Los Angeles Office of Public Housing
Quarterly Newsletter Volume 1, Issue 14: Spring 2012
Serving Southern California

Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara Breaks Ground on Bradley Studios

On January 12th, 2012 the Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara held groundbreaking ceremony the housing community Bradley Studios -- the agency's latest endeavor in affordable housing designed specifically to serve special needs populations in Santa Barbara. Bradley Studios will be a development of 54 efficiency studios providing 55 studio units of housing for populations including low and extremely low-income downtown workers and special needs individuals, including the chronically homeless

The 1.06 acre site, spanning 512-518 Bath Street was previously owned by the Bradley family. The Housing Authority maintained an existing 10-unit apartment building as part of their stock of affordable housing until the new development plans could be approved.

"The staff of the Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara and our partners in Bradley Studios are truly serving our community," said Rob Pearson, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara. "With this well-planned and creative solution we will again be utilizing our precious city space in the most efficient and environmentally sound ways to house those who help keep our city running, and those in our community who otherwise would be living at the greatest risk."

The Housing Authority was granted a "density bonus" from the City to permit 54 units on a site zoned for 29 units (1.06 acres) As with previous Housing Authority projects like Artisan Court and El Carrillo, the density bonus was approved based on the substantial public benefit of the planned development. The features that often make Housing Authority properties the most attractive buildings 'on the block' throughout Santa Barbara neighborhoods also serve as criteria for the density bonus in terms of attractive design, small unit sizes, acceptable building size and neighborhood compatibility.

Partnering with local nonprofit organizations that specialize in providing services for at-risk populations will allow the Housing Authority to connect residents with essential support programs. Additionally, the design includes will a large program room to provide supportive services such as group counseling, life-skill coaching classes and other programs.

Key funders of the project are: the City of Santa Barbara, the Redevelopment Agency of the City of Santa Barbara, Red Stone Equity Partners, Limited Liability Company (LLC) and the Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara. J.P. Morgan Chase is the construction lender. Bradley Studios has an anticipated completion date of December 2012.

HUD Prohibits Discrimination for Sexual Orientation

HUD recently released a rule that prohibits discrimination in HUD funded programs based upon sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status. This rule prohibits inquiries regarding sexual orientation or gender identity. The rule precludes owners and operators of HUD-assisted housing or housing who's financing is insured by HUD from inquiring about the sexual orientation or gender identity of an applicant or occupant. The rule also applies to FHA insured programs, community development programs, and public and assisted housing programs. The rule clarifies that families who are otherwise eligible for HUD programs, may not be excluded because one or more members of the family may be Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Transgender (LGBT) or perceived to be LGBT.

The rule does not create a new federal class of protection under the Fair Housing Act and enforcement of the rule will be accomplished through the individual programs. Violations of this rule will be handled in the same manner that violations of other program requirements are handled. Ultimately, this could mean sanction, suspension, debarment, or the seeking of civil penalties against those individuals or entitles who deny individuals and families access to HUD programs because of their gender identity or sexual orientation.

However, under the Fair Housing Act, discrimination based upon gender or gender stereotyping is illegal. Gender stereotypes are simplistic generalizations about the gender attributes, differences, and roles of individuals and/or groups. If a landlord denies housing to an individual based upon application of a gender stereotype then that is considered gender discrimination and is illegal under the Fair Housing Act.

Please share a copy of this new rule with all of your recipients and stakeholders and if you become aware of possible violations of the rule please contact the Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) Intake Branch or myself so that we can evaluate the situation for possible Fair Housing Act violations. FHEO will be conducting training on the rule for staff and recipients in the future.

San Diego Housing Commission Fights Homelessness

The San Diego Housing Commission (SDHC) administers the contract for the City of San Diego's emergency winter shelter for single homeless adults. Located at 16th and Newton Avenue, the winter tent can shelter up to 220 single adult men and women each night. Priority is given to seniors and individuals with disabilities.

Last year, more than 700 homeless adult men and women were served during the four months of operation, December 2, 2010 to April 4, 2011. For more than a decade, the City of San Diego has operated an emergency winter shelter program that provides homeless persons protection from inclement weather, and also makes available comprehensive services to address permanent housing needs, mental health screening, drug and alcohol treatment, and job counseling.

On June 29, 2010, SDHC was selected to manage the shelter program which houses up to 200 adults in downtown San Diego, and includes a second site operating in the Midway District for up to 150 military veterans.

