Oregon Allocated 1,582 HUD Emergency Homeless/Domestic Violence/Human Trafficking Vouchers, With 37%/587 Available in 3 County Portland Metro Area

HUD's Emergency Voucher webpage is HERE and includes links to presentations, notes, and webinars. 

The initial overview presentation is HERE. Eligible populations are:

• Homeless; 
• At-risk of homelessness; 
• Fleeing or attempting to flee domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, or human trafficking; and 
• Recently homeless, as determined by the Secretary, and for whom providing rental assistance will prevent the family’s homelessness or having high risk of housing instability.

PHA's have until MONDAY MAY 24th to accept or decline the HUD tentative allocation

The Oregon HUD tentative allocation totals 1.582 vouchers with 582/37% allocated to the three Oregon Portland metro counties. 

The table pasted below shows the allocation by Oregon housing authority. 

Estimated Total New Oregon Rental Assistance Since April 2020: $801 Million.

In recent testimony in the Oregon Legislature the total new funding made available for rental housing since April 2020 was estimated at $801 million (this doesn't include ongoing rental assistance programs). It's not clear if the $12 million+ HUD funding for these vouchers is included in these totals. 

Originally posted on the Oregon Housing Blog. 

Update: 4 Metro PDX PHA's Share in $5.5 Million Workforce Training Grant.

Update: Added link to PDF file from April 21, 2012 Clackamas County Commission Meeting with MOU between housing authority and partners spelling out who does what.
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PR from (Portland) Worksystems Inc. is HERE. 

Update: MOU between HACC and partners spelling out who does what is HERE. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Clackamas and Washington County PHA's Post Annual Plans for Comment.

Both the Washington County and Clackamas County housing authorities have posted their annual PHA plans for comment.  

The Clackamas County plan can be found HERE, and the plan from Washington County Housing Services is HERE. 

Combined these two PHA's administer about 5,000 HUD funded public housing and voucher units and their annual plans include important information about accomplishments and planned new activities as well as demographic information about the 11,400 families on their wait lists and the overall housing needs in their communities.

Opportunity to Comment

The Clackamas County PHA plan is open for public review from 1/19/2012 through 3/2/2012. Comments and questions about the plan can be directed to: Mary-Rain O'Meara, 503-655-8279 (momeara@clackamas.us)

The Washington County Housing Authority Board will hold a public hearing on their plan on Tuesday, April 3, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. at the Washington County Public Services Building, Auditorium 155 N. First Street, Hillsboro.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Los Angeles Housing Authority Under Fire for Spending, Including Section 8 Contract Admin Funds from Non Profit.

LA Times story is HERE and says that HUD is participating in new audit.  From the story:

HACLA's former interim executive director, Ken Simmons, said the funds for questionable expenditures came not from federal funds, but from two nonprofit entities overseen by HACLA.The two enterprises generate more than $15 million a year, Simmons wrote in a Dec. 13 letter to the City Council. In his letter, he detailed the nonprofits' work, explaining how the group acts as an administrator processing HUD contracts. Funds from the nonprofits "enable the Authority to carry out its mission," Simmons wrote. "HACLA receives no city resources and its inadequate funding from the federal government severely limits what this agency can do for its residents." Greuel's next audit, expected by next spring, will analyze funds and spending by the two nonprofits, Greuel said.

Earlier KCET story is HERE.  

LA Controller PR and performance audit is HERE. 

Not clear whether any of audits will impact ability of non profit [LOMOD] to respond to NOFA of Section 8 contract administration that is expected to occur after start of new year. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

$1.8M+ Oregon HUD Family Self Sufficiency Funding Up 15% Statewide, 71% in 3 County Portland Metro Area.

HUD has issued a press release HERE with a breakout of Family Self Sufficiency Funding by housing authority.  

