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.
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/.
(9/6/16 Update: The published Federal Register notice can be found here. Comments are due by October 31, 2016.)
Tomorrow, HUD will publish its lead-based paint proposed rule titled “Requirements for Notification, Evaluation and Reduction of Lead-Based Paint Hazards in Federally Owned Residential Property and Housing Receiving Federal Assistance; Response to Elevated Blood Lead Levels” in the Federal Register. While NAHRO is still in the process of doing a deeper dive into the proposed rule, here are some of the core requirements being proposed.
NAHRO will continue to read and analyze this rule and will provide additional, deeper coverage to its members. Comments will be due 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.
The pre-publication proposed rule can be found here.
HUD’s Press Release on the rule can be found here.
HUD has published its FY 2017 FMRs on its website. While we are still in the process of going through the notice announcing the publication of the FMRs, here are some of the main takeaways:
Read the full pre-publication notice here.
[8/26/16 UPDATE: The Federal Register publication can be found here. Comments are due by September 26, 2016.]
The FY 2017 FMRs can be found here (scroll to FY 2017). The PDF tables can be found here.
On August 25, NAHRO submitted a letter to HUD’s Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Lourdes Castro Ramirez regarding the financial strains many PHAs face regarding bed bug infestation. In the letter, NAHRO noted the difference between standard pest extermination methods compared to the more-intensive methods of eradicating bed bugs. The letter continued, stating that in light of the additional effort required to eradicate bed bugs from housing units and properties, bed bug infestations place substantial financial burdens on PHAs, and that bed bugs affect more than just the tenants in an impacted unit.
NAHRO plans to continue working with HUD PIH to ensure that PHAs can remain financially secure while also ensuring their tenants have access to safe, secure housing free of bed bugs.
As NAHRO previously reported, on August 23, HUD published a 30-day Notice in the Federal Register seeking additional public feedback on the proposed changes to HUD’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) Local Government Assessment Tool (Local Government Tool). The Local Government Tool is the standardized tool that communities receiving HUD Community Planning and Development (CPD) formula grant dollars must use to conduct and submit their Assessments of Fair Housing (AFH).
The 30-day Notice proposes a number of additions to the Local Government Tool that would, ideally, help simplify the AFH process for Qualified Public Housing Authorities (QPHAs), defined as PHAs not designed as “troubled” with a combined unit total of 550 or less, and for local governments receiving small CPD formula grants. The tool would include two new sections for streamlined assessments for QPHAs and small local governments, called “inserts.” QPHAs and local governments seeking to fulfill their Fair Housing requirements through these streamlined “inserts” must be involved in a joint or regional collaboration with a local government as the lead entity.
The proposed Local Government Tool with the new “inserts” is now available for public viewing on HUD Exchange. The deadline to respond to the 30-day Notice and comment on the Local Government Tool is September 22, 2016.
On August 23, HUD will publish a 30-day notice in the Federal Register seeking public feedback on the Local Government Assessment Tool, the instrument with which communities receiving HUD Community Planning and Development (CPD) formula grant dollars must use to conduct and submit their Assessment of Fair Housing (AFH) analysis, as required by the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) Final Rule.
Due to limited staff and resources, NAHRO has long-requested for HUD to streamline the AFFH assessment tools for small program participants. The 30-day Notice announces two substantial changes that would, ideally, help simplify the AFH process for Qualified Public Housing Authorities (QPHAs), defined as PHAs not designed as “troubled” with a combined unit total of 550 or less, and for local governments receiving small CPD formula grants:
The 30-day notice also addresses the public comments received in response to the 60-day information collection notice that was published on March 23, 2016 (see NAHRO’s comments here). NAHRO’s next issue of The Monitor (members only) will have additional details about the contents of the 30-day notice.
On August 19, the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) made publicly available a report it wrote for congressional requesters. The report found that HUD has “not consistently incorporated requirements and key practices identified by GAO to help ensure effective management into its operations.”
The report identified five management functions and discusses how completely HUD implemented prior GAO recommendations. Selected excerpts can be found below:
Performance planning and reporting – “HUD met most of the requirements in the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010 for its strategic plan and annual performance plan and report . . . [b]ut HUD’s strategic plan does not clearly link HUD’s goals and objectives with federal priority goals.”
Information technology management – “HUD has not demonstrated that it has the capacity to effectively plan for and manage IT projects.”
Human capital management – “HUD has made progress in developing new human capital plans and mostly followed key principle and practices for strategic workforce planning, succession planning, and training planning.”
Financial management – “HUD did not follow seven of eight key practices for financial management.”
Acquisition management – “HUD partially followed key practices for acquisition relating to organizational alignment and human capital.”
The report recommends that HUD take the following eight actions:
Thanks to PHADA for bringing this report to our attention.
The full report can be found here. The PDF can be found here.
The highlights page can be found here.
NAHRO’s Acting CEO, John Bohm, and the NAHRO Policy Team members; Georgi Banna, Eric Oberdorfer and Tushar Gurjal; along with PHADA and CLPHA met with HUD’s Public and Indian Housing Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary (PDAS), Lourdes Castro-Ramierz, and many of the PIH department leadership.
Among the topics discussed were the priorities for implementing the Housing Opportunities Through Modernization Act (HOTMA/HR 3700); upcoming HUD rules such as Smoke-Free Housing, Small Area Fair Market Rents (SAFMRs), HCV Administrative Fee Formula; Moving to Work (MTW) Expansion; and Triennial Recertifications; and the current priorities of NAHRO, PHADA, CLPHA and HUD. NAHRO and CLPHA were also thanked for their current and continued work in affordable housing and education and the improvement of educational outcomes for the children our members serve.
NAHRO is committed to keeping open and productive lines of communication and will continue to share the thoughts and concerns of our members with HUD.
HUD recently updated their Resource Locator app. The app, which is available for both Android and Apple products as well as a web-based version, maps HUD field offices, affordable housing property management companies, and public housing authority representatives to answer housing availability inquiries and general housing questions. The app includes information about commonly requested housing-related resources from HUD field and regional offices throughout the country; location data and contact information for HUD Field and Regional Offices, PHAs, Multifamily Housing, LIHTC apartments, USDA Rural Housing, Homeless client referral contacts; and provides maps linked via Facebook, Twitter, Google+, email, and text messages. The app uses GIS and Browser Location Detection to show local resources and users can export search results to Excel and generate a custom PDF resource guide. The HUD Resource Locator mobile app is available via Apple iTunes, Google Play Marketplace and through the web browser.
The NAHRO Blog: Legislative & Policy Updates from Washington, DC 