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HUD’s Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) posted the 2018 administrative fee tables for the voucher program. As a document accompanying the tables explains, there are two fee rates for each PHA, Column A and Column B. As usual, the Column A rate applies to the first 7,200 unit months leased in calendar year (CY) 2018, and the Column B rate applies to all remaining unit months leased. These fees apply to PHA-owned units as well as to non-PHA-owned units. As the document also explains:

• PIH will once again follow a “hold harmless” rule. So PHAs that would otherwise have seen their fee rates go down in 2018 will receive the 2017 rates instead.
• The fee rates for each PHA are those rates covering the areas in which each PHA has the greatest proportion of its participants. A PHA with participants in more than one fee area may request that the PIH office establish a blended fee rate schedule that will consider proportionately all areas in which participants are located. Once a blended rate schedule is calculated, it will be used to determine the PHA’s fee eligibility for all quarters of CY 2018. A PHA that received a blended fee rate schedule for 2017 will not receive it automatically for 2018. Instructions for applying and the deadline date for submitting requests will be detailed in the 2018 HCV funding implementation notice.
• A PHA that operates over multiple counties may request higher administrative fees. To request higher fees, a PHA must submit specific financial documents to the Financial Management Center (FMC). Documents, submission requirements, and the deadline date for submitting requests will be detailed in the upcoming implementation notice.
• Current administrative fee disbursements are based on the most recent leasing data available and an estimated proration. PHAs should not assume that the fees actually earned for CY 2018 will match the funds being disbursed. Each PHA’s fee eligibility will be calculated after the Voucher Management System (VMS) data for each quarter is available. Each PHA’s fees will be prorated if necessary to ensure that fees granted do not exceed appropriated funds.
• Due to the new billing requirements under the final portability rule, receiving PHAs must calculate the lesser of 80% of the initial PHA’s column B administrative fee rate (then prorated to the national proration level) or 100% of their own column B administrative fee rate (then prorated to the national proration level). The PHA may use a national proration rate of 77% for CY 2018 billings. Going forward, although the national proration level will change, the “lesser of” calculation provided in the final portability rule will continue. An example of the prorated calculation is provided.
• In addition to the voucher program, the 2018 administrative fee rates apply to the Moderate Rehabilitation program and the Five-Year Mainstream program.

You’ll find links to the 2018 administrative fee tables and the document that accompanies them on the HCV home page.

On Friday in the Federal Register, HUD’s Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) published several technical corrections and clarifications to the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) provisions of the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act (HOTMA) it had issued on January 18. These changes are in part based on public comments from the first notice. In brief, the corrections and clarifications are as follows:

• The original notice used the phrase ‘‘50 percent or more’’ to define a level of control that constitutes a controlling interest and would thus indicate PHA ownership. The threshold for control should be ‘‘more than 50 percent’’ rather than ‘‘50 percent or more.’’
• The original notice inadvertently excluded from the list of excepted units those units that have received assistance under Section 201 of the Housing and Community Development Amendments of 1978. Today’s notice adds the Flexible Subsidy program in both lists.
• The original document inadvertently referred to the ‘‘site of the original public housing development’’ instead of ‘‘site of the original development.’’ To avoid any indication that this requirement is only applicable to former public housing units as opposed to all the covered forms of HUD assistance, ‘‘public housing’’ is removed from this part.
• The original guidance states that ‘‘if the FSS family fails to successfully complete the FSS contract of participation or supportive services objective and consequently is no longer eligible for the supportive services, the family must vacate the unit…and the PHA shall cease paying housing assistance payments on behalf of the ineligible family.’’ To avoid misinterpretation that could imply that a PHA could, under HOTMA, establish a supportive services exception based exclusively on participation in FSS, rather than in combination with another supportive services option where participation is voluntary, and to avoid being misconstrued that this conflicts with current FSS requirements, which do not allow termination from the housing assistance program for failure to complete the FSS contract of participation, HUD has amended this language to eliminate the ambiguities.
• The definition of new construction units was previously inconsistent in the January 18 guidance, and has been updated to be both correct and consistent in sections referring to project-based voucher (PBV) assistance.
• HUD stated in the original document that in order to avail itself of the exemption of the competitive award of PBVs, the PHA must “be planning rehabilitation or construction on the project with a minimum of $25,000 per unit in hard costs.” However, because this would not be applicable in a situation where the PHA is replacing a public housing site or property, or a site with PHA-owned or controlled existing housing, several corrections to Section H of the notice have been made.
• Other typographical errors have also been corrected, as specified in today’s notice.

In a separate correction entry for the January 18 notice, PIH also noted that the original document had been published in the Proposed Rules section of the Federal Register, when it should have appeared in the Rules section. The effective date for the original notice—April 18, 2017—remains unchanged.

Got questions about HOTMA? All of NMA's HCV classes have been updated for the new payment standard rules. Register at least 45 days in advance for most seminars and you’ll receive a 10 percent discount. (The discount does not apply to seminars hosted by housing authorities or associations.)

HUD has posted Notice PIH 2017-08, Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 Guidance. The 52-page notice is dated May 19. While the guidance does not contain any major changes from the VAWA 2013 final rule, it includes a number of useful examples and scenarios to assist PHAs in implementation of the rule. The notice is applicable to the public housing and HCV programs, including the project-based voucher (PBV) and moderate rehabilitation programs.

