Policy

HUD to Hold COCC Listening Session in Los Angeles

~ Georgi Banna ~ Leave a comment

NAHRO encourages all PHAs, especially those on the West Coast, to attend the HUD COCC (Central Office Cost Center) listening session on December 7, 2016 in Los Angeles, CA. Previous COCC listening sessions have been held in Alabama, Michigan and the District of Columbia. NAHRO has participated in a HUD COCC listening session and HUD shared substantive information in addition to listening to the concerns and questions of PHAs. These listening session are not part of the formal rulemaking process and is an opportunity to have a discussion with HUD on the COCC and the fee system.

PHAs interested in attending the COCC listening session in Los Angeles on December 7, 2016 will need to register at the following website: http://www.hud.gov/emarc/index.cfm?fuseaction=emar.registerEvent&eventId=2944&update=N.

Below is the Los Angeles COCC Listening Session information and agenda that was received from HUD.

In consideration of those PHAs that are located on or closer to the West Coast, HUD has decided to offer an additional COCC Listening Session in Los Angeles, CA on Wednesday, December 7, 2016.  Registration information for the Los Angeles, CA session is provided below.   

Background: In response to an OIG audit report, HUD is considering changes to the amount and types of fees a PHA’s Central Office Cost Center (COCC) can charge and the eligible uses of these funds by the COCC.  These changes could significantly impact the more than 600 PHAs that operate under asset management using the COCC model.  To more fully understand the impact of such changes when developing possible new rules, procedures, and guidance on the COCC, HUD has chosen to hold listening sessions in several cities, including Los Angeles, CA.

We welcome your PHA’s participation.

Detailed information on the COCC listening session and registration information is provided below.  Note: The listening session is in person only; there is no audio or video broadcasting of the sessions.

D.J. Lavoy,

Deputy Assistant Secretary

PIH-Real Estate Assessment Center

Who Should Attend? The target audience for this listening session is Executive Directors, Chief Financial Officers, and Public Housing Directors of PHAs that operate under asset management using a COCC.  PHAs also are encouraged to share this information with their fee accountants and auditors.  HUD will be sending a separate email to invite fee accountants, auditors, and financial consultants to the listening session.

Listening Session Registration. Registration is limited to no more than two (2) participants from the same PHA or organization.  To register for the Los Angeles session, please click on the link below.

http://www.hud.gov/emarc/index.cfm?fuseaction=emar.registerEvent&eventId=2944&update=N

The event will be held at HUD’s Los Angeles, CA Field Office.  Take the elevator directly to the 4th floor to Room 4054.

Los Angeles Federal Building

300 North Los Angeles Street, Suite 4054

Los Angeles, CA 90012

Note: Attendees will be asked to go through a metal detector and place their personal items through an x-ray machine.  With this in mind, please give yourself an extra 15 to 20 minutes to go through security and consider what you bring with you.

COCC Listening Session Agenda. A draft agenda for the COCC listening session is provided below.

COCC Listening Session – Draft Agenda
# Topic Time
1 Onsite Registration 8:30 – 9:00
2 Welcome and Background 9:00 – 9:30
3 Reasonableness of Fees and Fee Type 9:30 – 10:15
4 Re-federalization of Fees 10:15 – 10:45
5 Break 10:45 – 11:00
6 Eligible Uses of Fee Income 11:00 – 12:00
7 Lunch 12:00 – 1:00
8 Accounting and Reporting 1:00 – 2:15
9 Break 2:15 – 2:30
10 Transition Items 2:30 – 3:30
11 Next Steps / Closing 3:45 – 4:00

Lodging/Parking Information. For attendees who may need overnight accommodations or parking, this information is provided at the link below.  This hotel list is provided for your convenience.  HUD does not endorse or recommend any hotel.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1BC9D4S6JWMcmEwYWhOYjd6eGM/view?usp=sharing

NAHRO Presents at HUD on the Lead Safe Housing Proposed Rule

~ Georgi Banna ~ Leave a comment

On October 6, NAHRO participated in a HUD organized convening on the proposed Lead Safe Housing Rule. NAHRO’s Director of Policy and Program Development, Georgi Banna, along with the National Center for Healthy Housing’s Chief Scientist, Dr. David E. Jacobs and the Green and Healthy Homes Initiative’s Executive Director, Ruth Ann Norton were on a panel moderated by HUD-PIH’s Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Lourdes Castro Ramirez that discussed the need to combat lead poisoning in children and the role of housing in that battle.ghhi-lead-2016-10-06_16-49-58_000

A video of the Lead Safe Housing Rule Convening has been posted on HUD’s YouTube Channel. Clicking Georgi Banna will begin at NAHRO’s statement.

