New Voucher Reserve Reporting Requirements for MTW Agencies

By: Tushar Gurjal, Senior Policy Manager

On April 16, HUD published a notice titled “Voucher Management System Reporting Requirements for Moving to Work Public Housing Agencies” [Notice PIH 2010-16 (HA)]. The notice discusses new reporting requirements around reserves for Moving to Work (MTW) agencies. It is effective for the “June 30, 2024 calendar year end date reporting cycle” and applies to MTW agencies that have voucher programs. All MTW agencies must report their planned uses of Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program reserves in the Voucher Management System (VMS) on a quarterly basis.

To appropriately report uses of the HCV reserve, MTW PHAs must refer to Tab 2 of VMS. In Tab 2, in the section titled “Other-Unspent Funds,” PHAs must report up to 11 distinct obligations for future expenditures. Relevant definitions for a subset of these distinct obligations include the following:

• Funds Committed –  the amount of HCV funds that a PHA is separating in anticipation of an obligation for future eligible MTW activities;
• Type of Commitment – the specific plan that details the fund commitment (e.g., Board Resolution, 5-Year Capital Plan, Annual MTW Plan, etc.);
• Funds Obligated – the total amount from the commitment that the PHA will dedicate to a specific eligible MTW activity;
• Type of Obligation – The binding agreement that obligates the fund to the activity (e.g., an executed contract, a purchase order, a service order, etc.). Some MTW eligible activities may not require a contract (e.g., a Board Resolution).

Full descriptions of the obligations can be found in the full notice, while additional detail may be found in the VMS User’s Manual. Each MTW PHA must report the status of their obligations at least once a quarter and if an agency does not have a commitment, obligation, or reserve, a “0” must be entered into the first field of the first activity under the “Other-Unspent Funds” section of VMS.

The notice supplies the following table indicating the schedule for reporting obligations.

The full notice can be found here.