Provides Clarifications, Eases Some Requirements
HUD recently published Notice PIH 2026-23: “Demolition and/or Disposition of Public Housing Property, Eligibility for Tenant Protection Vouchers, and Associated Requirements.” This notice amends Notice PIH 2024-40, and includes provisions related to all Section 18 Demolition or Disposition processes, including RAD/Section 18 Blends, demolition or disposition under a Choice Neighborhoods Initiative grant award, very small agencies closing out their public housing program, and other scenarios.
While underlying law and the implementing regulations at 24 CFR Part 970 have not changed, certain provisions of the guidance are modified to make it easier to utilize “the authority provided by section 18 of the 1937 Act to facilitate the project’s repositioning and improvement.”
Of note, the notice:
- Increases the “very small PHA” definition from 50 to 75 units, allowing more agencies to qualify for closing out their PHA program under Notice PIH 2019-13.
- Clarifies that, if a very small PHA voluntarily transfers its property to another PHA, the transferred units remain eligible for repositioning under the very small PHA justification.
- Increases the number of units qualifying as scattered sites from four to six or fewer total units in contiguous or non-contiguous buildings on one side of a block.
- Adds new guidance on applying Section 18 Demo/Dispo to mixed-finance developments.
- Clarifies that properties built after 1950 may still qualify as functionally obsolete or not in the best interests of tenants or the PHA based on other criteria established for those determinations.
- Allows units certified as distressed in an approved Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant to qualify as meeting physical obsolescence requirements under Section 18.
- Provides clear discontinuation of review standards for incomplete applications. If a PHA cannot provide requested information to complete their application within 30 days of such a request, the Special Applications Center will discontinue its review of the application.
The notice includes some additional formatting and organizational adjustments, but aside from these changes, most content remains essentially unchanged.
PHADA will provide additional information in the forthcoming edition of the Advocate.