HUD

New Proposed Administrative Fee HUD FAQ posted

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

HUD has posted a new proposed administrative fee frequently asked questions (FAQ) document on its Housing Choice Voucher New Administrative Fee Formula Proposed Rule webpage. The new FAQ answers four questions:

  1. How is the benefit load calculated?
  2. How will the formula be applied to MTW sites?
  3. How are “per unit fees” and “total funding” calculated under the proposed rule formula and the existing formula?
  4. What does HUD mean by fee “received” under the current formula? How does proration fit in to the comparisons between the proposed formula and the existing formula?

Read the FAQ here.

For additional HUD analysis tools of the new proposed administrative fee formula, see our prior post.

New CRS Report on Federal Spending Trends

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

The Congressional Research Service recently created a report titled “Federal Benefits and Services for People with Low Income: Overview of Spending Trends, FY2008-FY2015.” The report is the latest in a series that attempts to identify and discuss programs and services oriented toward low-income populations, while focusing on aggregate spending trends.

The report contains some interesting charts that show how spending on housing compares to other categories of federal spending. The chart below from page 6 of the report shows spending by category. Notice that health care spending dwarfs the other categories, while “housing and development” is in the middle.

Federal-Spending-Chart-FY2015-CRS-Report

Read the full report here.

HUD Offering $2 million in ROSS Grants to Help Students Navigate College and Continuing Education Financial Aid Assistance

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

On August 2, HUD announced $2 million in grants to “help low-income families and young people apply for federal aid for college and other post-secondary educational opportunities.” The program is being funded through the Resident Opportunities and Self Sufficiency (ROSS) Program. The program will allow up to six public housing agencies (PHAs) to support “Education Navigators.”

HUD’s ROSS for Education Program is known as Project SOAR (Students + Opportunities + Achievements = Results).  It will “support hundreds of young people between the ages of 15 – 20 to apply for [the] U.S. Department of Education’s Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).” HUD is also working with the Department of Education to share data about FAFSA completion and is working with the White House’s Social and Behavioral Sciences Team to develop methods to increase completion rates of the FAFSA among students with housing assistance.

Read HUD’s full press release here.

Read HUD’s Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) here.

Read more about how behavioral economics can be used to “nudge” applicants receiving housing assistance to seek Federal Student Aid here.

Administration Announces Steep Decline in Veteran Homelessness

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

Today–HUD, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) announced that the number of veterans experiencing homelessness in the United States has declined significantly since 2010. According to HUD’s Point-in-Time (PIT) estimates, there has been a 47 percent decrease in the number of veterans experiencing homelessness since 2010 and a 17 percent decrease since 2015.

HUD believes that this decline is a function of partnerships between HUD and VA, USICH, and other partners at all levels of government (i.e., federal, state, and local) and the HUD-VASH program. The partnerships were a result of Opening Doors, the federal strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness.

Read HUD’s full press release here.

Read more about Opening Doors here.

View HUD’s PIT Estimates of Veteran Homelessness in the U.S. here.

Better Know a HUD Official

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R) has published a message from Richard Green, Senior Advisor on Housing Finance in Edge, their online magazine. He makes five points, but there are two that are particularly interesting (and are related to the Federal Government) and are reproduced below:

The federal government relies too much on obsolete technology.

. . . Within HUD, for example, the FHA program relies on systems that are driven by coding in COBOL, a mainframe (!) language developed in 1959 (!!). Because almost no one uses COBOL anymore, our university computer science departments don’t train students in its use. As COBOL programmers retire, it will become impossible to find people to maintain the system.

On a more personal level, I was stunned to learn that my HUD PC had a 32-bit operating system in a world where 64-bit system have been around for PCs for 13 years. As a practical matter, 32 bit systems are limited in the amount of data they can analyze, whereas 64 bit systems are nearly unlimited. Many doing HUD work rely on large data sets (for example the Public Use Microsamples of the Census and the American Community Survey). The current standard for operating systems makes it relatively easy to use these datasets; the old standard requires compromises.

