HUD

New HUD Guidance on the Review Process for Assessments of Fair Housing

~ Jenny Hsu

Last week, HUD published a new document that will assist program participants in understanding how the Department will conduct its review of an Assessment of Fair Housing (AFH) and apply the two standards established in Section 5.162 of the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) Final Rule. HUD will not accept an AFH if:

  1. The AFH is inconsistent with fair housing or civil rights requirements; or
  2. The AFH is substantially incomplete.

The document also describes the general principles that will guide HUD reviewers as they apply the two standards and additional information related to HUD’s review. Also included are examples of reasons that HUD will not accept an AFH, an explanation of why the AFH would be substantially incomplete or inconsistent with fair housing or civil rights requirements, and the corrective actions HUD will seek.

Visit the NAHRO Resource Center for more information on the AFFH rule and requirements.

HUD Awards 10 Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grants

~ Jenny Hsu

On June 28, HUD awarded $8 million in Choice Neighborhoods Planning grants to 10 communities across the nation. The Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI) helps struggling neighborhoods with severely distressed public housing or HUD-assisted housing by comprehensively investing in the community’s housing, residents and neighbors. Planning Grants, which assist communities in developing their comprehensive neighborhood revitalization plan or “Transformation Plan,” is one of two types of grants offered through the Initiative. Implementation Grants, which support communities that are ready to implement their Transformation Plan, are also funded through this program.

HUD is awarding Choice Neighborhood Planning funds to the following grantees:

  • Asbury Park Housing Authority, New Jersey
  • Housing Authority of the City of Brownsville, Texas
  • Greater Dayton Premier Management, Ohio
  • Louisville Metro Housing Authority, Kentucky
  • Metropolitan Development and Housing Authority (Nashville, Tennessee)
  • City of Newport News, Virginia
  • City of Phoenix, Arizona
  • Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
  • Sanford Housing Authority, Florida
  • City of Shreveport, Louisiana

Prior to the funding announcement for the FY 2015/FY 2016 Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant last November, Planning Grant funds could only be used for the creation of a Transformation Plan. HUD has now introduced a new component called Planning and Action Grants that will allow communities to use grants of up to $2 million over three years to demonstrate a commitment to “doing while planning.”

During the planning process, communities will identify Action Activities to be carried out during the latter portion of the grant period that must build upon the planning for the target housing and neighborhood. Eligible Action Activities may include reclaiming and recycling vacant property into community gardens, pocket parks, farmers’ markets, or land banking; beautification, placemaking, and community arts projects; homeowner and business façade improvement programs; neighborhood broadband/Wi-Fi; fresh food initiatives; and gap financing for economic development projects. The inspiration for this new component comes from the 63 previously awarded Planning Grantees that showed “tangible, early actions help sustain community energy, attract new resources, and build momentum to turn that plan into reality.”

Read comprehensive summaries of the 10 Choice Neighborhoods Planning grants here.

Additional New Proposed Administrative Fee Links

~ Tushar Gurjal

On July 6, in an email to Public Housing Agency (PHA) Executive Directors, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Castro Ramirez announced a proposed administrative fee HUD webpage that consolidates information on the new proposed administrative fee formula.

The page includes the following resources:

HUD’s page on the new proposed rule administrative fee formula can be read here.

New Administrative Fee Formula Data Analysis Tool Posted

~ Tushar Gurjal

As we mentioned and summarized in our earlier post, HUD has published a revised version of the new administrative fee formula for the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program. The proposed revision to the new administrative fee formula has now been officially posted to the Federal Register. Comments on the revision to the new administrative fee will be due on October 4, 2016.

HUD has also posted a new administrative fee formula data tool. By entering your PHA code, you can compare how much you would have been eligible for under the new formula to the actual amount you received in 2015. You can also adjust the proration for 2015 to create a more apples-to-apples comparison (i.e., compare full eligibility under the current formula to full eligibility under the revised new formula in Calendar Year 2015).

NAHRO will continue to analyze the new formula and bring you the latest analysis and updates.

You can find the new revision to the proposed administrative fee formula here.

You can find HUD’s PHA Admin Fee Tool 2015 here.

