HUD's notice (2012-19) provides information and instructions on the funding process for tenant protection vouchers for certain at-risk households in low-vacancy areas, as provided for in the “Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2012” (PL 112-55), referred to hereafter as “the 2012 Appropriations Act,” enacted on November 18, 2011.
Date of Publication: March 19, 2012
View the notice here.
HUD recently issued its NOFA for the Performance-Based Contract Administrator Program for the Administration of Project-Based Section 8 Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) Contracts. HUD’s estimated expense for the PBCA program is approximately $260 million for FY 2012. HUD’s NOFA provides applicant information, submission deadlines, funding criteria and other requirements for this Program including the availability of an annual contributions contract (ACC) with a public housing agency (PHA) for each of the 42 States for which an ACC has not previously been awarded, to provide for the administration of project-based Section 8 HAP contracts for Section 8 projects located in the 42 States identified in Appendix A to HUD’s NOFA.
On Friday, March 16th HUD held a webcast titled “PBCA NOFA Q&A” which is available at: http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/press/multimedia/videos. During the webcast the Department announced that HUD revised its application receipt deadline, which is now set for 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, June 11, 2012. Other changesdiscussed by HUD during the webcast include a technical correction regarding HUD’s PBCA application rating elements and their tie-breaking scoring methodology. HUD officials also spent considerable amounts of time clarifying aspects of the PBCA NOFA regarding crossing State lines, and in-State applicants.
The ACC includes Exhibit A, section 4 of which includes a detailed treatment of the Administrative Fee. Section 5, “Performance Requirements Summary” (PRS), includes a table that specifies the Acceptable Quality Level (AQL) for performance of each of the 8 Performance-Based Tasks (PBTs), the Performance-Based Allocation Percentage, the method used to evaluate performance, and the frequency with which HUD will assess and pay the Basic Administrative Fee Earned.
After publication on its website of an Invitation for Submission of Applications on February 25, 2011, HUD awarded an ACC to a PHA for each of the following 11 states: South Dakota, Iowa, Puerto Rico, Vermont, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Maine, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and the United States Virgin Islands. HUD now seeks to award an ACC to a PHA for each of the remaining 42 states through this program NOFA.
More detailed information about the PBCA NOFA is avaiable at: HUD Publishes Long Awaited FY 2012 Performance Based Contract Administration (PBCA) NOFA
Summary: The FY 2011 appropriations law carried over from 2010 to 2011 the provision that HUD may add an additional three Moving-to-Work (MTW) agencies with the same eligibility criteria (listed below). Additionally, because the Department filled only two of the three authorized slots made available pursuant to the 2010 Act, the Department will solicit applications for one remaining MTW agency authorized in 2010, and the three agencies authorized for 2011 under this notice.
PHAs' applications in response to HUD's notice must be received by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Wednesday, June 27, 2012. Each MTW PHA’s contract agreement with HUD will run until the end of its 2018 fiscal year regardless of the date it received the MTW designation. There is no guarantee that a PHA’s MTW designation will be authorized beyond the expiration of these Agreements.
PHAs applying for MTW status are subject to the following requirements:
(1) The PHA is currently designated as a High Performing agency under the Public Housing Assessment System (PHAS), and
(2) The PHA administers no more than 5,000 aggregate housing vouchers and public housing units.
The statutory purpose of the MTW demonstration is to give PHAs and HUD the flexibility to design and test various approaches for providing and administering housing assistance that:
(1) Reduce cost and achieve greater cost effectiveness in federal expenditures;
(2) Give incentives to families4 with children where the head of household is working; is seeking work; or is preparing for work by participating in job training, educational programs, or programs that assist people to obtain employment and become economically self-sufficient; and
(3) Increase housing choices for eligible low-income families.
Section 204 of the 1996 Act also requires MTW agencies to establish a reasonable rent policy designed to encourage employment and self-sufficiency by participating families.
Additionally, applicants must meet the eligibility criteria set forth by HUD and be willing to test policy priorities defined by the Department. In addition to detailed threshold requirements listed in the notice, each PHA applicant must test two priority policy initiatives if it receives an MTW designation. HUD’s priority policy initiatives are:
(1) Rent Reform Controlled Study – HUD is interested in rigorously testing the effects of alternate rent strategies. Alternate rent strategies are defined as variations of the tenant rent calculations required by statute in order to promote one of the MTW statutory objectives given on page 2 of this notice. By submitting an application in response to this notice, applicants certify an alternate rent strategy will be designed and implemented via MTW within two years of the execution of an MTW Agreement with HUD. As part of the study, applicants agree to institute a random assignment process for participants to treatment and control groups to address research standards.
(2) Applicants must select one of the following:
a. Housing Choice Mobility Demonstration – To further the third statutory objective of the MTW demonstration, increasing housing choice, applicants will design and test an activity that uses MTW flexibility to increase housing choices for residents through mobility programs. An increase in housing choice is defined as providing more types and locations for assisted housing in areas where affordable housing may not be many, and may entail geographic mobility programs that result in residents moving to more racially or economically diverse neighborhoods.
