of Moving to Work Flexibility and Administrative Efficiencies” (Notice PIH 2023-20). The notice discusses the fifth cohort of the Moving to Work (MTW) expansion demonstration program. The MTW demonstration allows PHAs certain flexibilities in how they use their public housing and housing choice voucher program funding to best serve their families. Each PHA in each cohort in the MTW expansion receives flexibilities and also has to participate in a research evaluation. For this cohort, the research evaluation is on the overall effects of the MTW flexibilities bundle on the PHA and the residents it serves.

The notice discusses certain requirements for PHAs to apply to participate in this cohort. This cohort will be open to PHAs with 1,000 or fewer aggregate public housing and housing choice voucher (HCV) units. To apply, PHAs must follow the instructions in this notice and submit their applications by Dec. 8, 2023.

NAHRO members will receive additional information about this cohort and the application process in the coming weeks.

The full notice can be found here.

HUD Sends Update on HOTMA Implementation (Sections 102, 103, and 104)

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

On July 18, HUD sent an email to Executive Directors of PHAs providing additional information on the implementation of certain provisions of the Housing Opportunity Through the Modernization Act of 2016 (HOTMA). Specifically, the email provides information on the over-income provisions (section 103), the income review provisions (section 102), and the asset limitation provisions (section 104) of HOTMA.

Over-income Provisions (Section 103) – All PHAs with public housing should have taken appropriate steps to implement the over-income provisions of HOTMA. The Department published Notice PIH 2023-03 (HA), which details the exact requirements and steps to implement the provisions.

Income Review and Asset Limitation Provisions (Sections 102 and 104 respectively) – These provisions will still take effect on Jan. 1, 2024, but PHAs will have additional time to bring their systems into compliance as quickly as possible, but no later than Jan. 1, 2025. This compliance date will be established by HUD via a notice. Despite the later compliance date, PHAs must have updated their Admissions and Continued Occupancy Policies (ACOPs) and Administrative Plans to reflect the changes made by these HOTMA provisions by Jan. 1, 2024. Once a PHA is ready to transition to the HOTMA rules, it must do so in all affected areas of operations. Once the new Housing Information Portal (HIP) is in place, HUD will monitor HIP submissions and reach out to PHAs that are not submitting through HIP to check on their status.

The full email can be found here.

New Small Area FMR Dashboard

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

On July 6, HUD sent an email to Executive Directors announcing the posting of a new Small Area Fair Market Rent (FMR) dashboard. The Dashboard lists PHAs that have either adopted the use of Small Area FMRs or the use of an exception payment standard that allows a PHA to raise its payment standard up to 110% of the small area FMR. The dashboard also lists the number of units under small area FMRs, the number of PHAs that use small area FMRs or exception payment standards that can be raised up to 110% of small area FMRs, and the total number of units categorized by Small Area FMR type.

Additionally, the website containing the dashboard also contains links to resources about Small Area FMRs.

The website can be found here.

New EHV Termination Guidance

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On June 29, HUD published a notice titled “Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV): Guidance on Termination of Vouchers Upon Turnover After September 30, 2023 and EHV Shortfalls Due to Per-Unit Cost Increases of Overleasing” [Notice PIH 2023-14 (HA)]. The notice provides instructions to PHAs with emergency housing vouchers (EHVs) about how EHVs should be administered after Sept. 30, 2023.

Termination

After Sept. 30, 2023, EHVs that are active will no longer be allowed to be reissued to new families and will terminate after the family using the voucher has left the program. Emergency housing vouchers that have not been leased-up may still be leased after Sept. 30 up until they reach the number allocated to the PHA by HUD. After Sept. 30, housing agencies may issue additional vouchers taking into consideration their 180-day lease rate (e.g., if a PHA has leased 80 of its 100 EHVs and has a 180-day success rate of 50%, then it may issue enough vouchers to ensure that 40 households are searching for units).

