Section 243 of the FY2014 Appropriations Act for the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development authorized certain statutory changes to the United States Housing Act of 1937. HUD issued notices implementing these changes on May 19, 2014, and June 25, 2014. This proposed rule published in the Federal Register on January 6, 2015, begins the process of codifying the statutory changes which seek to alleviate administrative burdens and streamline requirements across HUD programs such as public housing, Section 8, and multifamily housing rental assistance programs. The rule generally proposes the following:
Proposed Changes to Public Housing, Housing Choice Voucher, and Multifamily Program Regulations
-
Allows for easier verification of Social Security Numbers for children under 6 years old.
-
Re-defines “extremely low-income families” to a family whose income does not exceed the higher of 30% of area median income or the poverty level.
-
Re-defines “annual income” to either actual past income or projected income.
-
Permits exclusion of education fees in excess of tuition from the definition of income.
-
Streamlines the process for annual reexamination of annual income for families with 100% fixed income.
Proposed Changes to Public Housing and Housing Choice Voucher Program Regulations
-
Permits housing authorities to make utility reimbursements of $20 or less per quarter on a quarterly basis rather than a monthly basis.
-
Limits the Earned Income Disregard (EID) to 24 consecutive months from the date that a participant qualifies for the EID for programs other than HOPWA. The rule would also afford PHAs discretion in phasing in rent increases during the second 12 month period, provided the participant has remained continually employed.
-
Permits housing authorities to accept a family’s declaration of assets under $5,000 without taking additional steps to verify the accuracy of the declaration.
Proposed Changes to Public Housing Program Regulations
-
Permits housing authorities to use flat rents for families that include members with and without citizenship or eligible immigration status.
-
Permits housing authorities to establish flat rents equal to no less than 80% of the applicable Fair Market Rents and to phase in the flat rents to the extent it would increase a family’s rent by more than 35% in any one year.
-
Permits tenants to provide self-certifications to demonstrate compliance with community service requirements.
-
Streamlines grievance regulations with regard to informal settlements, grievance procedures for failure to request a hearing, and matters relating to transcripts, copies, and the conduct of the hearing.
-
Limits the number of vacant units eligible for operating subsidy to no more than 3% of the total units per project.
Proposed Changes to Housing Choice Voucher Program Regulations
-
Permits housing authorities to limit resident move-ins to assisted units certain days of the month, such as the first day of the month.
-
Permits housing authorities to conduct biennial inspections and rely on an inspection conducted in connection with another program.
-
Permits housing authorities to charge reasonable fees to an owner who indicates that a HQS violation has been fixed, but a reinspection indicates that the violation has not been fixed.
-
Permits housing authorities to approve a payment standard of no more than 120% of the Fair Market Rents without HUD approval if required as a reasonable accommodation for a family with a disabled member, provided the PHA conducts a rent reasonableness analysis.
-
Permits housing authorities to conform Housing Choice Voucher regulations to less prescriptive public housing regulations regarding interim examinations of income whenever a family member with income is added to an HCV family.
-
Permits utility allowances to be based on the size of the unit and either the type of the unit, as is currently required, or a streamlined version of “unit type”, limited to “attached” or “detached.”
Interested persons are invited to submit comments regarding the proposed rule. Comments are due on March 9, 2015 and must be submitted 1) by mail to the Regulations Division, Office of General Counsel, Department of Housing and Urban Development, 451 7th Street SW., Room 10276, Washington, DC 20410-0500 or 2) by electronic submission at www.regulations.gov. The January 6th notice identifies certain key areas for which HUD is most interested in receiving comments.