Each facility is open for approximately four months beginning in December, and both utilize pre-fabricated buildings that can be rapidly put up and disassembled.
Day-to-day operations for the downtown site are handled by Alpha Project for the Homeless. The structure in the Midway District will be placed at the Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command ( SPAWAR) property and operated by Veterans Village of San Diego.

San Buenaventura Family Self Sufficiency (FSS) Highlights

At February 7, 2012's Proactive Exchange, the Los Angeles Office of Public Housing staff was pleased to host presenter Melinda Comeau, Resident Self Sufficiency Coordinator, Housing Authority of the City of San Buenaventura. She presented regarding Collaborations Benefitting Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) FSS Participants & residents of the Housing Authority.

Boys & Girls Club
The Housing Authority is proud to partner with the Boys and Girls Club, which brings the Boys & Girls Club Services to the 180 units to provide high quality after school programs benefiting students residing in, or located near, Westview.

• Average attendance = 57 for afterschool programs, tutoring, homework assistance.
• Beautification project with Aera energy had over 70 volunteers resulting in: fresh cement, exterior painting, hopscotch grids, new plantings, & picnic table.
• Hosted Thanksgiving Dinner with over 200 families in attendance

Goodwill and Soroptomist
The Public Housing Authority (PHA) worked with Goodwill Industries and Soroptomist International to help FSS participants better prepare for job interviews. The program provided FSS Participants with professional clothing.
Workshops are hosted on how attire affects advancement and how to maintain a professional image on a limited budget.

Creating A $table Home : (CASH) Program
Another successful program will measure pre and post participant:

• Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) Scores
• Increased savings
• Debt reduction
• Increased net worth (i.e, higher education, entrepreneurship, and homeownership)

Laura Rocha of Cabrillo Economic Development Corporation explained the CASH financial counseling program, free services valued at $4,725 per family for one year, to 22 FSS, HCV & PH families at a training event.

VASH Success Story: Orange County

The Orange County Housing Authority (OCHA) revised internal procedures to streamline and expedite the issuance of Vouchers and the leasing process for the Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) program.

Key elements of this streamlined process include:

• Training of staff about the Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) program's objectives to gain understanding and support for processing for these families differently.
• Designating a staff person to serve as a liaison between OCHA and VASH case managers from the Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center.
• Streamlining the Intake process to issue VASH vouchers. VA case managers help veterans to obtain all necessary documents and income verifications prior to the initial appointments with OCHA. VASH vouchers can be issued within one to three weeks from the referrals.
• Coordinating with VA case managers and informing VASH families of the timing of the leasing process so they have realistic expectations and adhere to the deadlines.
• Prioritizing new inspections and re-inspection of VASH units.

Challenge:

• Security deposits can be a barrier for some VASH families. Several participants were unable to lease a unit because they were unprepared for this expense.

Solution:

• OCHA was able to coordinate with the County's Homeless Prevention unit and community partners who received Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program (HPRP) funds that could assist VASH families who needed funds for security deposits.

Most of the VASH families were housed within 60 days from referrals.

PIH NOTICE 2012-4
Issued: January 1, 2012

Effective Use of the Enterprise Income Verification (EIV) System's Deceased Tenants Report to Reduce Subsidy Payment & Administrative Errors

Purpose. This notice explains the procedures Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) are required to implement to deal with families with deceased household members. The implementation of the procedures outlined in this notice will ensure that PHAs successfully submit accurate data to HUD via the Public and Indian Housing Information Center (PIC) and that PHAs do not make subsidy overpayments on behalf of deceased single member households. Where overpayments have been made, the PHA will recoup the overpayment from the landlord/owner of the rental property under the programs noted in Section 2 of this notice, with the exception of the Public Housing program. This notice supersedes Public and Indian Housing (PIH) Notices 2010-50 and 2010-09.

Applicability. This Notice applies to the following HUD-PIH rental assistance programs: Public Housing, Section 8 Moderate Rehabilitation, Project-Based Voucher, Project-Based Certificate; and Housing Choice Voucher programs.

Background. In January and September, 2008, the Department encouraged PHAs to utilize the Deceased Tenants Report available in the Enterprise Income Verification (EIV) system. In a letter sent to all PHA Executive Directors, the Department urged PHAs to use the report on a monthly basis to assist in identifying families with deceased household members, and reduce the occurrence of paying housing assistance on behalf of deceased single member households. The Department also urged all PHAs to take appropriate corrective actions to address families with deceased household members and update the form HUD-50058 (Family Report) to reflect accurate household composition and transmit the updated form HUD-50058 in a timely manner.

