Final Rule Effective July 1 for Public Housing
On May 10, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published the Final Rule for the National Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real Estate (NSPIRE) in the Federal Register. NSPIRE aligns and consolidates inspection regulations used to evaluate HUD housing across multiple programs and will take effect on July 1, 2023, for public housing; and October 1, 2023, for all other HUD rental assistance programs.
The Final NSPIRE Rule makes changes to the inspection standards for HUD-assisted properties, effectively replacing UPCS and HQS, and responds to public comments to the proposed rule that was issued on January 13, 2021. As part of the implementation of NSPIRE, the Department will also publish three core subordinate documents, which will be published soon: Scoring, Standards, and an Administrative Notice.
PHADA continues to have major concerns with HUD’s flawed NSPIRE program and will provide a more detailed summary and analysis of the Final Notice, but a few initial highlights are listed below:
- HUD will prioritize housing authorities with a fiscal year end of June 30, 2023, to receive their next inspection under the updated regulations.
- As there may be operational or system transition issues in the initial year of NSPIRE implementation, the Department specified in regulation that an inspection “shall be conducted no earlier than 6 months before and no later than 6 months after the date marking the anniversary of the previous inspection” for a period of one year after the effective date of this Rule. After this period, the time frame will return to “no earlier than 3 months before and no later than 3 months after the date marking the anniversary of the previous inspection.”
- Further transition information will be provided by the Department in several notices, including a Scoring Notice, Standards Notice, Administrative Notice, and others for HOME, HOPWA, Small Rural Assessment Requirements, and others.
- All updated standards and scoring methodologies will be published, as required by the Rule, through a Federal Register Notice at least once every three years with the opportunity for public comments prior to implementation.
For more information, the Final Rule can be found here, and the NSPIRE Resources page can be found here.