HUD Issues Second Invitation for PHAs to Join MTW Program

HUD recently issued a new notice requesting letters of interest under its Moving to Work (MTW) program from PHAs with 1,001 or more total public housing and Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) units. Under the program, MTW participants are able to both implement policies that vary from those required under HUD’s statutes and regulations and use their funding in a more flexible manner than non-MTW PHAs.

Currently, there are 39 MTW PHAs throughout the nation. In 2015, Congress allowed HUD to expand the MTW demonstration program to 100 additional PHAs over a seven-year period. Like a similar invitation for the first cohort of PHAs in October 2018, HUD will choose a second cohort of MTW agencies through a two-step selection process.

Each cohort will be required to implement a certain type of affordable housing policy, which HUD will study to identify successful MTW innovations that can be applied to all PHAs. The letters of interest requested in this round are for the second cohort of the MTW expansion, which will target larger PHAs that seek to implement alternative rent policies intended to increase resident self-sufficiency and reduce PHA administrative burdens.

The PHAs interested in the second MTW cohort may implement rent policies that focus on one of the following areas:

• Fixed rents within income-based tiers;
• Stepped rents: 5 percent annual increase, decoupled from income;
• Stepped rents: 3 percent annual increase, decoupled from income; and
• PHA-proposed alternative tiered or stepped rent that varies from the above.

PHAs interested in the second MTW cohort must have 1,000 or more non-elderly, non-disabled public housing and/or HCV households that are eligible for the rent reform evaluation. Among other eligibility criteria, the PHA must also:

• Be a high performer under PHAS or SEMAP and not be designed “troubled” under either system;
• Be up-to-date in a number of HUD-required submissions;
• Be in compliance with Capital Fund obligation and expenditure deadlines for the past three years; and
• Have no unaddressed findings from the OIG, annual audits, or other HUD reviews, nor have unresolved litigation with HUD or outstanding discrimination or civil rights issues.

Letters of interest for the second MTW cohort are due on or before June 12, 2019. All PHAs that submit a timely letter of interest and meet the other eligibility criteria in the new notice will be invited to apply to the second step of the application process, the full selection criteria for which will be published by HUD after it reviews the second cohort letters of interest.