PHAS Assessments to Resume for FYE 2022
On February 4, HUD released Notice PIH 2022-02, “Return of Public Housing Assessment Systems (PHAS) Assessments Upon Expiration of PHAS-Related Waivers in Notice PIH 2021-14.” The notice advises PHAs that PHAS scoring will resume starting with the March 31, 2022, Fiscal Year End (FYE) Cohort and also temporarily adjusts the standard under the Management Assessment Subsystem (MASS) indicator for the Tenant Accounts Receivable (TAR) sub-indicator for the fiscal year 2022 PHAS assessment cycle.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Notice PIH 2021-14 provided waivers that enabled HUD to delay PHAS assessments and carry over a PHA’s last PHAS score. These waivers expired on December 31, 2021. Over the last year, HUD began transitioning back to normal requirements associated with HUD and resumed physical inspections of Public Housing properties on October 5, 2020, extending the notification period from 14 days to 28 days. PHAs have also continued to submit Financial Data Schedules (FDS) used to calculate the Financial Assessment Sub-systems (FASS) Indicator under PHAS.
Based on the data submitted by PHAs to HUD, HUD has determined that, aside from issues related to the TAR sub-indicator under the Management Operations Assessment Sub-system (MASS), many PHAs do not need further modifications to PHAS related to the financial and management indicators. However, if your agency feels as though the pandemic has negatively impacted your any of your PHAS sub-system scores, you should contact the HUD REAC Technical Assistance Center (TAC). HUD has the statutory ability to not issue a PHAS score for a given year if the agency has been impacted by unforeseen events, such as the pandemic. If a PHA can prove their score has been negatively impacted by the pandemic, HUD can choose not to issue a score for FYE 2022.
Due to the pandemic and federal and state eviction moratoria that were put in place, many agencies may have experienced a significant impact on their ability to collect rent and manage rent collection activities. As such, HUD is providing an automatic, temporary adjust for TAR scoring for FYE 2022. PHAs will receive 5 points for TAR if the tenant accounts receivable is 80 percent or greater, 2 points if the tenant accounts receivable is between 79 percent and 60 percent, and 0 points if the TAR is below 60 percent. These changes will be implemented automatically for all agencies by HUD.
HUD will also continue to keep the inspection notification period at 28 days. If agencies do not believe they can get their units ready for an inspection in 28 days due to the pandemic, supply chain issues, staffing concerns, or other issues, they should contact the HUD REAC TAC. PHAs that have questions or need technical assistance should email REAC_TAC@hud.gov or call Technical Assistance Center (TAC) at 1-888-245-4860, between the hours of 7:00 a.m. – 8:30 p.m. Eastern Standard time.
The notice can be found here.