HUD REAC’s Oversight and Evaluation Division (OED) has released Version 1.5 of the UPCS-V protocol. NAHRO is still in the process of reading through it, but will continue to provide our membership with additional information and updates on both the UPCS-V protocol and the Demonstration testing the inspection protocol. HUD is seeking feedback at OED@hud.gov.
The protocol can be found on OED’s homepage or can be directly accessed here.
Our prior coverage of the UPCS-V protocol Version 1.0 can be found here. (Members only.)
On September 6, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report examining HUD’s policies related to communities that disagree with their Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) eligibility determinations based on 5-year American Community Survey (ACS) data.The findings of the report are based on the GAO’s analyses of ACS data and HUD’s policy guidance to grantees, as well as interviews with CDBG administrators, stakeholders and community development groups, including NAHRO.
In order for a project to qualify for CDBG funding under the objective of providing benefit to low- and moderate-income (LMI) persons on an area basis, HUD instructs communities to use ACS data to show that a majority of the proposed service area consists of LMI residents. Some communities believe the ACS produces inaccurate results due to its smaller sample size and larger error rates. When a community disagrees with an eligibility determination, local income surveys may be used instead. However, the GAO finds a number of challenges small communities face when conducting local income surveys, including: resource constraints, administrative burdens, and difficulty obtaining a sufficient number of survey responses. Furthermore, alternative ways to demonstrate eligibility are limited because other sources of income data are not as reliable and comprehensive compared to the ACS.
The GAO report does not make any specific recommendations to Congress on the sources of data issue, but it does point out that the Census Bureau is currently exploring ways to use external data, such as data from the Social Security Administration and IRS, to supplement the ACS. These recommendations are expected by March 2017.
Learn more about this GAO report in the September 15, 2016 edition of the NAHRO Monitor.
On September 6, HUD’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) published a bulletin titled “7 Keys to Handling Conflicts of Interest.” Conflicts occur when “officials or staff stand to benefit–either directly themselves or indirectly through business partners or relatives–from the awarding or contracting of grant funds.” The bulletin lists points to remember when handling conflicts of interest:
The full bulletin, with examples, can be found here.
NAHRO attended the two day public meeting of the Moving To Work (MTW) Research Advisory Committee held on September 1, 2016 and September 2, 2016. While a complete summary of the entire two-day meeting is outside the scope of this blog post, the Committee made some preliminary determinations of the policy interventions for the new MTW cohorts.
Each cohort will receive standard MTW flexibilities, except for where those flexibilities may conflict with a policy intervention being tested. The following policy interventions were the ones that the Committee determined HUD should further examine when moving forward with the expansion:
These were the Committee’s recommendations to HUD about how it should move forward, but these policy interventions are not necessarily the ones with which HUD will choose to move forward. Everything is subject to change.
This was my recollection of the end of the two-day long meeting, but if you attended the meeting, either in-person or by phone, and want to add something, please feel free to leave a comment on this post.
Additional information will be posted on HUD’s MTW Expansion website located here.
(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.
On August 25, HUD published Notice CPD-16-15 which provides clarifying guidance to HOME participating jurisdictions (PJs) on the process of conducting a cost allocation using the Standard Method or the Proration Method, in accordance with HOME regulations. PJs are required to charge the actual costs of the HOME units, which will require allocating costs and identify the number and characteristics of units to be designated as HOME units for multi-unit rental or homebuyer HOME projects in which not all of the units are HOME-assisted (e.g., a mixed-income or a mixed-use project).
Among it’s topics, the Notice
HUD has published their FY 2017 Small Area Fair Market Rent (SAFMR) tables. They were not initially published when the other FY 2017 FMRs were published.
They can be found at HUD PD&R’s SAFMR webpage or accessed directly here.
Read about NAHRO’s views on HUD’s proposed SAFMR rule here.
Read about the FY 2017 FMR Federal Register notice here.
I received an e-mail from a HUD official asking that I make sure that our membership is aware of the following updates to HUD’s Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program Projection Tools:
HUD plans to release YouTube videos in the near future to walk users through using these tools.
Descriptions of the tools can be found on the Office of Housing Choice Vouchers webpage here.
Both tools mentioned above (as well as a “HCV Two-Year Tool Guide” and a “Success Rate Guide”) can be accessed here.
The good folks at HUD REAC OED have posted a list of the PHAs participating in the UPCS-V Demonstration.
The list is on HUD REAC OED’s website or can be accessed directly here.
The NAHRO Blog: Legislative & Policy Updates from Washington, DC 