Comments on HUD’s proposed Lead Safe Housing Rule are due to HUD on Monday, October 31, 2016. NAHRO submitted its comments this week. More information on the HUD’s Lead Safe Housing Rule and NAHRO thoughts and comments on it can be found in the current edition of the NAHRO Monitor.

UPCS-V Update Call to be Hosted by HUD

~ Georgi Banna ~ Leave a comment

On October 31st from 2pm to 4pm eastern time, HUD will host a UPCS-V quarterly update call. During the call, two broad topics will be discussed:

  1. The UPCS-V Test Plan – looking at the potential burdens and barriers to UPCS-V implementation.
  2. Immediate Next Steps – How UPCS-V demonstration PHAs can use UPCS-V as their inspection of record.

The conference call may be connected to at: http://ems7.intellor.com/login/707781, up to 10 minutes prior to the conference start time, 2pm eastern time on October 31, 2016. Feel free to contact HUD UPCS-V staff at OED@hud.gov with any questions, thoughts or suggestions.

Five HOTMA Self-Implementing Provisions

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

On September 26, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Lourdes Castro Ramirez sent an e-mail to PHA executive directors identifying the self-implementing provisions of the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act of 2016 (HOTMA). All the other Housing Choice Voucher or Public Housing provisions will require HUD promulgated notices or regulations.

Five HOTMA Self-Implementing Provisions

  1. Reasonable Accommodation Payment Standards – PHAs may establish, without HUD approval, a payment standard of up to 120 percent of the Fair Market Rent (FMR) as a reasonable accommodation for a person with a disability. The Streamlining Rule already provided this flexibility.
  2. Establishment of Fair Market Rent –
    1. HUD may publish FMRs directly to their website, skipping the Federal Register, but must publish a notice in the Federal Register that they are published. Changes how interested stakeholders comment on FMRs and requests that HUD reevaluate the FMRs in a jurisdiction before those rents become effective.
    2. PHAs will no longer be required to reduce payment standards as a result of a FMR reduction for families continuing to reside in a unit under a housing assistance payment (HAP) contract at the time of the FMR reduction. The regulation at 24 CFR 982.505(c)(3) requiring the new decreased payment standard be applied to program participant families at their second regular reexamination is no longer applicable. PHAs must “adopt policies in their Administrative Plans that further explain this provision.” HUD will issue additional guidance in the future.
  3. Family Unification Program (FUP) for Children Aging out of Foster Care –
    1. FUP-eligible youth may receive FUP assistance up to 36 months. Applies to current as well as new FUP-assisted youth.
    2. Expands eligibility requirements for FUP-eligible youth. Expanded eligibility applies to the following:
      1. Youth aged  18 to 24 that are homeless or at risk of being homeless, and
      2. for those that left foster care at age 16 or older, or those that are within 90 days of leaving foster care.
    3. “At risk of being homeless” is defined at 24 CFR 576.2.
  4. Preference for U.S. Citizens or Nationals in Guam – Only applies to Guam. Establishes a preference for U.S. Citizens or Nationals in receiving financial assistance.
  5. Exception to PHA Resident Board Member Requirement – provides an exception for certain jurisdictions from resident board member requirements. Provision has been in effect through multiple appropriations acts.

HUD Finalizes Rule on Equal Access for Transgender People in CPD Programs

~ Jenny Hsu ~ Leave a comment

On September 21, 2016, HUD will publish a final rule titled “Equal Access in Accordance with an Individual’s Gender Identity in Community Planning and Development Programs” in the Federal Register. The final rule, which builds upon HUD’s February 2012 Equal Access Rule, will add a new section to HUD’s general program regulations (24 CFR Part 5) requiring HUD CPD program recipients and subrecipients to provide transgender persons and other persons who do not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth with access to program benefits, services and accommodations in accordance with their gender identity.

