HUD is hosting office hours for PHAs with Emergency Housing Vouchers today at 3 pm ET. Today’s session will “explore tips on running the EHV Exception Report to analyze and correct discrepancies.” An EHV exception report showing the discrepancy between a PHA’s voucher management system (VMS) entries and its IMS/PIC entries can be found here.
HUD’s EHV office hours webinar can be accessed here (at 3 pm ET).
HUD announced the Landlord Incentives Cohort of the expansion of the Moving to Work (MTW) Demonstration on January 27. NAHRO congratulates all the new MTW agencies entering the Demonstration through this cohort! This cohort will include a research and evaluation component that studies the impact of incentives aimed at encouraging landlords to participate in the Section 8 program. Agencies selected for the Landlord Incentives Cohort will also be able to utilize other flexibilities included within the MTW Demonstration.
Twenty-nine PHAs were selected for this cohort. Since January 2021, HUD has added a total of 70 PHAs to the MTW Demonstration. MTW PHAs are now in 38 states and D.C.
Congratulations to the new MTW Agencies!
On Jan. 26, in a press release, HUD announced $4 million to be available for radon testing through the new Radon Testing and Mitigation Demonstration program Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFA). Radon is an odorless, clear radioactive gas that is found in every part of the United States. It can move from soil into buildings through small openings in a building’s foundation. When inhaled, radon can increase the risk of developing lung cancer.
Housing agencies will be able to use this funding to test public housing properties for radon. When needed, they will also be able to apply mitigation measures in their communities. The grants will be allocated in the early summer. The NOFA’s estimated application deadline in March 28. 2022.
HUD’s press release can be found here.
The full NOFA can be found here.
On Monday January 24, HUD will publish in the Federal Register a notice that implements and provides guidance on the provisions included in the amendments of the Fostering Stable Housing Opportunities Act. The Fostering Stable Housing Opportunities (FSHO) amendments made changes to the assistance provided to eligible youth through the Family Unification Program (FUP) for FUP-eligible youth, including those who received vouchers through the Foster Youth to Independence (FYI) initiative. FSHO provides an extension of the assistance provided to eligible youth for up to 24 months beyond the 36-month time limit of assistance if the youth is participating in a Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) program or if engaged in education, workforce development, or employment activities for at least 9 months of the 12-month period preceding the extension. FSHO also provides an extension of assistance for up to 24 months beyond the 36-month time limit of assistance for eligible youth who meet one of three statutory exceptions – being responsible for the care of a dependent child under the age of 6 or an incapacitated person, regularly participating in a drug addiction or alcohol treatment and rehabilitation program, or being incapable of complying with the requirement to participate in an FSS program or engaging in education, workforce development, or employment activities.
PHAs must inform eligible youth, including those issued vouchers prior to the publication of this notice, of the availability of this extension and the requirements that they must meet to receive an extension once the notice is in effect (90 days after publication). HUD is providing PHAs with flexibility in applying these requirements and encourages PHAs to provide these extensions to the broadest population possible consistent with the statutory requirements. PHAs will be required to update their Administrative Plans to include written policies regarding how they will implement the extension.
Comments on the implementation and guidance are due 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.
On Jan. 18, HUD sent a letter to PHA Executive Directors titled “CY 2022 Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCV) Renewal Awards.” The letter provides information on current and future prorations of voucher accounts to help HCV program administrators in planning their program.
The letter notes that the federal government is operating under a continuing resolution (CR), which will fund federal programs (including the HCV program) at the same rate as last year until Feb. 18, 2022. Under this CR, the HCV housing assistance payment (HAP) proration will be 98.5% for Jan. and Feb. Similarly, under this CR, the HCV administrative fee proration will be 84% for Jan. and Feb. Mainstream vouchers will receive the same prorations for its HAP and administrative fee accounts respectively. At this time, PHAs may anticipate HAP and administrative payments for Feb.
The letter also provides prorations for amounts in Senate and House draft appropriations bills for CY 2022. The estimate for the House bill is 90% for the administrative fee and full funding for HAP. The estimate for the Senate bill is 93% for administrative fee and full funding for HAP. To estimate the total renewal amount required for HAP nationally, HUD applied a national average inflation factor of 3.73%. (Inflation factors for individual PHAs will vary.) Preliminary inflation factors for individual PHAs can be found in HUD’s two-year forecasting tool.