Using data from a similar March 2010 release HERE I was able to construct a table HERE that shows the 2011-2010 changes by Oregon housing authority. Some observations: 

1. Oregon HUD FSS funding now tops $1.8 million. 
2. Oregon's 15% ($243,000+) increase was slightly less than the 18% national increase in FSS funding.
3. PHA's in the 3 County Oregon Portland metro area received a 71% increase in FSS funding, led by Portland/ Home Forward with a 125% increase.  (Not included in the table, the Vancouver PHA increase was 102%).
4. Oregon PHA's receive more FSS funding than do PHA's in Washington state ($1,827,255 vs $1,615,836).

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

HUD IG Wants Philly Removed from Moving to Work Program; HUD Says No.

Philly.com has story HERE saying that HUD IG has recommended on several occasions that the Philadelphia Housing Authority be removed from the HUD Moving to Work Program but HUD program officials have declined to do so: (The Philadelphia PHA Director Carl Green [Wikipedia] has been removed from office for misconduct).

Peter Kovar, an assistant secretary at HUD, said PHA's conduct under Greene should not be the basis "for a current decision to alter [its] status."

Kovar noted that the agency was now under HUD's direct control. It has appointed a new top administrator, Michael P. Kelly, who reports to a one-woman board: Estelle Richman, HUD's chief operating officer.

Jereon Brown, a HUD spokesman, said he agreed "that there were serious concerns" at PHA but added that HUD was still trying to "restore financial order and soundness before returning it to local control."

"We believe the PHA is on the road to redemption," Brown said. "That does not mean that we are going to cease our efforts to uncover what has occurred because we believe that's essential to put in place the fixes that ensure that the things that were done improperly do not occur again.

"We're seeking to fix, not punish," Brown said. With Kelly on board, Brown said HUD was "on track" to return PHA to local control within a year.

Editorial Comment: The political and practical implications of removing MTW status make it highly unlikely for a large PHA like Philly, but in essence isn't that just a HUD version of "Too big to fail"? 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Updated: Bloomberg Story On Section 8 Contract Administration; Two New Bid Protests Bring Count to 35.

Upated: 
Didn't see map that Bloomberg had created for their story HERE. 
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Full story appears in Bloomberg News today HERE, had been published in Bloomberg Government for subscribers only on Friday (my Friday post HERE).

Note that as of this morning, total protests were up to 35, not the earlier count of 22 as reported in Bloomberg story. States with contracts under protest are now up to 26, representing 70% + of all units.  [I will try to update my table HERE with lower 33 protest count late this week, after I check to see if any additional protests have been filed or withdrawn].

One of new protests was for my home state of Michigan. Turns out that winning bidder is affiliate of Livonia Housing Commission, a PHA in a western suburb of Detroit.  [My belated apology if you drove one of the Fords that I help build a transmission for in Livonia in 1966].

Not sure, but seems possible that winning bidder Quality Affordable Housing Services Corporation is affiliated with private sector firm.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Oregon Housing Council Has Two Vacancies Plus One New Nominated PHA Member.

At the Housing Council meeting last Friday Acting OHCS Director Rick Crager announced that with resignation of Nancy McLaughlin there were three Oregon Housing Council vacancies for positions held previously by Maggie LaMont, Francisco Lopez, and Nancy. 

Rick announced that the Governor's Office has approved a nominee for one of those slots, Val Valfre, the Housing Authority Director for Washington County. 

Val will be replacing Maggie LaMont, the NE Oregon Housing Authority Director, who is serving on a temporary extension until September, when Val's nomination is expected to be acted upon by the Oregon Senate.

I am pleased to hear that Val, a long time colleague, has been nominated to the Housing Council and I appreciate very much the long service of Maggie as a representative of PHA's on the Council and as Council President. 

It has not yet been decided how the President of the Housing Council will be determined.  

The Governor's website for Executive Appointments is HERE and I hope a concerted effort is made to recruit skilled replacements for the two remaining vacancies, including recruitment of minorities and women.  

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Chicago PHA Director Out Over Credit Card Use Issues.

