Public Housing

HUD Posts New Form 50058 Draft Instruction Manual

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The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD or the Department) has posted additional documents on its Public and Indian Housing (PIH) Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act of 2016 (HOTMA) Resources page. These documents have, in the past, included revised HUD-50058 forms for non-Moving To Work (MTW), MTW, and MTW expansion programs. These forms provide information on the families that participate in programs like Public Housing or the Housing Choice Voucher program. These forms include the following:

In addition to these forms, the Department has posted a draft Form HUD-50058 Instruction Booklet. The booklet explains the fields in the forms and the information collected for each of the items. The booklet is important because it begins to document the changes made in the forms due to the changes required by HOTMA.

The draft booklet can be found here.

HUD Publishes MTW Flexibility II Cohort Request for Applications

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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)

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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.

HUD Publishes NSPIRE Administrative Procedures Notice

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On July 3, HUD published a notice titled “Implementation of National Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real Estate (NSPIRE) Administrative Procedures” (PIH 2023-16 / H 2023-07). The notice details the process and operational requirements for public housing and multifamily housing assistance programs. It discusses procedures for inspections; submitting evidence for deficiency correction; submitting technical reviews; administrative review; and certain other administrative requirements associated with the implementation of the NSPIRE inspection protocol.

The notice states that the NSPIRE final rule will be implemented in phases. The Department will begin inspections under the new protocol for public housing properties after July 1, 2023. It will prioritize properties that have not been inspected since normal operations resumed after the pandemic in June 2021; PHAs with a fiscal year end of March 30; and troubled PHAs. For housing choice voucher programs (including project-based voucher properties), the NSPIRE final rule will be effective Oct. 1, 2023. For multifamily housing programs, HUD will begin inspections under the new protocol on July 1, 2023 for those who participated in the NSPIRE demonstration, while those who did not will begin on Oct. 1, 2023.

NAHRO will provide our members with additional information about the contents of the notice in the coming days.

The full notice can be found here.

HUD Extends AFFH Comment Deadline to April 24, 2023

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The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will be extending the comment period on its proposed rule to affirmatively further fair housing. The new comment deadline is April 24, 2023. The Department states that the “extension will allow interested persons additional time to analyze the proposal and prepare their comments.”

A pre-publication copy of the extension can be found here.

HUD Posts Final HOTMA Rule on Reexaminations, Over-income Households, and Asset Limits

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The Department has posted a final rule implementing changes that will affect how PHAs conduct reexaminations, interact with over-income households, and handle asset limits. The rule would implement sections 102, 103, and 104 of the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act of 2016. The rule primarily affects the Public Housing, Housing Choice Voucher, and Project-based Rental Assistance programs. It also impacts certain other community development programs in order to align certain program requirements and definitions between programs. These other programs include Community Development Block Grants; HOME Investment Partnerships; the Housing Trust Fund; Housing Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities, Supportive Housing for the Elderly (Section 202), and Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities (Section 811). While not applicable to all sections of the rule, much of it has an effective date of January 1, 2024.

NAHRO will provide its members with additional information on the new rule in the near future.

A one-page fact sheet on the rule can be found here.

The HUD website for the rule can be found here.

The pre-publication copy of the final rule can be found here.

HUD Publishes Notice on 2022 VAWA Changes

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On Jan. 6, HUD published a notice in the Federal Register detailing several changes that were made in the 2022 revision to the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The changes were made in several sections. Many of the changes became effective on Oct. 1, 2022. The Department is seeking comment on the proposed changes by March 6, 2022.

Changes to VAWA Definitions

The revision amends the definition of “domestic violence” to include “any felony or misdemeanor crimes committed under the family or domestic violence laws of the jurisdiction receiving grant funding.” This definition includes “in the case of victim services, the use or attempted use of physical abuse or sexual abuse, or a pattern of any other coercive behavior committed, enabled, or solicited to gain or maintain power and control over a victim, including verbal, psychological, economic, or technological abuse that may or may not constitute criminal behavior” by certain individuals including current or former spouses, current or former co-inhabitants, people sharing a child, or people who commit acts against people protected from acts by family or domestic violence laws of a jurisdiction.

