HUD’s Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) has issued Notice PIH 2013-3 to establish temporary compliance provisions intended to "increase flexibility and reduce administrative burden" so that PHAs can "better manage their programs within current allocated budget authority."
The temporary provisions, which are available until March 31, 2014, allow PHAs administering the public housing or the housing choice voucher (HCV) program to do the following:
- Determine a family’s annual income by using either projected future income or actual past income. PHAs that elect the latter option must use the most recent 12 months of income information available in the Enterprise Income Verification (EIV) system. They must also follow other instructions provided on page 2 of today’s notice.
- For a family with assets worth $5,000 or less, accept the family’s declaration of the value of the assets and the amount of income they generate. No supporting documentation is required.
- Conduct streamlined reexaminations for elderly and disabled families on fixed incomes, as defined on page 3 of the notice. In a streamlined reexamination, a PHA simply applies “any published cost of living adjustments to the previously verified income amount.”
In addition to these three temporary provisions, the notice includes a fourth for PHAs administering the HCV program: Without HUD approval, they may establish a payment standard of up to 120 percent of the fair market rent as a reasonable accommodation for a person with disabilities.
PHAs that wish to adopt any of these temporary compliance provisions must notify HUD and update their plans or policies accordingly, as directed in section 4 of today’s notice. PHAs with questions about the provisions should contact one of the HUD employees identified in section 6.
Again, the provisions are available to PHAs for only 14 months. However, as Notice PIH 2013-03 explicitly states, “HUD intends to pursue more permanent changes to increase flexibility and reduce administrative burden and will be informed by PHAs’ use of the temporary compliance provisions of this notice.”
Model policies for implementing Notice PIH 2013-03 will be included in the upcoming revisions of NMA's model administrative plan and model ACOP. To stay updated on the latest program information, subscribe to the PIH Alert and Housing Resource Newsletter.