Chicago Tribune story is HERE. Related Better Government Association story is HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Portability of HUD Vouchers, Oregon and SW Washington: Vancouver and Central Oregon Show Biggest % Gain in Locally Used Vouchers.

One of the most useful features of the HUD voucher program is the portability feature. This housing choice feature:

• Allows tenants, under specific circumstances, to take their voucher from one geographic location and use it in another, whether that be within a city or county, within a state, or in another state. 
• Allows families to pursue job opportunities and to adjust to changing family circumstances and needs, instead of being locked into a specific location specific project. 

(A January 2011 HUD Notice 2011-2 HA provides more background on tenant moves and portability)

For the first time ever, there is recent (Sept 2010) public data available at the PHA level that shows how much, and what kind of "porting" is occurring. With that data it is now possible to calculate whether a PHA is losing or gaining vouchers in local use because of net activity from port INS or port OUTS. 

As indicated at bottom of table I prepared HERE the port definitions are:

• PORT OUTS: Total number of vouchers for which the PHA is being billed by and is remitting HAP costs to another PHA under the portability option.  These vouchers are part of the PHA’s inventory 
• PORT INS: Are vouchers from another PHA and are part of the OTHER PHA's inventory                 

Some observations

1. Most Oregon PHA's are losing more vouchers in local use because more voucher tenants are porting out than those that are coming into the local area through porting in.(Only 5 of Oregon PHA's report that they are gaining more vouchers in local use from net porting activity, while 16 Oregon PHA's are losing vouchers in local use because port outs exceed ports in).
2. It is impossible to know with the data available whether porting activity is between other PHA's in Oregon or to or from out of state PHA's. 
3. Vancouver comes out as a BIG benefactor from portability. In Vancouver/Clark County, locally used vouchers increase by 19.6% because of portability. The reported data shows Vancouver PHA lost 45 ports to other PHA's but they gained 423 port ins, for a net increase of vouchers in local use of 378. (Again, with the data available, it is impossible to know whether these ports came from Oregon PHA's, Washington state PHA's, or other PHA's around the country). 
4. Within Oregon, the Central Oregon PHA had the highest net port in percentage of all Oregon PHA's at 8.7%. While the reported data shows Central Oregon lost 11 ports to other PHA's, they gained 109 port ins, for a net increase of vouchers in local use of 98.  
5. Mid Columbia PHA lost the greatest percentage of vouchers in local use in Oregon (6.8%) because they lost 37 voucher holders through port outs while they had NO reported gains from port ins. 
6. Oregon's largest PHA, Portland, had 184 port outs and 313 ports in, so they netted an increase of 129 vouchers in local use (1.7%).
7. Surprisingly, the reported data shows that Washington County PHA lost more voucher holders through port outs (102) than they gained through port ins (6). This mean that the number of Washington County vouchers in local use declined by 96 units (3.7%) because of the net porting activity. Other than possibly Columbia County (that county data is buried within multi county NW Oregon PHA data) Washington County was the ONLY county in the 6 county (Clackamas, Columbia, Multnomah, Washington, Yamhill, and Clark) Portland bi state metro area to see a reduction in local voucher use because of portability.

Caveats

• It is possible that reporting errors could be distorting porting activity, or that informal porting arrangements are not being reflected in the reported porting activity. 
• The table reflects a point in time analysis, it is possible that activity in other months might show different levels and kinds of port activity. 

If anyone has any additional insights please add a comment to this post (it's easy) or drop me a note.  

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Voucher Expense Data, US, States, Oregon, and Oregon PHA's.

I have constructed two HUD voucher tables for Oregon HERE, including NEW cost data in the second table. Tables show:

• For all Oregon PHA's the number of vouchers under lease, and the use for select programs. (This was included in earlier post).
• For all Oregon PHA's total voucher costs (including administrative expenses) and monthly per unit costs for these vouchers. This is a NEW table, and includes the calculations and comparisons explained below.
• The Oregon statewide average is calculated, along with an average for the three Portland metro PHA's (Clackamas, Portland, and Washington). [I slipped in Vancouver PHA data at bottom of table]. 
• Comparisons between the Oregon statewide average and the national average per unit costs are shown as is a comparison of the 3 county Portland metro per unit average monthly costs compared to the Oregon statewide average per unit monthly costs.

