HUD’s Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) issued Notice PIH 2019-05, further streamlining the process for a public housing agency (PHA) with fewer than 250 public housing units (“Small PHA”) to voluntarily convert public housing to vouchers as long as the PHA intends to convert its entire public housing stock to vouchers. The additional streamlining provision removes the requirement to submit a “conversion assessment.”
Previously, Notice PIH 2014-14 from 2014 allowed Small PHAs to submit an abbreviated conversion assessment that did not require:
- A cost analysis that compared the cost of providing vouchers to the cost of keeping units as public housing for the remainder of their useful life.
- A market-value analysis that assessed the worth of the public housing after it was converted if it was not repaired compared to what it would be worth after conversion if it underwent repairs.
Notice PIH 2014-14 still required a Small PHAs’ conversion assessment to contain:
Although Notice PIH 2019-05 eliminates the requirement for a Small PHA to submit a “conversion assessment,” the PHA must still submit a “conversion plan” with its Annual PHA Plan and conform to other Section 22 Voluntary Conversion requirements. Section 22 refers to the section of the Housing Act of 1937 that provides PHAs the authority to convert public housing to vouchers.
A November 13, 2018 HUD letter to PHAs announced HUD’s intention to “reposition” up to 105,000 public housing units by the end of September 2019 (see Memo, 11/19/18). Repositioning entails streamlining voluntary conversions, streamlining the demolition/disposition process (see Memo, 4/2/18), and expanding the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD).
Notice PIH 2019-05 is at: https://bit.ly/2FKwY26
More information about Section 22 Voluntary Conversion is at: https://bit.ly/2HY8LZO
More information about Section 18 Demolition and Disposition is at: https://bit.ly/2TUNlON
More information about the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) is at: https://bit.ly/2CZ4UYx
- An assessment of rental market conditions to determine whether residents would be able to use vouchers. The assessment must consider:
- The availability of decent, safe, and sanitary homes renting at or less than the PHA’s voucher payment standard.
- The recent rate of households’ ability to rent a home with vouchers.
- The public housing residents’ characteristics that might affect their ability to find and use a voucher - for example, the ability of people with disabilities to find homes accessible them and the ability of families of different sizes to find homes with the correct number of bedrooms.
- An assessment of the conversion’s impact on the surrounding neighborhood by:
- Determining the availability of other affordable housing in the neighborhood.
- Estimating the potential concentration of poverty in the neighborhood.
- A description of how the property will be used after conversion.
Although Notice PIH 2019-05 eliminates the requirement for a Small PHA to submit a “conversion assessment,” the PHA must still submit a “conversion plan” with its Annual PHA Plan and conform to other Section 22 Voluntary Conversion requirements. Section 22 refers to the section of the Housing Act of 1937 that provides PHAs the authority to convert public housing to vouchers.
A November 13, 2018 HUD letter to PHAs announced HUD’s intention to “reposition” up to 105,000 public housing units by the end of September 2019 (see Memo, 11/19/18). Repositioning entails streamlining voluntary conversions, streamlining the demolition/disposition process (see Memo, 4/2/18), and expanding the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD).
Notice PIH 2019-05 is at: https://bit.ly/2FKwY26
More information about Section 22 Voluntary Conversion is at: https://bit.ly/2HY8LZO
More information about Section 18 Demolition and Disposition is at: https://bit.ly/2TUNlON
More information about the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) is at: https://bit.ly/2CZ4UYx