Please Use PHADA Material for Communications with Congress
PHADA President David A. Northern, Sr.
Both houses of Congress passed a Continuing Resolution (CR) before the October 1 deadline, which President Biden immediately signed into law. The measure is effective until December 16.
Lawmakers will need to return to Washington in a “lame duck” session sometime after the November elections to complete a FY 23 spending package. In the meantime, PHADA encourages members to contact Congress on our major priorities, outlined in the FY 23 Appropriations Position Paper.
As always, adequate operating and capital funding are top priorities. This not only helps HAs with their current operations but ensures more workable Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) rents since those are based on each HA’s formula share of operating and capital funds (see the related article on new RAD rents here.
On the Section 8 side, we are advocating for the full cost of all voucher renewals and the Senate’s greater appropriation needed for administrative fees. We are also recommending the House amount for the project based rental assistance account, which, in part, funds RAD agencies.
At this stage, Congress has not yet reached an agreement on “top line” spending for defense and non-defense programs. A deal on that will be necessary before House-Senate conferees can agree to a final package. Consequently, it is possible that some amounts referenced in the PHADA chart could be reduced. Accordingly, please ask your Representatives and Senators to, at the very least, approve the higher of the House-Senate sums in the final spending measure.
PHADA’s New Sample Policy Library
In an earlier 2022 column, I noted the large volume of turnover at our agencies in recent years. Many executive directors and key staff have retired or will soon reach retirement. PHADA’s leadership has discussed how to address this dynamic along with the best ways to assist new EDs who may sometimes lack experience with our programs.
Having access to a variety of HA policies is something that could be helpful to new directors and all agencies. This is particularly important now as many HAs have converted their properties under RAD and there have been major changes in HUD policies and regulations. In addition, many agencies have established new remote work or telework policies that would be useful models to others.
As a result, we contacted members and requested policies. We appreciate the response received to date and are now making the sample policy library live. The site can be accessed at: www.phada.org/Member-Center/PHA-Sample-Policies-Library. We remind members that states, and communities have different laws and regulations so please take that into account when using policies.
We want to continue to build the library and therefore would very much appreciate receiving all policies that members are willing to provide. The association will continue posting the material to our website and share the information at no expense to members.
Policies should be up-to-date and technically correct, of course. See the new Advocate for more information on the types of policies we are interested in. However, please do not feel limited by the list of examples – we are interested in all types of polices. They may be sent directly to PHADA’s Administrative Assistant, Gwen Lyda at: glyda@phada.org. Thank you for your consideration and helping PHADA to assist your industry colleagues.