We know time is valuable, and we will save you tons! NMA’s PIH Alert, one of our most helpful services for the affordable housing industry, allows public housing agencies (PHAs) and housing professionals to stay current with HUD’s new regulations, notices, and guidance—without having to worry about finding it yourself.

In this constantly changing industry, it is crucial that PHAs are always up to date and adhere to rules and standards, but this is not an easy task. There are so many HUD websites that are hard to navigate and very difficult to understand. That is why we do the job for you! Every day, we search through several housing industry websites and resources to provide you with all the information you need, saving you many hours of research.

When you subscribe to NMA's PIH Alert, you will receive a daily email with a brief summary of each new regulation, notice, guidance, tool, webcast statement, act of Congress, and everything else that involves the public housing and HCV programs as they are released. This summary also provides you the links to the relevant information for each item. Additionally, every Friday, you will receive “FAQ Friday,” a PIH Alert section that includes one frequently asked question (FAQ) regarding PIH program administration submitted by our subscribers.

Another great and very popular feature of our PIH Alert is a monthly email that summarizes the most important articles of the past four weeks, so we make sure you don’t miss anything. You will also have access to the PIH Alert archives when you need to refer to a past article.

Our customers, staff, trainers, and consultants go over the PIH Alert every day to get the latest housing industry updates as well. If you work in the affordable housing industry, you can’t miss out on the PIH Alert. Use your time wisely; we will do the hard work for you.

Community development and housing news for April 18, 2019

Breaking news

HUD announces disaster aid for storm victims in Nebraska and Iowa

Late Friday HUD posted two press releases announcing that it will speed federal disaster assistance to the states of Iowa and Nebraska and provide support to homeowners and low-income renters forced from their homes due to severe winter storms and flooding. Presidential disaster declarations allow HUD to offer foreclosure relief and other assistance to certain families living in impacted counties.

According to the press release, the disaster assistance will:

• Grant a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures of FHA-insured homes
• Make mortgage insurance available under HUD’s Section 203(h) program
• Make insurance available for both mortgages and home rehabilitation under HUD’s Section 203(k) program

Click here for more information about disaster resources.

Kamala Harris revives tax credit push to help people pay for housing costs

"Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is reviving her proposal to provide new tax credits to help families with high housing costs. The California senator on Tuesday will reintroduce the Rent Relief Act, which would establish refundable tax credits in cases when rent and utilities exceed 30 percent of a household’s income. She first introduced the legislation last July, with a handful of Senate Democrats as co-sponsors, including New York’s Kirsten Gillibrand, who is also running for president..." Read more

More money for Berkeley area, Sandy-impacted homeowners

"Berkeley area homeowners could benefit from the Murphy administration's plan to remove the cap on access to Sandy-related funds, allowing homeowners who have long been in limbo to complete construction on their primary homes. Additionally, those still impacted by Sandy will be able to get additional months of rental assistance, according to press release from the Murphy administration..." Read more

U.S. House passes five-year reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act

"On April 4, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Reauthorization of 2019 (H.R. 1585) on a 263 to 158 vote. The legislation would reauthorize VAWA for five-years and improve the program by expanding eligibility for assistance and increasing funding for grant programs utilized by state and local VAWA service providers..." Read more

House committee discusses permanently authorizing disaster recovery program

"On March 26, the U.S. House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Reform heard testimony on draft legislation to permanently authorize the Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program. The Reforming Disaster Recovery Act of 2019 would permanently authorize CDBG-DR as a part of the yearly appropriations process and bring clarity to how the program should be administered. CDBG-DR is used by state and local governments to address unmet needs for housing, infrastructure and economic development recovery in the wake of a presidentially-declared disaster..." Read more

What we're reading

Reversing the residual effects of redlining

"While systemic barriers still exist, local governments can play a pivotal role in reversing the effects of historical redlining and creating opportunity for their residents. Here are four ways local leaders can begin to map residual inequity and start healing processes in their communities..." Read more

Fighting bias, block by block

"The residue of those discriminatory practices lingers today, fueling stereotypes that seed the stigma attached to black people and black places. Research has shown the power of those stereotypes to shape one of the most fundamental decisions of our lives: where we make our homes. African Americans are more likely than any other group to live in segregated neighborhoods. That residential isolation persists across the social and economic spectrums, in cities large and small. And it is reinforced by prejudicial associations that are shocking to document..." Read more

Not trusting FEMA’s flood maps, more storm-ravaged cities set tougher rules

"In flood-prone regions of the country, a growing number of cities have lost confidence in the ability of the federal government's flood maps to recognize the increasing risks that come with global warming. From Houston to Baltimore to Cedar Falls, Iowa, and now Mexico Beach, Florida, local officials are going beyond the federal standards and have started to require homes in a much wider area—beyond the usual 100-year floodplain—to be built to higher flood-protection standards..." Read more

The crushing cost of rent should be 2020’s big issue

"It’s hard to remember the last time affordable rents received consistent national attention, but the tide is finally turning. In recent months, prominent presidential contenders — Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, and Elizabeth Warren — have proposed ambitious solutions, and are speaking substantively about the issue on the campaign trail. They shouldn’t be alone in this: According to the numbers, all 2020 presidential hopefuls would be wise to make it a top-tier priority..." Read more