HUD continues to provide formal and informal guidance and training via PIH notices, email and webcast, related to effective use of the EIV system, including the Deceased Tenants Report.
Many PHAs have taken corrective actions to transmit more accurate data to HUD via PIC, and have reduced the number of deceased single member households continuing to receive improper rental assistance. PHAs with zero deceased household members reported on the Deceased Tenants Report are to be commended for their efforts.

However, there are some PHAs that have not followed HUD's informal guidance. According to HUD's Office of Inspector General (OIG) audit report number 2010-FW-0001, issued on November 29, 2009, PHAs paid approximately $7 million in questionable housing assistance payments for deceased tenants in single member households. The OIG also determined that PHAs did not update family composition on the form HUD-50058 in a timely manner, which resulted in incorrect information in PIC.

In accordance with the new regulatory requirement at 24 CFR 5.233(a)(2)(ii), which became effective on January 31, 2010, under the Final Rule: Refinement of Income and Rent Determination Requirements in Public and Assisted Housing Programs: Implementation of the Enterprise Income Verification System-Amendments, published at 74 FR 68924 on December 29, 2009, all PHAs are required to use the EIV system to reduce administrative and subsidy payment errors in accordance with HUD administrative guidance. Accordingly, HUD is issuing this formal guidance to ensure that PHAs:

• a) Use EIV's deceased tenant information for effective decision making, corrective action implementation, and reporting activities;
• b) Implement policies and procedures to minimize erroneous subsidy payments on behalf of deceased single member households; and
• c) Provide accurate and reliable information to HUD via PIC in a timely manner.

The actual PIH Notice can be located online.

PIC PASSWORD RESET

Please be advised that your HUD-PIH EIV Coordinator or agency User Administrator cannot reset your HUD Secure System password. For password resets, you must go here (https://hudapps.hud.gov/reac/wass/resetPwd.html), and provide the requested information and then click on the Reset Password button at the bottom of the form.

In an effort to further protect the privacy and security of data submitted to the Real Estate Assessment Center (REAC) by our business partners, Secure Systems passwords will begin to expire every sixty (60) calendar days. The 60-day clock will start ticking the first time a user logs in to Secure Systems on or after April 5, 2005. When a user's password expires, he/she will be presented with the "Change Password" page instead of the Secure Systems main menu. All Secure Connection users will be required to create a new password at each expiration notice.

Note: Passwords must be eight (8) characters in length, should be comprised of both mixed case letters and numbers, and are case sensitive. The new password must be different from the last ten passwords the user has had. Each time a password is changed, the 60-day clock resets.

If you require additional assistance, you may contact the Real Estate Assessment Center (REAC) Technical Assistance Center (TAC). Their contact information is available online, and copied below.

PIC SUMMARIZATION SCHEDULE FOR JANUARY TO DECEMBER 2012

The Monthly Summarization extract is run the First Friday of the month and continues throughout the weekend. The summarization process starts, barring any complications, at about 5pm Pacific Standard Time. If something hangs up that part of the summarization is rerun the next weekend.

Data received and processed before the First Friday cutoff will be included in the reports if its effective date falls within the report date range. HAs must make sure the 50058 submissions are completed the Thursday prior to the commencement of the summarization process.

HAs need to ensure that they maintain a reporting rate of 97% or higher since REAC will be monitoring on a monthly basis the Delinquency Report from PIC along with the PIC Reexam Report.

Monthly summarization reports are generated based on the effective date of the actions. Therefore, whatever the effective month of the action, that will be included in that month ending report. For example, if a PHA submitted a 50058 with an effective action date of January 2011, it will show in the January 31, 2011 reports, etc.

The monthly summarization reports are generated based on the effective date of the actions. So whatever the effective month of the action, that will be included in that month ending report.

Exceptions to First Friday summarization are made when:
The First Friday falls during a software release,
The monthly summarization fails to run successfully, and/or
Other operational problems prevent the running of the summarization that weekend.

HUD Designated EIV Superstars

Congratulations to the 34 Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) with zero (0) tenants reported on the Enterprise Income Verification (EIV) System's Deceased Tenants Report and/or Identity Verification Report as of January 4, 2012 that were identified by HUD Headquarters.

These are HUD-designated PHA stars for Quarter 1 as of 2012.

EIV-Notice 2012-10

Verification of Social Security Numbers (SSNs), Social Security (SS) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Benefits; and Effective Use of the Enterprise Income Verification (EIV) System's Identity Verification Report

On February 14, 2012, PIH Notice 2012-10 was published. The purpose of the notice is to explain the procedures public housing agencies (PHAs) are required to use for verifying social security numbers, social security benefits of applicants, participants and household members at the time of application for rental housing assistance programs and during mandatory reexamination of household income, as well as the procedures for effective use of EIV's Identity Verification Report to reduce subsidy payment and administrative errors. Similar guidance was issued under notice PIH-2010-03. This notice supersedes the aforementioned notice.