The final rule will also amend HUD’s definition of “gender identity” so that it more clearly reflects the difference between actual and perceived gender identity and eliminate the current prohibition on inquiries related to sexual orientation or gender identity. Additionally, the final rule makes a technical amendment to the definition of “sexual orientation” to conform with the Office of Personnel Management’s current definition.

Elsewhere in the Federal Register, HUD will be requesting public comment on a proposed document entitled “Equal Access Regardless of Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, or Marital Status” for owners or operators of CPD-funded shelters, housing, facilities, and other buildings to post on bulletin boards and in other public spaces where information is typically made available.

A link to the proposed document, as well as deeper analysis of the final rule, will be forthcoming for NAHRO members.

 

 

SAFMR Demonstration Evaluation and Section 8 Eligibility of Students Guidance

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

Tomorrow, HUD will publish in the Federal Register two notices dealing with the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program. The first is a proposed information collection highlighting a series of interviews for landlords and tenants in areas served by the five PHAs that participated in the Small Area Fair Marker Rents (SAFMR) Demonstration. The second is guidance for the rule that excludes certain individuals enrolled in an institution of higher education from receiving Section 8 funds.

  • Small Area Fair Market Rent Demonstration – HUD is evaluating the SAFMR demonstration. To assist in this evaluation, HUD is looking at how “voucher holders and landlords perceive the shift from traditional area-wide FMRs to SAFMRs.” HUD will interview 70 tenants and 35 landlords in the areas served by the five PHAs in the SAFMR demonstration.
  • Eligibility of Independent Students for Assisted Housing Under Section 8 of the U.S. Housing Act of 1937; Additional Supplementary Guidance – Prior appropriations acts stated that if a college student “is under the age of 24, is not a veteran, is unmarried and does not have dependent child” or is ineligible or has at least one parent that is ineligible for assistance, then no Section 8 assistance can be provided for that student. This notice updates the list of items that PHAs, owners, and managers “are required to verify when determining whether a student’s income alone should be used to determine Section 8 eligibility.” The notice also reduces “barriers for vulnerable youth to receive assistance and continue their education.”

The SAFMR Demonstration pre-publication notice can be found here.

The Eligibility of Independent Students for Section 8 Assistance Guidance pre-publication notice can be found here.

PHA AFH Tool updated by HUD

~ Georgi Banna ~ Leave a comment

An updated Public Housing Authority (PHA) Analysis of Fair Housing (AFH) Tool that takes into account public comments HUD received has been posted for public inspection. HUD continues to state that they are committed to issuing an additional AFH Tool specifically for Qualified-PHAs (QPHA.) To that end, the PHA AFH Tool is intended to be used by non-QPHAs and QPHAs that are collaborating with non-QPHAs.

HUD has made a number of updates to the PHA AFH Tool. The NAHRO Policy Team will continue to review and provide additional analysis of this notice. Below is a brief list of the PHA AFH Tool updates:

  1. QPHA Insert – This insert is to be used by QPHAs that collaborate with non-QPHAs and covers the required analysis of the QPHA’s service area.
  2. Contributing Factors – HUD added and made small changes to the descriptions of contributing factors.
  3. Disparities in Access to Opportunities – The number of questions has been reduced and references to PHA waiting lists have been removed.
  4. Disability and Access – Two additional question have been added to the tool that relate to interaction of PHAs and individuals with disabilities.
  5. Instructions – Various sections of the instructions have been updated to provide clarity.
  6. Fair Housing Analysis of Rental Housing – This section only applies to PHAs that administer a Housing Choice Voucher program and not to PHAs that are Public Housing only.
  7. Enhancements for PHAs in the Data and Mapping Tool – Specific maps and date related to PHAs are planned along with enhancing the functionality of the maps.

This notice requests comment be submitted within 30 days of issuance. HUD is requesting comment on the notice generally and on 15 specific questions, listed at the end of the notice. NAHRO members should review this notice and provide their comments to HUD. NAHRO will also be providing comment on behalf of our members.

Public inspection of the updated PHA AFH Tool can be done at: https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2016-22594.pdf.