The study may encompass public housing, vouchers, or both and may be a subset. The study does not need to encompass the PHA’s entire public housing and/or HCV portfolio, but if a subset of the portfolio is used, HUD requires that the PHA establish statistically valid treatment and control groups that will enable a rigorous evaluation of the activity’soutcomes.
b. Detailed MTW Block Grant Evaluation – MTW agencies have the ability to combine funds in an “MTW block grant” as set forth in the Definition of Terms in the notice. PHA applicants will be required to propose and design a method that measures and evaluates those aspects of the MTW block grant that result in quantifiable cost savings and other direct measurable outcomes, including additional families served and other quantifiable outputs that support the MTW statutory objectives. The MTW block grant evaluation strategy should make adjustments for any cost increases incurred as a result of the rent reform controlled study and the costs of the MTW block grant evaluation itself, so that an accurate picture of cost savings from streamlining initiatives can be provided.
Date of Publication: February 28, 2012
View the notice here.
Summary: HUD's notice (PIH Notice 2012-15) provides guidance on actions PHAs administering the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program may take to streamline administrative practices and reduce administrative costs.
Date of Publication: February 27, 2012
View the notice here.
Summary: HUD's notice (PIH Notice 2012-12) provides guidance on implementing the provision in HUD’s FFY 2012 Appropriations, P.L. 112-55, that limits the use of FFY 2012 Section 8 Tenant-Based Rental Assistance and Section 9 appropriations to pay salaries to public housing agency (PHA) employees. This limitation applies to all PHA employees, including chief executive officers, other officials, and any other employees. NAHRO's Direct News coverage (February 24, 2012) titled, "HUD Issues Guidance on Executive Compensation Restrictions" provides additional details and analysis of HUD's notice.
Date of Publication:
View the notice here.
Summary: HUD's notice (PIH Notice 2012-11) applies to PHAs that administer the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV), Project-Based Vouchers (PBV) and/or Project-Based Certificates/(PBC) and Five-Year Mainstream (MS5) programs. This notice does not cover the public housing program or the Section 8 Moderate Rehabilitation program. Please note that MS5 vouchers have not been included in prior notices; however, these vouchers are now included in HCV funding appropriations, but are still reported separately under section 14.879 (Mainstream Vouchers) of the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance.
Exceptions to Eligibility for HCV transfers. The Department will consider approving voluntary partial transfers only in the following cases: (1) the transfer is for the purpose of developing PBV units in an area of low poverty concentration; (2) the transfer is to a state or regional PHA; or (3) for a compelling business reason. These exceptions do not apply to consolidations.
Date of Publication:
View the notice here.
Summary: HUD's notice (PIH Notice 2012-10) explains the procedures public housing agencies (PHAs) are required to use for verifying social security numbers, social security benefits of applicants, participants and household members at the time of application for rental housing assistance programs and during mandatory reexamination of household income, as well as the procedures for effective use of EIV’s Identity Verification Report to reduce subsidy payment
and administrative errors. Similar guidance was issued under notice PIH-2010-03. HUD's notice supersedes the aforementioned notice.
HUD's notice also provides guidance related to the recent changes made to 24 CFR §5.216, 24 CFR §5.218, and new verification requirements at 24 CFR §5.233, in accordance with the Final Rule: Refinement of Income and Rent Determination in Public and Assisted Housing Programs: Implementation of the Enterprise Income Verification System-Amendments, effective January 31, 2010, as published at 74 FR 68924, on December 29, 2009. In accordance with the directions of the Office of the Federal Register, the December 29, 2009, final rule, because it is the later published rule, supersedes the January 27, 2009, final rule, which was also effective on January 31, 2010. Accordingly, only the regulatory amendments of the December 29, 2009, final rule are effective and applicable.
Date of Publication: February 14, 2012
View the notice here. View the related Sample SSA SSN assigment letter here.
Summary: HUD's Notice (PIH Notice 2012-9) implements the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program funding provisions of the ―Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2012‖ (PL 112-55), enacted on November 18, 2011. The 2012 Act establishes the allocation methodology for calculating housing assistance payments (HAP) renewal funds, new incremental vouchers and administrative fees.
Date of Publication: February 8, 2012
View the notice here.
Summary: HUD’s notice explains the procedures PHAs are required to implement to deal with families with deceased household members. The implementation of the procedures outlined in this notice will ensure that PHAs successfully submit accurate data to HUD via the Public and Indian Housing Information Center (PIC) and that PHAs do not make subsidy overpayments on behalf of deceased single member households. Where overpayments have been made, the PHA will recoup the overpayment from the landlord/owner of the rental property under the programs noted in Section 2 of this notice, with the exception of the Public Housing program. HUD’s notice supersedes PIH Notices 2010-50 and 2010-09
HUD's Notice applies to the following HUD-PIH rental assistance programs: Public Housing, Section 8 Moderate Rehabilitation, Project-Based Voucher, Project-Based Certificate; and Housing Choice Voucher programs.
Date of Publication: January 31, 2012
View the notice here.
Summary: The purpose of HUD's Notice is to remind PHAs of the regulatory provision regarding how the value of a home purchased under the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) homeownership option (24 CFR 982 Subpart M) is treated for the purpose of determining the family’s annual income. The rule (24 CFR 5.603(b) Net Family Assets. (4)) exempts the home purchased with voucher assistance from being counted as an asset for the first 10 years after the closing date. HUD issued the final rule on September 12, 2000. PHAs and industry professionals need to be aware that the exemption terminates after a family’s 10th year of participation in the program. The Notice provides guidance on including the value of the home in “net family assets” starting in the eleventh year following the purchase of the home. The Notice also establishes safe harbors that a PHA may rely upon to determine the cash value of real estate purchased under the homeownership option.
Date of Publication: January 27, 2012
View the notice here.
