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After years of having a closed waiting list, your site may find itself having enough vacancies to open waiting lists again. HUD allows a site to close waiting lists in the first place for one or more unit sizes when the average wait is excessive, such as one year or more [HUD Handbook 4350.3, par. 4-16(B)(1)(a)].

If you own or manage an assisted site, you must have a written resident selection plan that incorporates the policies and procedures covering each step of the selection process. And your plan must comply with HUD’s eligibility, admission, and screening requirements [HUD Handbook 4350.3, par. 4-4 (A)]. HUD spells out the topics you must include in your plan, as well as other topics it recommends you include.

As a site owner or manager, you understand the severe financial consequences that can result from things beyond your control, such as a loss due to fire, flood, weather, or other causes. In addition, whether it’s a legitimate claim or not, you could also face expensive legal difficulties from liability claims associated with on-site crime, common parking areas, and site amenities such as swimming pools and playground equipment.

When certifying or recertifying households, you may occasionally encounter a household member who earns income from a self-owned business. For example, a household member may own a small retail store or hair salon, be a computer consultant or house painter, or own and run a daycare center or landscaping business. Calculating and verifying the household’s income from a self-owned business can be hard. You need to know what to count as income from the business so yo...

Many management companies charge employees’ travel expenses to site operating accounts. Travel expenses to visit sites, meet with owners, and attend training are allowed because charges involve work-related travel by employees who perform such frontline tasks as certification, accounting, or maintenance [HUD Handbook 4381.5, fig. 6-2]. But problems can occur if companies don’t keep track of who’s doing the traveling and for what purpose, or whether the...

The federal Fair Housing Act (FHA) clearly bans intentional discrimination against applicants and others because of a protected characteristic such as race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, or disability. Courts often refer to claims for intentional discrimination as “disparate treatment”—that is, intentionally denying housing or otherwise discriminating against applicants and residents because they—or someone associated wi...

Once a household has moved out of an assisted site and the unit is ready for reoccupancy, owners and managers can ask HUD to pay part of the contract rent for the vacant unit until a new eligible household moves in. HUD recognizes that owners have a potential financial risk due to limitations on security deposits and the need to adhere to waiting list requirements. As such, HUD has a special claims process to reimburse owners for their financial loss.

As an assisted site owner or manager, you must collect security deposits from all households when they move in. The security deposit is a dollar amount that’s intended to protect you by covering damage to the premises beyond normal wear and tear, and by cushioning the financial blow if a resident skips out early on the lease without paying.

HUD has issued two notices in the past three years that outline the penalties that owners or managers of HUD-assisted sites may face if they violate tenant participation requirements. HUD’s tenant participation rule requires certain owners to let organizers canvass residents and allow them to establish and operate tenant organizations. In fact, according to the Code of Federal Regulations, HUD’s policy is to promote resident participation and the active invo...

In September, HUD Inspector General David Montoya testified in front of the House Financial Services Committee. He highlighted the challenges of conducting investigations with HUD’s limited staffing capacity after sequestration as more fraudulent and abusive activity surfaces within government housing programs.