[Edit: We have now sent a Direct News item on the new proposed administrative fee formula (members only).]

HUD Publishes Revised New Administrative Fee Formula

~ Tushar Gurjal

HUD has published its revision of the new administrative fee formula for the Housing Choice Voucher Program. The new formula would calculate administrative fees on the basis of six variables:

  1. Program size;
  2. Wage rates;
  3. Benefit load;
  4. Percent of households with earned income;
  5. New admissions rate; and
  6. Percent of assisted households that live a significant distance from the PHA’s headquarters.

The PHA’s fees would be calculated yearly and then have a revised inflation factor applied to the calculated fee.

HUD has made three major changes to the prior formula:

  1. For PHAs in metropolitan areas, the wage index formula variable is based on the average local government wage rate for the PHA’s metropolitan Core Based Statistical Area (CBSA), rather than that average local government wage rate for all of the metropolitan counties in the PHA’s state;
  2. The health insurance cost index formula has been replaced with a new “benefit load” formula variable, which is designed to measure the variation in costs for all benefits that are paid for HCV employees, not just health insurance costs [In NAHRO’s comments we wrote the health insurance cost index metric does not “accurately (capture) all benefit costs” and recommended “(a) proxy that measures and takes into account these higher PHA costs”]; and
  3. The small area rent ratio (SARR) variable has been removed from the proposed formula [In NAHRO’s comments, we stated that “the small area rent ratio does not appropriately measure the actual costs of helping voucher holders to access high opportunity neighborhoods”].

NAHRO is still in the preliminary stages of analyzing the formula. Additional details and analysis will be forthcoming.

The full notice can be read here.

NAHRO’s comments on the previous formula can be read here.

HUD Awards $5 Million in Extraordinary Administrative Fees for HUD-VASH Program

~ Tushar Gurjal

Today, HUD published a list of forty-two PHAs that received a combined total of $5 million in extraordinary administrative fees for their HUD-VASH programs. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Lourdes Castro-Ramirez for Public and Indian Housing stated that “[t]hese housing authorities are going above and beyond in the movement to end veteran homelessness.”

The funds were awarded to agencies that are taking aggressive efforts in housing veterans. Activities that these agencies are performing and will continue to perform with these funds include marketing campaigns to recruit landlords; hiring temporary staff to provide housing search assistance; expediting document processing; inspecting units; issuing vouchers; and executing leases.

Read HUD’s full press release here.

HUD Opens FY 2016 Continuum of Care Competition

~ Jenny Hsu

Yesterday, HUD published the FY 2016 Continuum of Care (CoC) Program Competition Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA), making $1.9 billion available in funds available for continuums across the nation. For this competition, the total amount of funding available may not cover all anticipated eligible renewal projects and HUD continues to require CoCs to rank their projects into two tiers (Tier 1 and Tier 2). The submission deadline for this competition is Wednesday, September 14, 2016.

A few notable changes to this year’s NOFA include:

  • Changes to Tiers: Funding for Tier 1 this year is equal to 93 percent of the CoC’s Annual Renewal Demand (ARD). This is an increase from 85 percent last year, which means CoCs will have a the better opportunity to protect those higher priority projects and fewer projects will be in jeopardy of cut funds.
  • New Policy Priority: Creating a systematic response to homelessness is a new policy priority this year. According to a recent CoC Competition Focus message from HUD, having a systemic response to homelessness requires establishing a coordinated entry system, cohesive planning by the entire community, making assistance appealing and accessible, and using system performance measures.
  • Additional Points: System performance and reallocation will be worth more points in this NOFA. Beginning this year, CoCs are now required to report their system performance measures into HUD’s Homeless Data Exchange (HDX) by August 1, 2016. For this competition, a CoC could receive up to 10 points for attaching their system performance measures report to it’s application.

HUD’s announcement for the competition also included a message encouraging CoCs to reallocate funds from lower performing transitional housing projects serving households fleeing domestic violence to other types of projects serving people fleeing domestic violence. This would “ensure that CoC-funded projects serving people fleeing domestic violence are as effective as possible.” HUD will soon release further guidance on this issue.