The definitional change occurred on Oct. 1, 2022. While the change is only for grants authorized under VAWA, HUD notes that the current definition of domestic violence covers all of the additional conduct specified in VAWA 2022, and HUD interprets the existing regulatory definitions of “domestic violence” and “stalking” to encompass all of the revised conduct.

Additional Covered Housing Programs

The revision expands the scope of covered programs to include the Section 202 Direct Loan Program, the Housing Trust Fund, and any other federal housing programs. For the Housing Trust Fund, the Department already considers it a covered program through its regulatory authority. The Department will issue new regulations to cover all the additional programs.

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HUD Announces PHAs for MTW Asset Building Cohort

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Earlier today, HUD published a press release announcing that it had selected PHAs for the fourth cohort of the Moving to Work (MTW) program. The MTW program allows PHAs that have received MTW status certain additional flexibilities in how they use their funds and greater freedom in how they operate. The program allows PHAs to innovate in how they provide housing.

The current expansion of the MTW program requires PHAs to commit to research on a particular policy topic. In addition to the regulatory and operational flexibility afforded by the program, PHAs selected in this cohort have committed to research asset building policies. Housing agencies in this cohort will have to pick, implement, and track one of the three following options for asset building policies:

  1. Opt-Out Savings Account Option – PHAs must deposit a certain amount of funds per month into an escrow account on behalf of an assisted household.
  2. Credit Building Option – PHAs must report public housing rent payments to credit bureaus.
  3. PHA-Designed Asset Building Option – PHAs must design their own local asset building program.

Currently, HUD has selected 87 of the 100 agencies, including 16 in this cohort, to which it is statutorily mandated to award an MTW designation. According to HUD, “MTW agencies are now in 40 states and the District of Columbia.”

HUD’s press release on the MTW fourth cohort can be found here.

The Request for Applications for the MTW fourth cohort (Notice PIH 2022-11) can be found here.

NAHRO congratulates all of the selected PHAs that were selected in this cohort. The complete list can be found below.

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Measuring Resident Agency

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ 1 Comment

The Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future have created a guide to help “outline measures and data gathering practices” that may “amplify resident voice and agency.” The guide is titled “Measuring Resident Agency and Voice in an Affordable Housing Setting: A Set of Guiding Questions to Move Forward.” The measures suggested by the guide fall into four categories. The categories were chosen based on how prevalent they were in current research, their relevance to the affordable housing industry, and their applicability to the affordable housing industry. In each category, the guide presents a few paragraphs on why the category is important, some suggested questions on how to think about the category for organizational staff, and some suggested questions to ask residents.

The categories covered by the guide are the following:

  • Resident Satisfaction – the guide notes that assessing resident satisfaction is a way to check if resident needs and safety are being met, which are needed, if additional and deeper resident engagement is to be had.
  • Social Cohesion – the guide defines this as “connectedness among residents” and notes that it can provide insight into a property’s culture, especially around “neighborliness and collaboration.”
  • Resident Power – the guide notes that this is important because it can help determine what a property remodel can look like or how operations and service delivery can be changed. It is the “ultimate outcome of exercising agency and voice.”
  • Civic Engagement – the guide gives examples of this as “volunteering, attending public hearings, and voting” and notes that these activities have served as indicators of community participation.

The full guide can be found here.

Administration Announces Housing Supply Action Plan

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ 1 Comment

On May 16, the administration announced a housing supply action plan that is intended to “ease the burden of housing costs over time, by boosting the supply of quality housing in every community.” The plan includes both legislative and administrative actions and is meant to align with other policies currently in effect (e.g., federal rental assistance) to create more affordable rents and make homeownership more affordable.

While the plan includes many specific actions, many of those actions can be grouped into the following categories.

  • Incentivizing jurisdictions to reform their zoning and land-use policies by giving higher scores to jurisdictions that do this in federal grant allocations.
  • Implementing new financing mechanisms to build and preserve housing, including manufactured housing; accessory dwelling units; two to four unit properties; and other multifamily buildings.
  • Improving existing federal financing for development and preservation, which includes making construction to permanent loans more available; promoting the use of COVID recovery funds for affordable housing; reforming the low-income housing tax credit and the HOME program.
  • Ensuring that more housing goes to owners that live in the units or non-profits that will rehabilitate them.
  • Addressing supply chain issues by working with the private sector.

The White House’s full announcement of their housing supply action plan can be found here.