HUD Finalizes Rule to Protect Victims of Harassment

~ Jenny Hsu ~ Leave a comment

HUD has announced that it will publish a final rule titled “Quid Pro Quo and Hostile Environment Harassment and Liability for Discriminatory Housing Practices under the Fair Housing Act” on September 14, 2016. This final rule will formalize the standards for use in investigations and adjudications involving allegations of harassment on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status, or disability. The rule defines and specifies how HUD will evaluate “hostile environment” and “quid pro quo” harassment claims under the Fair Housing Act (FHA), and clarifies the operation of traditional principles of direct and vicarious liability in the FHA context. The final rule will become effective 30 days after it’s publication in the Federal Register.

During the proposed rulemaking stage of this final rule, NAHRO submitted comments to HUD commending the Department’s objective to protect individuals who experience harassment. NAHRO also expressed concerns over some aspects of the proposed rule, particularly the proposed rule’s definition of “direct liability” and the unintended consequences that may arise from that definition. Under the proposed rule, a housing provider and their employees and agencies would be held directly liable when it fails to “fulfill a duty to take prompt action to correct and end a discriminatory housing practice by a third-party.” NAHRO’s comment letter expressed concern over scenarios where the third party is outside the scope of control of the principal.

Along with the final rule, HUD’s Office of General Counsel is issuing Fair Housing Act guidance on local ‘nuisance ordinances’ that may lead to housing discrimination against survivors of domestic violence and other persons in need of emergency services. HUD’s press release on the final rule can be accessed here.

Deeper analysis of the final rule and guidance will be forthcoming for NAHRO members.

 

HUD Webinar on Housing Mobility Resources and Initiatives

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

I received information from a HUD official about a webinar on Housing Mobility Resources and Initiatives on Thursday, September 22. Here’s the information that I received ( I also linked to information on the web about the panelists).

Housing Mobility Resources and Initiatives

To register, please complete the following steps:

  1. Please visit this link. This will expedite the process of joining the webinar on Sept. 22. The email confirmation of registration will include an Outlook calendar item that you can use to get the event on your calendar.
  2. If you have not used WebEx before, we suggest you install the WebEx Event Center ahead of time so you are ready to go when the event starts. You can do so by clicking on this link.
  3. If you haven’t installed the software ahead of time, it will automatically install when you start the webinar.  Installing it ahead of time will allow you to trouble shoot any problems that may arise ahead of time.
  4. On Sept. 22, before the 1 p.m. webinar starts, visit this link to start the webinar.
  5. You have two options for audio.  You can choose to access audio through the computer by selecting that option after starting the webinar or you can dial-in by phone using this conference line:

1-415-655-0002
Access code: 312 179 805.

September is Attendance Awareness Month

~ Georgi Banna ~ Leave a comment

As schools get into full swing this month, September is Attendance Awareness Month. For schools to work as centers of learning, it is important for students to be in class. Attendance Works focuses on the importance of student attendance and tracking student attendance data. PHAs and community development organizations can be an important partner with families and schools to insure increased school attendance and therefore improved educational outcomes for the children living in affordable housing..

As part of Attendance Awareness Month, Attendance Works is hosting a webinar on using attendance data.

Thursday, September 8, 2016: Ensuring an Equal Opportunity to Learn: Leveraging Chronic Absence Data for Strategic Action, 11-12:30 pm (PT) / 2-3:30 pm (ET). Register now.

In June 2016, the U.S. Office for Civil Rights released its first national count of students who were chronically absent. The data showed a staggering 6.5 million students were chronically absent, which means that they missed so much school that their ability to read well and gain fundamental skills and knowledge for college and career was hampered. In the 500 most heavily impacted districts, over 30% of students were chronically absent.

Join experts Hedy Chang, Executive Director of Attendance Works and Dr. Robert Balfanz, Director of the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University as they release a major national study analyzing the data and more importantly, showing how leaders at the local, state and national levels can take strategic action to monitor and address chronic absence in order to ensure an equal opportunity to learn and succeed.

 The webinar will provide suggestions and tips on to become engaged in attendance awareness month activities such as displaying an attendance poster at housing sites, establishing or expanding programmatic interventions such as a mentoring program, etc.

More information on Attendance Awareness Month and Attendance Works can be found at: http://awareness.attendanceworks.org/.