Some PHAs may hear from HUD staff, if HUD staff feels that those PHAs may experience a shortfall or have significant leasing potential. Finally, the deadlines to submit CY 2021 costs and leasing adjustment within the voucher management system is January 28, 2022.
The prorations provided by the letter are summarized in the table below.
| 2022 CR (Jan. and Feb.) | 2022 Senate Approps. Bill | 2022 House Approps. Bill | |
| HAP | 98.5% | 100% | 100% |
| Administrative Fee | 84% | 93% | 90% |
The full letter can be found here.
On Jan. 5, HUD published a notice in the Federal Register titled “Regulatory and Administrative Requirement Waivers and Flexibilities Available to HUD Public Housing and Section 8 During CY 2022 and CY 2023 to Public Housing Agencies To Assist With Recovery and Relief Efforts on Behalf of Families Affected by Presidentially Declared Disasters.” The notice provides an expedited process for PHAs to apply for certain waivers and flexibilities when faced with a Presidentially Declared Disaster (PDD) for the calendar years (CYs) 2022 and 2023. The notice is effective from Jan. 1, 2022 to Dec. 31, 2023.
This notice lists the waivers and flexibilities that are available to PHAs, notes that it will consider certain exceptions, and provides instructions on how to submit waiver, flexibility, and exception requests. The following flexibilities and waivers may be requested (please note that the list below is summarized—see the full notice to read the complete descriptions of the waivers):
A PHA may also request an exception to a requirement that is not listed. HUD will consider these requests subject to statutory and regulatory limitations.
To request waivers, if in a Presidentially Declared Disaster area, a PHA should complete Appendix A of the notice and email the completed appendix with supporting documentation to PIH_Disaster_Relief@hud.gov.
The full notice can be accessed here.
On December 30, HUD’s Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD) issued a memo explaining the availability and extension of waivers of certain regulatory requirements associated with several CPD programs including the Continuum of Care (CoC), Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (YHDP), Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) Program, and Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA). The memo covers current grants and grants that have not yet been awarded. Waivers are to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and to facilitate assistance to eligible communities and households economically impacted by COVID-19. The waivers are extensions of previous waivers HUD issued due to the pandemic, set to expire on December 31, 2021. Not all pandemic-related waivers have been extended. Recipients must opt-in to use or continue to use these waivers. The memo also announces a simplified notification process for program recipients to use this waiver flexibly to expedite the delivery of assistance.
The memo lists available waivers and describes the procedure for using available waivers of program requirements. Grantees must mail or email notification to the CPD Director of the HUD Field Office serving the grantee to use one of the listed waivers. The email notification must be sent two days before the grantee anticipates using waiver flexibility, and include the following details: requestor’s name, title, and contact information; date on which the grantee anticipates first use of the waiver flexibility; and a list of the waiver flexibilities the grantee will use. The memo can be found here.
A new chapter for the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Landlord Strategy Guidebook has been published. The new chapter–titled “Landlord-Focused Customer Service“–discusses landlord service responsiveness, creating a landlord single point of contact, and creating a call center. The guidebook as a whole is meant to raise PHA awareness of strategies that they can employ to improve landlord participation in the HCV program.
The “Landlord-Focused Customer Service” chapter can be found here.
The HCV Landlords Strategy Guidebook can be found here.
HUD has released Notice PIH 2021-38 which removes the requirement that PHAs must request a new PHAS score from HUD in order to meet eligibility for the FFY 2021 High Performer Capital Fund Formula bonus. HUD will instead use FFY 2019 PHAS scores to determine FFY 2021 High Performers. PHAs may still request a PHAS score from HUD if they were non-high performers in FFY 2019, but believe they are now. The notice is titled “COVID-19 Statutory and Regulatory Amendment to PIH Notice 2021-14 (HA), Providing for the Release of Public Housing Assessment System Scores for Federal Fiscal Year 2019.”
HUD will host a webinar on Jan. 12, 2022 at 1:30 pm ET titled “HCV Utilization Webinar – Payment Standard Waiver and Two-Year Tool Overview.” The webinar will discuss best practices to maximize voucher utilization. The webinar will also discuss the new Fair Market Rent (FMR) waiver that will allow many PHAs to increase their payment standard to 120% of the FMR. (See NAHRO’s discussion of PIH 2021-34.) Finally, the webinar will discuss the Two-Year Tool and provide examples of how the tool can help program administrators manage their programs.
Registration for the webinar can be found here.
The NAHRO Blog: Legislative & Policy Updates from Washington, DC 