Some caveats:

1. Voucher housing costs [HAP, Housing Assistance Payments] do NOT include any tenant rent contributions. Housing lower income tenants will increase HAP costs, even if PHA's used the same fair market /comparable rent level.
2. Voucher counts and expenses shown are as of the FIRST of the month (September 2010). Leases terminated or added during month may impact total and per unit costs. Use of data from other months could also return different results.
3. PHA data entry errors or system errors (along with my human errors) could result in incorrect information being shown in the underlying database or in these reports. [I encourage PHA's to let me know if they see significant discrepancies between these tables and the data they reported to HUD].

Some observations: 

1. Annualized, the monthly HAP of $15,461,220 for all Oregon PHA's would total to more than $185 million in annual HAP payments or an average of $5,773 per family. Monthly admin expense of $1,879,026 would add $702 annually per family.
2. Oregon monthly average HAP per unit ($481) was 76.4% of national average ($630).
3. Oregon monthly average admin expense per unit ($58) was 87.3% of the national average ($67).
4. Oregon FSS monthly average expense per unit ($3.67) was 196.8% of the national average ($1.86). 
5. Three County Portland Metro monthly HAP ($566) was 118% of the Oregon statewide average ($481).
6. Three County Portland Metro monthly admin expense ($56) per unit was 96% of the Oregon statewide average ($58).
7. Three County Portland Metro FSS monthly average expense per unit ($1.66) was 45% of the Oregon statewide average ($3.67).
   

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

HUD Voucher Sept 2010 Data: Select Uses in US, Oregon, and In Oregon PHA's.

I have prepared two tables HERE that show the number of leased HUD Housing vouchers and a select breakout of uses for different voucher types, including:

• Veterans Supported Housing   
• HOPE 6  
• Enhanced  
• Home-Ownership   
• Tenant Protection
• Project-Based

First page is a table with a breakout of more than 32,000 vouchers leased in Oregon, including a breakout by Oregon PHA's. (You will notice that I also snuck in data for Vancouver Housing Authority at the bottom of the Oregon PHA table). Final two pages are a table that show the US and state distribution of more than 3 million vouchers.

All data is as of September 2010.

Observations: 

1. The data indicates that three Portland metro counties [Clackamas, Multnomah, Washington] accounted for only 37% of all the vouchers under lease in Oregon; this means that almost 2 out of 3 leased HUD housing vouchers in Oregon are outside those three metro Portland counties. Any funding reductions for vouchers would thus have a statewide impact.
2. The three Portland metro PHA's in Oregon had an even LOWER share of the statewide total for enhanced vouchers (5%), tenant protection vouchers (19%), and home ownership vouchers (4%). 
3. All of the HOPE VI and Project based vouchers reported under lease in Oregon were in the three Portland metro counties.  
4. (Oregon PHA's also manage another 5,000+ HUD funded public housing units, so voucher program in Oregon is about 6 times larger than public housing. Any funding reductions for the voucher program therefore would have a MORE significant impact in Oregon than in states where public housing represents a greater share of affordable rental housing.  

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Departed Philly PHA Chief Got a Brand New Bag(s) @ $800 a Pop.

Philly Daily News story HERE. 

What was this guy thinking (or smokin')?

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Urban Institute Has Extensive Evaluation of Chicago PHA Family Case Management Demonstration Program.

Main page for this research is HERE.

The Supporting Vulnerable Public Housing Families Chicago Family Case Management Demonstration, an innovative effort to test the feasibility of using public and assisted housing as a platform for providing services to vulnerable families. The Chicago Family Case Management Demonstration has produced a successful model for providing wraparound services to residents in public and assisted housing settings. The briefs in this series describe service implementation and costs, along with participant outcomes across four domains: employment, health, housing and relocation, and children and youth.