Few people know who the third most powerful person is in the Federal Government.

My guess is that the name Shaun Donovan is not well known outside the Beltway. But pretty much nothing gets done without the approval of the director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Assuming the most powerful person in the Federal Government  is the President, and third most powerful person is OMB Director, then who’s the second most powerful person? The Speaker of the House? The Senate Majority Leader? The Vice-President?

Read the full message here.

 

HUD Revises Schedule for PHA Operating Subsidy Revisions

~ Georgi Banna

On July 20, HUD released an updated PIH Notice 2016-10 REV.1 “Public Housing Operating Subsidy Eligibility Calculations for Calendar Year 2016” that contains the 2016 Revision Schedule for the HUD-52723 (Opfund Subsidy) and HUD 52722 (UEL). The revised notice contains the revised schedule for the submission of PHA revisions. The time period for PHA submission of revisions has been extended for PHAs.

2016 Revisions Schedule:

Items: Finish lines:
PHA revisions due to FOs. 8/15/2016, COB Mon., Aug 15th
FOs due to FMD 8/29/2016, COB Mon., Aug. 29th
FMD publishes Final Eligibility Report 9/28/2016, COB Wed., Sept. 28th
Final Obligations before Nov. 1st 11/1/2016, COB Mon. Oct. 31

The revised PIH notice is available on the NAHRO Public Housing Resource Center (Login Required) and the HUD website.

MTW Research Advisory Committee – Conference Calls

~ Tushar Gurjal

The Moving to Work (MTW) Research Advisory Committee will be holding two public conference calls. The MTW Research Advisory Committee will advise HUD on how to move forward with the MTW expansion, especially with respect to specific policies to test in the expansion. The calls are open to the public, but members of the public must register to provide comment.

The calls are at the following dates and times [edit: the calls are until 4 pm; previously this post stated they were until 3 pm]:

July 26, 2016 – Increasing Housing Choice for Low-Income Families (1 pm to 4 pm); and

July 28, 2016 – Cost-Effectiveness and Incentives to Increase Self-Sufficiency for Families with Children (1 pm to 4 pm).

Use the following numbers to call-in:

  • United States –  (800) 230-1766;
  • Outside the United States – (612) 288-0329; and
  • Persons with hearing impairments – (800) 977-8339 and providing the FRS operator with the conference call toll-free number: (800) 230-1766.

To register, please click here.

Additional information on the call agendas can be found here.

Our prior blog post on these calls can be found here.

HUD Partners with Comcast to Expand Internet Essentials Program

~ Tushar Gurjal

On July 15, HUD announced that it was teaming up with Comcast to expand Comcast’s Internet Essentials program. After this expansion, all public housing and HUD-assisted residents that are within Comcast’s service area are eligible to apply for Internet Essentials. Internet Essentials is Comcast’s high-speed internet adoption program for low-income families. An estimated 2 million HUD-assisted homes will now be eligible for low-cost internet service.

HUD’s full press release can be read here.

HR 3700 Sent to President for Signature

~ Georgi Banna

In a huge victory for NAHRO and its members, the Senate today approved the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act (HR 3700) unanimously by a voice vote, sending the bill to the President for his signature.
The bill was approved using a process known as “hot-lining”, a procedure to quickly pass non-controversial legislation. It was passed by the House unanimously on February 2, 2016.

“NAHRO commends the House and the Senate for their work on this critical legislation. With the President’s signature, housing authorities across the country will be able to do their jobs more efficiently and serve their residents and communities better,” said NAHRO President Steve Merritt.

NAHRO thanks everyone involved in the passage of this important legislation, including legislators and their staff, NAHRO membership, and partner housing advocacy groups.

“This is a big deal. The passage of HR 3700 marks the culmination of years of work by members of Congress and their staff, NAHRO members and staff, and the housing community at large. It demonstrates that housing reform is a priority and can be accomplished, and that the legislative process does still work,” said NAHRO’s Acting CEO John Bohm.