HUD publishes a new
Public Housing Occupancy Guidebook

For the first time in the last twenty years, HUD has published a revised Public Housing Occupancy Guidebook, which is available on the Office of Public and Indian Housing's website at http://www.hud.gov/offices/pih/programs/ph/rhiip/phguidebook.cfm. The Department had made a draft of this document available for comments in the fall of 2002, and PHADA submitted a set of suggestions. With a significant number of revisions, the guidebook is now final. The subjects covered in this final version of the guidebook are both broad and detailed. The guidebook covers obvious occupancy topics, such as admissions and rents, but it also includes chapters that treat in detail civil rights and nondiscrimination, utilities, and domestic violence issues that affect occupancy activity. The guidebook concludes with eight appendices that include a guide to federal regulations, sample model policies, a sample model lease, and a set of 49 sample forms for use in the occupancy function.

A new paradigm
HUD's introduction to the guidebook, located on the web site referenced above, highlights the Department's intention that this is a reference tool for HAs and HUD staff to use in occupancy, and not an instruction manual. The introduction also points out two significant changes addressed in the guidebook. First, the book offers new guidance concerning calculation of imputed income from assets, and second, it offers guidance concerning an earned income disallowance calculator that should become available on the Rental Housing Income Integrity Project (RHIIP) website later this year. Both of these highlighted changes are covered in Chapter 10 of the guidebook.

The new guidebook is a refreshing departure from tradition at HUD. In the past, guidance from the Department has often consisted of quotations from or paraphrases of federal statutes or regulations with little or no interpretation. HA employees have always been competent to read these documents in their original form, without HUD's transcriptions. This new guidebook offers real, sometimes thoughtful guidance, and its reflective character is apparent from the introduction. The Department makes it clear that the use of words such as "should" and "may" are intended to distinguish between things HUD views as requirements, what may be best practices, and areas where HAs have discretion. The guidebook also endeavors to tackle issues often difficult to disentangle, such as the question of required and suggested forms for verification of resident household characteristics. HUD's approach to preparing this guidebook entails real risks, and HUD's willingness to engage in discussions that will inevitably ensue concerning the guidebooks contents is laudable.

Readers' responsibilities
The refreshing character of the Public Housing Occupancy Guidebook points up the need for HA staffs to be well informed readers, however. Well informed, well intentioned housing professionals will differ about the character and weight of some of HUD's guidance in many areas. Such challenges to common wisdom are beneficial as long as HAs' and HUD Field Office staffs remain well informed consumers of HUD's guidance. HAs and HUD often differ in interpreting statute and regulation. To take the guidance available in this guidebook as "gospel" or as the "one best way" will be misguided and a mistake, but avoiding that pitfall will require housing professionals to know the applicable statutes and regulations, and to test HUD's guidance against that knowledge.

As an example, HUD suggests the form and content of 48 sample forms. One of HUD's suggestions is a, "Verification of Ability to Comply with PHA Lease Terms." This three page form solicits information from someone other than the applicant or tenant to support a claim that the applicant or tenant is competent to comply with the lease. The form asks for a detailed assessment of a client's ability to pay rent, maintain the unit, and be truthful, and solicits opinions concerning whether the applicant or tenant may require some assistance to comply with lease terms in 9 specific behavioral areas. Some agencies may wish to use this kind of form, and some agencies may conclude not to use or maintain this kind of data gathering tool. The inclusion of "sample forms" in HUD's guidebook represents a suggestion concerning one way of achieving program goals. There may be alternative approaches which comply with statutes or regulations that individual HAs may prefer. The inclusion of suggestions in the new guidebook does not give HAs license to claim that, since "HUD says" HAs are to do something, these represent requirements.

Just as the guidebook should not represent "gospel" for HA staffs, another audience that is at risk of taking this guidance as requirements are staffs of HUD Field Offices. With the current spotlight on income and rent determinations, HAs may find their Field Offices arguing that they must adopt HUD's guidance. The best protection against this possibility is for HAs to know the contents of this guidebook and the regulations and statutes on which it is based. Preparing for a possible RIM review now may involve reviewing the guidebook, since it will be guiding RIM reviewers. HA knowledgeable about the new guidebook as well as the statutes and regulations will be positioned to respond effectively and quickly to any questionable RIM review findings.

Broad applicability
Finally, although this is a guidebook for public housing occupancy, in many areas the requirements and best practices in public housing and the Section 8 Program are similar or identical. The book contains guidance concerning income and rent determinations, verification requirements and documentation that are applicable to both programs' applicants and participants. The set of suggested forms in the guidebook's appendices may be as helpful to Section 8 Program administration as to public housing. Section 8 Program staff may find the guidebook beneficial, despite its title.

PHADA will publish more detailed treatment of sections of the Public Housing Occupancy Guidebook in future issues of the Advocate. In the meantime, the association strongly suggests that agencies download the electronic version and start a review of the guidebook's contents. Public housing and Section 8 Program staff involved in eligibility, income and rent determinations, program admissions, policy development and implementation may all benefit from reading some or all of the sections of this new document, as well as reviewing the law and regulations on which this guidance is based.

PHADA FRONT