HUD PIH Holds Stakeholder Conference Call on Friday, April 17

On Friday, April 17, HUD’s Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) held a stakeholder call with PHAs where HUD officials reviewed the contents of PIH’s waiver notice. The notice (PIH 2020-05) is titled “COVID-19 Statutory and Regulatory Waivers for the Public Housing, Housing Choice Voucher, Indian Housing Block Grant and Indian Community Development Block Grant programs, Suspension of Public Housing Assessment System and Section Eight Management Assessment Program.” The officials on the call also promised to publish the slide deck used and to provide a recording of the call in the near future. Department officials from both the Public Housing and the Housing Choice Voucher programs listed the waivers that were available to PHAs and noted that the use of any of the waivers was voluntary. After listing the waivers, the HUD staff took questions from participants. During the course of questions, they noted that federal unemployment benefits should not be treated as income as they are sporadic and non-recurring. Answers to questions also touched on topics such as privacy laws and resident files, audit deadlines, repayment of HAP by landlords whose units are later found to have life-threatening deficiencies, and recertifications among other topics. The HUD PIH COVID-19 waiver notice may be found here. The National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials will let its members know when HUD posts a recording of the event.