The neighborhoods where housing costs devour budgets

"More than 10 percent of U.S. households spend at least half their total income on housing costs—far more than the one-third that financial experts advise as a maximum limit. These severely housing-burdened households can be rich or poor, but around half of them are located in neighborhoods where at least one neighbor in three is facing a similar housing burden, according to a CityLab analysis of U.S. Census data obtained from the National Historical Geographic Information System..." Read more

The history of redlining

"The history of redlining is best demonstrated in a map prepared by the United States Home Owner Loan Corporation (HOLC), one of the Roosevelt administration’s most successful programs designed to refinance Americans into sustainable mortgages. Millions of white Americans took advantage of the program and most saved their homes from foreclosure as a result. Black Americans who needed the program lost their homes, along with those white homeowners who lived in integrated neighborhoods..." Read more

Why high rents are a health care problem

"Commissioned by Enterprise Community Partners Inc., a national affordable housing nonprofit, the survey found that more than half of renters surveyed delayed health care because they couldn’t afford it, and 100 percent of medical professionals surveyed said they had dealt with patients in the past who expressed concerns and anxiety about affordable housing. When these doctors and nurses advised patients to reduce stress, 92 of them percent said financial issues were their biggest stress trigger..." Read more

Rural America faces a housing cost crunch

"The problem of housing affordability, long a concern in popular big cities, has moved to rural America.Nearly one-fourth of the nation’s most rural counties have seen a sizeable increase this decade in the number of households spending at least half their income on housing, a category the federal government calls 'severely cost-burdened.' Those counties, none with towns of more than 10,000 residents, have experienced housing cost increases significant enough to force families to scrimp on other necessities..." Read more

Doing the math on housing the homeless

"Housing prices are chronically unaffordable in many American cities. Most prominently, mega-cities like San Francisco and New York feature home prices that effectively price out poor and middle-income people from vast swathes of their environs; however, there are also plenty of mid-size cities that have less extreme affordability problems. Several strategies are frequently on the table to make housing more affordable to those of moderately low incomes. These include: (1) increasing allowed residential construction, (2) incentivizing housing by offering additional air/development rights, (3) subsidizing housing, (4) requiring the mandatory provision of affordable housing alongside market-rate development, and (5) increasing the amount of government-run housing..." Read more

How disasters wreak havoc on financial health and what we can do about it

"Natural disasters like Hurricane Florence lead to broad, and often substantial, negative impacts on financial health. In a new report, we find that these impacts vary by the magnitude of the disaster and affected populations and that negative impacts extend across most measures of financial health, including credit scores, debt in collections, bankruptcy, credit card debt, and mortgage delinquency and foreclosures. In many instances, these effects are substantial..." Read more

BangorHousing shows how small housing authorities can be more than property managers

"For more than a decade, the Urban Institute’s HOST Initiative (Housing Opportunities and Services Together) has partnered with housing authorities—mostly large, well-resourced agencies that serve thousands of households—to develop and test strategies for using housing as a platform for delivering wraparound services for their residents. Through this work, we’ve learned about the value of building on people’s strengths and using approaches that are trauma informed..." Read more

Even when you're an experienced multifamily owner/manager, the prospect of an MOR can be daunting. For newbies to PBRA, it's even more so! Getting audited is never fun but being prepared before it happens will help you and your staff feel more comfortable and increase your odds of a successful outcome.

• Tip #1: Audit your own files before HUD does

Try to run a review of your files that's as close to an actual MOR as possible. Are you complying with all HUD requirements? You'll need to check move-ins, interims, annuals, gross rent changes, and initial certifications conducted in the past 12 months. We suggest using the Form HUD 9834 Addendum A when self-auditing. This is the form HUD uses when auditing and allows you to know if you are falling short on any HUD requirements. Focus your internal quality control on files that are most likely to have mistakes: most common files an auditor will chose include, large assets, large medical deductions, and multiple income sources, as well as your most recent move-in.

• Tip #2: Do a companywide forms audit

In addition to auditing your own files, this is the best time to do a companywide audit of your forms to ensure they are up-to-date. You should make sure all the information is still correct and nothing is outdated. If you find anything that's incorrect, update your forms to meet current standards and practices. Not only will this help keep the company forms updated, but it will also make certain the whole company is ready when an MOR comes.

• Tip #3: Do a physical assessment of your properties

After doing an audit of your paperwork, it is important to get an inspector to evaluate the properties. During this time, check to see if there are any damages to the sites. If there are, make the necessary arrangements to get them fixed before the MOR. This will make sure the properties are up to code and help the audit process go more smoothly. (If you need help looking for an inspector, we do offer UPCS inspections.)

With a bit of preparation, you can get through an MOR with flying colors. Just make sure to review your files, forms, and properties before your MOR and make any changes or updates to items that need to be fixed.

Not sure if you're compliant? We can help! We offer on- and off-site MOR readiness reviews and file corrections and UPCS inspections. Our new class, MOR Prep, is also an excellent option for ensuring you understand the MOR process and how to navigate it successfully.