$20 Million in Additional Administrative Fees for HUD-VASH Vouchers
By: Tushar Gurjal, Senior Policy Manager
On April 16, HUD published a notice titled “Additional Administrative Fees for HUD-VASH” [PIH 2024-10 (HA)]. The notice announces the availability of $20 million in administrative fee funding for PHAs that administer the HUD Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program vouchers. This funding is in addition to regular administrative fee amounts attached to these vouchers. The Department encourages PHAs to work with Veteran Affairs Medical Centers (VAMCs) in assisting eligible families.
These additional HUD-VASH administrative fees will be awarded based on the total number of vouchers administered by the PHA and the total number of PHAs requesting these fees. To apply for the funds, PHAs should submit the electronic form to HUD by no later than May 31, 2024.
These fees may be used for two broad categories of activities. First, the fees may be used for “costs incurred by a PHA in carrying out administrative responsibilities under the program.” Second, the fees may be used for other eligible expenses in administering the program as detailed in Section 3 of Notice PIH 2022-18. HUD encourages PHAs to use these funds for HUD-VASH activities like “landlord recruitment, housing search assistance activities, and landlord/tenant mediation activities, or other additional HUD-VASH expenses such as owner incentives and retention payments and security deposits.” These funds may not be use for repayment of debt or other amounts owed to HUD or other related oversight entities. Any funds considered for salaries, bonuses, or employee incentives must comply with executive compensation requirements.
The funds have certain reporting requirements. In the Voucher Management System (VMS), the expenses are incurred by the PHA each month and paid as part of the total expenses in the VMS “Administrative Expense” field. For the Financial Data Schedule (FDS), most authorized expenses should be reported on FDS line 92400 Tenant services – other. Fors funds used for deposits, HUD will not require specific FDS reporting, though PHAs must still conduct their accounting and reporting according to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).
The electronic form to make this funding request can be found here.
The full notice can be found here.