Evaluation of 6 different topics are included in this research:

1. An Overview of the Chicago Family Case Management Demonstration
2. A New Model for Integrating Housing and Services
3. Tackling the Biggest Challenge: Intensive Case Management and CHA Residents’ Health
4. Moving "Hard to House" Residents to Work: The Role of Intensive Case Management
5. Relocating Vulnerable Public Housing Families
6. Reaching the Next Generation: The Crisis for CHA's Youth

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Smoke Free Public Housing Authorities.

I noticed that Detroit is considering plan to declare PH units as smoke free; from Smoke-Free Environments Law Project in Ann Arbor found listing HERE of 225 PHA's around the country that have created smoke free environments in some or all of their projects. 

Was pleased to see that Oregon has 14 PHA's that have banned smoking in some or all of their units, with list pasted below: (If anyone knows additional Oregon PHA's let me know and I update this and will add them to the list). 

Clatsop

Columbia Cascade

Coos-Curry

Jackson

Lane

Linn-Benton

Marion County

North Bend

Northwest Oregon

Portland

Salem

Umatilla

Washington

West Valley

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

New HUD Study: Quality Control for Rental Assistance Subsidies Determinations Final Report for FY 2009.

Extensive report with LOTS of detail is HERE.

Report includes breakout of subsidy errors by program administrator and type of error.  Executive summary [recommended read] says that NET overpayment of rent subsidy would total $173 million extrapolated to all rent assisted households; 19% rate of subsidy overpayment is only marginally higher than 18% rate of subsidy underpayment. (This means that 63% of households received the correct amount of subsidy/paid the correct amount of rent).

Table showing $$ of extrapolated rent subsidy overpayment and underpayment by Administrator is on PDF page 14, Exhibit ES-3 and is also pasted below:
 

Administration Type	Subsidy Overpayments	Subsidy Underpayments	Net Erroneous Payments	Gross ErroneousPayments
Public Housing	$85,040	$45,227	$39,813	$130,268
PHA-Administered Section 8	$268,791	$171,497	$97,294	$440,288
Total PHA-Administered	$353,832	$216,725	$137,107	$570,556
Owner-Administered	$122,667	$86,788	$35,880	$209,455
Total	$476,499	$303,512	$172,987	$780,011
95% Confidence Interval	±$113,911	±$76,928	±$107,263	±$162,116

Perspective:
IF Total Rent subsidy paid was $30 Billion annually, net rent subsidy OVERPAYMENT of $173 million would amount to .6% . (For a certain demographic, that is almost as pure as Ivory soap):


To further keep HUD rent subsidy errors in perspective, visit the government wide Payment Accuracy website HERE for details about payment errors in other programs. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.
 

Wow2: Philly PHA in Melt Down Mode.

I previously posted HERE that Philly PHA Director was facing foreclosure on his personal residence, but looks like that may have been only the first shoe to drop.

New AP story HERE says PHA Director now placed on admin leave after news broke about prior payments of $900k to settle sexual harassment charges. Story indicates that PHA Board was not aware of prior payments and that PHA Director has checked into out of state medical facility until mid September.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

WOW-Philly PHA Director's Home is in Foreclosure.

URL is HERE:
http://ww.housingwatch.com/2010/08/13/philadelphia-housing-authority-director-in-foreclosure/

NW Oregon PHA Nears Executive Director Selection, Finalists Named.

PHA Personnel committee published May 20th backgrounder HERE (MS Word) on 4 finalists; current Executive Director retirement is effective early July.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Qualified PHA's With Less than 550 PH and Voucher Units Getting Relief from HUD Plan Submission Requirements.

Wednesday Federal Register will have Notice of Information Collection and opening of window for 60 days of public comment; FR Public Inspection website has advance copy of Notice HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.