New EHV Termination Guidance
On June 29, HUD published a notice titled “Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV): Guidance on Termination of Vouchers Upon Turnover After September 30, 2023 and EHV Shortfalls Due to Per-Unit Cost Increases of Overleasing” [Notice PIH 2023-14 (HA)]. The notice provides instructions to PHAs with emergency housing vouchers (EHVs) about how EHVs should be administered after Sept. 30, 2023.
Termination
After Sept. 30, 2023, EHVs that are active will no longer be allowed to be reissued to new families and will terminate after the family using the voucher has left the program. Emergency housing vouchers that have not been leased-up may still be leased after Sept. 30 up until they reach the number allocated to the PHA by HUD. After Sept. 30, housing agencies may issue additional vouchers taking into consideration their 180-day lease rate (e.g., if a PHA has leased 80 of its 100 EHVs and has a 180-day success rate of 50%, then it may issue enough vouchers to ensure that 40 households are searching for units).
Portability
Voucher holders with EHVs may still port their vouchers to other jurisdictions after Sept. 30, 2023. If the PHA the voucher holder is porting to has EHV capacity (i.e., it has not reached its cumulative EHV lease-up maximum), the receiving PHA may absorb the voucher. If the receiving PHA is at its EHV capacity, then the receiving PHA may bill the initial PHA or absorb the family into its regular HCV program.
EHV Shortfalls
The Department is making changes to when PHAs may request shortfall funding for EHVs. First, a PHA may request a per-unit cost adjustment when 1) “despite taking reasonable efforts to manage the EHV program effectively, [it] would otherwise be required to terminate participating families . . . due to insufficient Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) funds” and 2) for instances when cost increases were not unforeseen (e.g., using high payment standards) in order to improve success rates or allow a family to remain in their unit.
Housing agencies may also request shortfall funding to “prevent the termination of EHV families due to insufficient funds until the overleasing is corrected through attrition.” The Department may reduce administrative fees when there are “egregious cases of overleasing.”
The full notice can be found here.