Portability

Voucher holders with EHVs may still port their vouchers to other jurisdictions after Sept. 30, 2023. If the PHA the voucher holder is porting to has EHV capacity (i.e., it has not reached its cumulative EHV lease-up maximum), the receiving PHA may absorb the voucher. If the receiving PHA is at its EHV capacity, then the receiving PHA may bill the initial PHA or absorb the family into its regular HCV program.

EHV Shortfalls

The Department is making changes to when PHAs may request shortfall funding for EHVs. First, a PHA may request a per-unit cost adjustment when 1) “despite taking reasonable efforts to manage the EHV program effectively, [it] would otherwise be required to terminate participating families . . . due to insufficient Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) funds” and 2) for instances when cost increases were not unforeseen (e.g., using high payment standards) in order to improve success rates or allow a family to remain in their unit.

Housing agencies may also request shortfall funding to “prevent the termination of EHV families due to insufficient funds until the overleasing is corrected through attrition.” The Department may reduce administrative fees when there are “egregious cases of overleasing.”

The full notice can be found here.

HUD Extends Period of Availability for ARP Act Adjustment Funding for the HCV and Mainstream Program

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On May 16, HUD published a notice titled “Extension of Period of Availability for American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act – Adjustment Funding for Calendar Year 2021 Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program and Mainstream Vouchers Renewal Funding.” Previously, under PIH Notice 2021-23, PHAs could request additional Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) funding as adjustments to calendar year (CY) 2021 HAP funding for the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) and Mainstream programs. Among other things, the prior notice allowed PHAs to request additional HAP for increases in per unit costs (PUC), under the “extraordinary circumstances” category. The prior notice set the deadline for expenditure of funds awarded through this category on June 30, 2022. This notice extends the deadline to December 31, 2023 to report those funds.

Additionally, the notice provides guidance on appropriately reporting the funds in the Voucher Management System (VMS).

Funds that have not been expended by the new deadline will be reconciled and used in the Emergency Housing Voucher program (as they were initially taken from the appropriation for that program).

The full notice can be found here.

HUD Publishes Report on HCV Success Rates

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Earlier this year, HUD posted a report titled “Using Administrative Data to Estimate Success Rates and Search Durations for New Voucher Recipients.” The purpose of the study is to estimate national success rates and evaluate the quality of HUD’s administrative data.

The study finds that “61 percent of searches initiated in 2019 succeeded, using a 180-day search window.” Additionally, “[i]f that timeline [was] extended to 240 days, the estimated success rate [rose] to 63 percent.” The report also discusses how success rates and search durations vary by an area’s rural characterization, a PHA’s regional classification (e.g., located in the Northeast), and a PHA’s size.

The study looks at two metrics to evaluate the data quality. First, it looks at the share of entrances to the program which have a search voucher. The rationale behind examining this metric is that if a PHA is accurately recording data, then it will be recording both the issuance of the voucher and the admission to the program. Similarly, if a PHA is only recording the admission, then the PHA may not be recording unsuccessful searches (i.e., those searches with an issuance, but no admission). To ensure the use of quality data, the study excludes new admissions that are not preceded by a search voucher and only calculates success rates for PHAs with nearly complete issuance data.

The second metric that the study uses to evaluate data quality is the timeline for successful searches. If a PHA admits many participants only a few days after voucher issuance, then it is likely indicative that the PHA is retroactively adding the issuance date at admittance, which may mean failed searches are not tracked. To address this issue, the study does not estimate annual success rates for PHAs that have admitted more than 15 percent of new families within seven days of voucher issuance.

The success rates from this study should not be directly compared to how PHAs calculate success rates as the study examines search events, which might include multiple voucher issuances to a family. Housing agencies may calculate success rates based on each discrete issuance of a voucher.

The full report can be found here.

2023 Renewal Funding Inflation Factors (RFIFs) Published

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Earlier today, HUD published a notice titled “Section 8 Housing Assistance Payments Program-Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Inflation Factors for Public Housing Agency (PHA) Renewal Funding.” These inflation factors are used by HUD to determine how much renewal Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) funding an agency will receive relative to the prior year. Each PHA receives its own factor, but the Department also calculates a national inflation factor, which the Department has calculated at 9.6% this year.

