Funding to Create Mobility Plans Available

By: Tushar Gurjal, Senior Policy Manager

On February 2, HUD published a notice titled “Registration of interest for special administrative fees for development of a housing mobility-related services plan (HMRP) under PIH Notice 2023-07: Implementation of Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2023 Funding Provisions for the Housing Choice Voucher Program” (Notice PIH 2024-05). This notice implements a provision mentioned in the prior voucher implementation notice that would allow $1.5 million in special administrative fees to be used for housing mobility-related services plans (HMRP). The Department expects that the estimated size of each award will be approximately $60,000. This notice describes planning requirements and uses of the special administrative fees, financial reporting requirements, eligibility criteria, registration of interest submission requirements, and the awards process.

Eligibility

The notice provides an appendix with a list of PHAs that are eligible for these fees. To be eligible for these special administrative fees, PHAs must have at least 400 families with vouchers that have children living in a qualified census tract (a tract where 50 percent of households have incomes below 60 percent of the area median income or have a poverty rate of 25 percent or more) or PHAs that applied for the Community Choice Demonstration (unless they are currently in or have previously been accepted into the demonstration). Housing agencies that believe they qualify to be eligible, but are not listed in the appendix can provide supporting information to housingmobility@hud.gov within 14 days of this notice.

Registration of interest

The Department will email eligible PHAs (via the executive director). If the PHA is interested, it must complete the registration of interest application via DocuSign and submit it to HUD. Housing agencies must certify that they will adhere to the planning requirements in the notice and only use the special administrative fees for eligible purposes. Housing agencies will have 14 days to respond to the emails.

Awards

HUD will review the registrations of interest submitted by the deadline and prioritize them by PHAs with high utilization rates (the higher of the unit or budget utilization). For funding utilization, HUD’s calculation will include both authorized budget authority and reserves. The Department will notify the PHAs that both receive and do not receive awards via email.

Planning Requirements

Those PHAs that are award HMRP funds must develop a written housing mobility plan. The plan should have the following elements:

• A description of the PHA’s commitment to helping HCV families with children access opportunity areas throughout the regional rental market and outside the PHA’s jurisdiction (through portability or partnerships);
• Identifies opportunity areas;
• Services offered (wither in-house or through a third party);
• Target number of families to be served;
• Description of how the PHA will ensure that PHA payment standards are adequate in opportunity areas;
• Administrative policy changes (adopted or to be adopted) by the PHA to help families move to areas of opportunity;
• A discussion of other potential funding sources to be leveraged.

Housing agencies must engage “staff, community partners, and program participants.” Housing agencies are also encouraged to review HUD’s Housing Mobility Toolkit. Housing agencies must follow all civil rights requirements.

The PHA must submit an interim report twelve months after an award or at the mid-point of the anticipated planning process, whichever is earlier. The Department may require a specific reporting template and will communicate any requirements via email. The Department may also request that agencies attend quarterly progress meetings with HUD staff. Finally, PHAs must submit their mobility plan to their board (or equivalent) for approval no later than 18 months after the award date.

Eligible Uses of HMRP

These special administrative fees may only be used for the development of a housing mobility plan. Eligible uses include the following:

• Costs associated with the development of the plan, including “personnel costs, consulting services, resident engagement and other activities that are directly related to the development of the housing mobility plan . . .”; and
• Costs associated with the development of a regional project-based voucher plan.

These special administrative fees may not be used for the following:

• Direct mobility-related services or services to residents;
• Incentive payments to landlords;
• Administrative purposes unrelated to developing a mobility plan;
• Housing assistance payments (HAP);
• Food or beverages;
• Pre-development or development purposes;
• Activities not explicitly identified as an eligible use of HMRP.

Financial Reporting Requirements

These special administrative fees have a 24-month period of availability. They must be tracked independently of other administrative fees. Housing agencies should report fee expenditures in the Voucher Management System (VMS) using the “Expense/Comments” tab and report in “Expense Amount Field 5.” The agency must describe the eligible activity for which the funds were used.

The full notice can be found here.