Here are a few examples of guidance from the notice:

• A list of adverse screening factors which might be the direct result of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking
• A detailed description of the certification and documentation process
• A summary of policy requirements and a 5-page appendix detailing necessary PHA policies and procedures
• Instructions for customizing the notice of occupancy rights
• A ten-page section on requirements for emergency transfer plans
• A clarification of the VAWA 2013 provision for establishing eligibility following bifurcation of a lease. This provision applies only to mixed families in which the victim has not contended eligible immigration status
• A six-page model owner notification. Use of an owner notification letter is optional, as PHAs may instead rely on VAWA information included in the HAP contract.

In a related development, HUD has released translated versions of the four forms and model notices published in December 2016 for VAWA 2013 implementation. Each of the forms has been translated into 11 languages (Armenian, Cambodian, Creole, Japanese, Korean, Lao, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish, Thai, and Vietnamese).

The translated documents include (links to English versions):

• HUD-5380, Notice of Occupancy Rights under the Violence Against Women Act
• HUD-5381, Model Emergency Transfer Plan for Victims of Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, or Stalking
• HUD-5382, Certification of Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, or Stalking, and Alternate Documentation (replaces form HUD-50066)
• HUD-5383, Emergency Transfer Request for Certain Victims of Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, or Stalking

You’ll find links to all of the translated documents on this page at HUDCLIPS.

Yesterday HUD’s Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) issued Notice PIH 2017-07 to provide guidance on funding for the housing choice voucher (HCV) program for calendar year 2017. The notice discusses eligibility for potential shortfall funding as well as calculation of administrative fees.

The notice explains that HUD is currently operating under a continuing resolution (CR) which provides funding at 2016 levels. The CR will remain in effect until another CR is enacted, an appropriations bill is enacted, or April 28, 2017.

Based on possible funding scenarios if a full-year CR is enacted, or if an appropriations act is enacted at either the House or Senate proposed levels, a deeper HAP proration than previously experienced may occur.

Below are a few highlights from the 5-page notice:

• PHAs identified by the shortfall prevention team as having a potential shortfall must cease issuing vouchers to applicants and rescind vouchers issued to applicants who have not yet leased a dwelling unit. Affected agencies must also stop absorbing portable vouchers and must not issue tenant-based vouchers to families who wish to move out of project-based voucher (PBV) units.
• There is currently no full-year CR or full-year appropriation in place for HUD to provide shortfall funding to any agency. If shortfall funding is made available, a PHA’s eligibility for such funding will be contingent on the PHA having taken the actions described above.
• PIH intends to make available up to $10 million in administrative fee funding, subject to availability under a full-year CR or appropriation, for homeownership fees, special fees for multifamily housing conversion actions, audit costs for HCV voluntary transfers, and special fees for receiving PHAs where portability vouchers are a significant portion of vouchers under lease.
• Applications for blended rate fees (by PHAs serving multiple administrative fee areas) must be submitted by Monday, May 22, 2017. Requests for higher administrative fee rates for PHAs serving large geographical areas are also due by May 22.
• Requests for blended rate fees and higher administrative fees may be submitted via email or regular mail, but PHAs may not submit requests using both methods.

On Wednesday in the Federal Register, HUD's Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) published a notice implementing several of the provisions of the Housing Opportunity through Modernization Act (HOTMA) that impact the housing choice voucher (HCV) and project-based voucher (PBV) programs, in addition to requesting comments on both current and future implementing requirements. The HOTMA implementation notice is broken down topic-by-topic, followed by specific questions for comment in each corresponding section. The first sections of the notice address:

• Allowing PHAs to approve tenancy and commence HAP payments when a unit fails HQS, but only if it has non-life-threatening deficiencies.
• Authorizing occupancy prior to inspection if the unit passed under an alternate inspection within the previous 24 months.
• Amending the definition of units owned by the PHA so that the unit is PHA-owned only if unit is in a project that is: owned by the PHA, owned by an entity wholly controlled by the PHA, or owned by an LLC or limited partnership in which the PHA or entity wholly controlled by the PHA holds a controlling interest in the managing member or general partner.

The notice also addresses numerous statutory changes to the project-based voucher (PBV) program set forth under HOTMA, covering implementation requirements for the following:

• Changing the terminology in the statute from “structure” to “project.”
• Changing the PHA HCV program limitation on PBV vouchers from a 20 percent funding limitation to a 20 percent unit limitation calculation and allowing for additional project-basing of vouchers by raising the limit an additional 10 percent for homeless families, families with veterans, supportive housing for persons with disabilities or elderly persons, or in areas where vouchers are difficult to use.
• Changing the income-mixing cap on the number of PBV units in a project to be the greater of 25 units in a project or 25 percent of the units in a project (the project unit cap), and making changes to the categories of PBV units that are excepted from this project unit cap.
• Allowing the PHA to provide for an initial PBV contract of up to 20 years and to further extend that term for an additional 20 years.
• Allowing the PHA to establish a selection preference for families who qualify for voluntary services, including disability-specific services, offered in conjunction with assisted units, provided that the preference is consistent with the PHA plan.
• Allowing the PHA to attach assistance to structures in which the PHA has an ownership interest or control without following a competitive process.
• Allowing PHAs to project-base HUD–VASH and FUP vouchers in accordance with statutory and regulatory requirements of the PBV program without additional requirements for approval by HUD.

The implementing requirements set forth in today’s notice become effective April 18, 2017. Comments on the specific questions posed in the notice are due by March 20.

Got questions about HOTMA? All of NMA's HCV classes have been updated for the new payment standard rules. Register at least 45 days in advance for most seminars and you’ll receive a 10 percent discount. (The discount does not apply to seminars hosted by housing authorities or associations.)