After discussing inflation factors with HUD staff, NAHRO encourages PHAs to take steps to utilize the substantial increase in funding that most Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) programs will receive. While the national factor is 9.6%, many PHAs will receive substantially higher factors, and are encouraged to take appropriate steps (e.g., increasing payment standards, adopting Small Area Fair Market Rents, etc.) to ensure that the funding is spent by the end of the calendar year.

The RFIFs can be found here.

The Area Definitions table can be found here.

(The above link was not functional as of 9:23 am ET on April 12, 2023, but should be functional soon.)

The full notice can be found here.

HUD Publishes Notice on HCV Landlord Penalties

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On March 31, HUD published a notice titled “Notice on Remedies PHAs have for Poor Performing Owners in the Housing Choice Voucher and Project-Based Voucher Programs” (PIH Notice 2023-06). The notice informs PHAs of the available punitive measures or remedies they have against landlords that do not comply with their Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) contracts. The notice also discusses the punitive measures that HUD has against PHAs that do not comply with the HAP contract.

The notice discusses remedies that PHAs have for landlord non-compliance with the HAP contract. Potential breaches may include the following: violating any obligation under the HAP contract, including maintaining the unit up to Housing Quality Standards (HQS); violating any obligation under Section 8 of the U.S. Housing Act of 1937; committing fraud, bribery, or other corrupt or criminal acts related to any federal housing program; failing to comply with regulations for mortgage insurance of loan programs in certain instances; engaging in drug-related criminal activity; or engaging in violent criminal activity. If an owner fails to maintain the unit according to HQS, the PHA must take “prompt and vigorous” action to enforce owner obligations. The notice details other inspection-related scenarios when PHAs must take certain enforcement actions.

The notice also discusses instances when PHAs are required to exclude owners from the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) and Project-based Voucher (PBV) programs. Instances when a PHA must not approve an owner’s participation include the following: the owner is debarred from participation; HUD directs the PHA not to approve the owner because the federal government has instituted an administrative or judicial action; or if HUD directs the PHA not to approve the owner because the owner has violated a civil rights law.

There are several instances where a PHA may also use its discretionary authority to exclude owners from HCV and PBV programs. Housing agencies may adopt policies that will exclude owners from participating in the voucher program. The PHA may exclude the owner for the following: violating the HAP contract; committing fraud, bribery, or other corrupt or criminal acts in connection with federal housing programs; engaging in recent drug-related criminal or violent activity; frequent non-compliance with HQS; not evicting tenants that threaten peaceful enjoyment of unit, threaten the health and safety of residents, or are engaged in drug-related or violent criminal activity; frequently renting units that do not meet state or local codes; and not paying taxes, fines, or assessments.

Housing agencies should not penalize owners that consider the nature, severity, and recency of tenant offenses, including mitigating circumstances before evicting.

For PHAs that fail to comply with program requirements, HUD has the authority to take certain punitive actions. The Department may do the following: offset administrative fees; prohibit use of funds in the administrative fee reserve account; direct the PHA to use funds in the reserve account to improve program administration; reduce HAP amounts; reduce other HUD funding amounts; or declare the PHA in default. The Department may also initiate claims against owners in certain instances.

The notice states that the Department may take similar actions against PHAs that do not follow PBV program requirements.

The full notice can be found here.

HUD Publishes 2023 HCV Funding Notice

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On April 4, HUD published a notice titled “Implementation of the Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2023 Funding Provisions for the Housing Choice Voucher Program.” This notice details the process by which HUD will implement and allocate funding from the 2023 appropriations bill for the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program. One change from prior implementing notices is that set-aside applications for additional funding must be accepted through DocuSign.

The notice describes several aspects of the HCV portion of the appropriations act, including how renewal funding is calculated (using the same renewal formula that has been in use for the last several years).

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