This notice also provides guidance related to the recent changes made to 24 CFR §5.216, 24 CFR §5.218, and new verification requirements at 24 CFR §5.233, in accordance with the Final Rule: Refinement of Income and Rent Determination in Public and Assisted Housing Programs: Implementation of the Enterprise Income Verification System-Amendments, effective January 31, 2010, as published at 74 FR 68924, on December 29, 2009. In accordance with the directions of the Office of the Federal Register, the December 29, 2009, final rule, because it is the later published rule, supersedes the January 27, 2009, final rule, which was also effective on January 31, 2010. Accordingly, only the regulatory amendments of the December 29, 2009, final rule are effective and applicable.

Bed Bugs

Guidelines on Bedbug Control and Prevention in Public Housing

On February 28, 2012, PIH Notice 2012-17 was published. Bedbug infestations have become a serious problem in housing throughout the country. Public Housing properties are not immune to infestations. This Notice provides information and references to best practices regarding the prevention and control of bedbug infestations. It also provides guidance on the rights and responsibilities of HUD, Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) and tenants with regard to bedbug infestations.

After a long absence, bedbug infestations are a growing problem in the United States today. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), bedbug populations have increased dramatically. Bedbugs are considered a pest of significant public health importance by the EPA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Although the insects are not known to transmit disease, bites may itch and cause an allergic reaction in some people, which may lead to secondary infections. The presence of bedbugs may also contribute to stress or anxiety.

Experts suspect the resurgence is associated with greater international and domestic travel, lack of knowledge regarding the complex measures needed to prevent and control bedbugs, changes in pesticide availability and technology, and increased resistance of bedbugs to available pesticides. Bedbugs are not an indicator of poor sanitation, but excess clutter can provide them more places to hide, making early detection and targeted control difficult.

HUD has received numerous reports of bedbug infestations in Public Housing properties in various regions. HUD is working closely with other federal agencies to develop and share best practices for preventing and controlling bedbugs.

EIV and PIC Reminders

Effective April 30, 2012, with the new release of EIV 9.3, PHAs will no longer be required to submit the form HUD 52676 to the EIV Coordinator in the local HUD Field Office. Instead, the PHA's EIV User Administrator will be responsible for electronically requesting the approval of added EIV roles to each user by using EIV's User Administration function. The requested roles will be approved by the EIV Coordinator in the local HUD Field Office.

EIV users certification will start April 1, 2012, at that time in the EIV user menu "Certification" will appear. Please make sure that prior to certifying the current EIV users that they view the EIV Security webcast (date of webcast has not been provided yet). PHA EIV User and Security Administrators will be certified by the EIV Coordinator in the local HUD Field Office.

PIC Users Certification will be taking place the month of April 2012, Housing Authority PIC Security Administrators will be getting a series of email notifications alerting them of the start date of the certification process.

If you have questions on the PIC or EIV certification process please contact Martha E. Murillo at (213) 534-2611 or via email at Martha.E.Murillo@hud.gov.

The Technical Assistance Center (TAC) serves as the primary point of contact for PIH program and business area inquiries.

Customers may call the TAC Monday through Friday, 7:00am - 8:30pm EST.

: TAC Notice :
When calling choose the best option for your request, be logged into the REAC system, be ready to share:

• your ID number
• PHA Code
• TIN number
• FHA number
• FYE
• error message and
• any other specific information needed to answer your inquiry.

PIH-REAC Technical Assistance Center: Phone: (888) 245-4860

• Press 1 - Disaster Assistance
• Press 2 - WASS Secure Systems Problems (Password Resets, BPRs, AKCs)
• Press 3 - For Inspectors Only
• Press 4 - PIH/PIC Program Requests
• Press 5 - Public Housing Requests (Financial, Management Certifications, Resident Issues)
• Press 6 - Housing Multifamily Requests (Physical Inspection and Financial Issues)

PIH-REAC TAC Fax: (202) 485-0280 Or (202) 485-0274

You may also reach us through email at REAC_TAC@hud.gov. You will receive a response by return email or telephone.

HUD security protocol PROHIBITS sending sensitive information, such as, Social Security Numbers, passwords, and other individual personal data through web, fax or email.

For issues requiring further research, the TAC will contact you directly via phone or email.

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