Los Angeles Office of Public Housing
Quarterly Newsletter Summer 2014
Serving Southern California

Long Beach, CA - February 24, 2014 - The Housing Authority of the City of Long Beach (HACLB) broke ground on Cabrillo Gateway, the new development under construction near the Port of Long Beach. Cabrillo Gateway is being developed by Century Villages at Cabrillo (CVC) and will feature 80 units with HUD Section 8 Project-Based Vouchers (PBVs) plus one manager's unit. For future residents it will also represent the symbolic gateway out of homelessness and into a hopeful, healthy future.

The HACLB and CVC have partnered with local agencies to ensure supportive services are onsite and available. The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health will provide targeted mental health services to eligible households. Further, The Children's Clinic has agreed to operate a Federally Qualified Health Center on the ground floor of Cabrillo Gateway.

San Diego Housing Commission (SDHC) uses Project-Based Vouchers to fight Homelessness

Connections Housing Downtown Marks One Year of Collaboration in Addressing Homelessness with Successful "Housing First" Model

San Diego - April 14, 2014 - Connections Housing Downtown, the City of San Diego's first-ever collaborative venture into the "Housing First" model for addressing homelessness, is showing remarkable success in its first year. Nearly 400 formerly homeless individuals who received help in stabilizing their lives have now moved into permanent supportive or longer-term housing.

The San Diego Housing Commission (SDHC) supports the City-sponsored public-private collaboration with federal Project-Based Housing Vouchers. These housing vouchers help fund 89 of the housing units, which are critical in helping to provide homeless men and women with a place to live as quickly as possible, the goal of "Housing First."

"What we have seen here today is not only a vision met, but is also a promise kept," said Richard C. Gentry, President & CEO of SDHC, which provides ongoing residential funding for the center. "It's not enough to get people off the streets for just a short time. Transitional housing is important. But permanent supportive housing is where we need to go."

The year-round homeless facility is part of an innovative approach to ending homelessness that combines housing with an array of support services for men and women taken off the streets of downtown San Diego. In addition to its 150 interim housing beds and 73 permanent studio apartments, Connections Housing helps its residents with a community health clinic operated by Family Health Centers of San Diego, substance-abuse counseling, employment services and other assistance. SDHC contracts with People Assisting the Homeless (PATH) San Diego to operate the interim housing. PATH Ventures was co-developer of the project with Affirmed Housing Group.

SDHC was one of the first housing agencies in the nation to use federal housing vouchers to make housing available for homeless individuals, an approval SDHC received from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Connections Housing Downtown celebrated its grand opening on March 11, 2013. For more information about SDHC programs, visit www.sdhc.org.

Edison Provides Education Funds for Public Housing Youth in LA County

Housing Authority of the County of Los Angeles (HACoLA) and the Los Angeles County Community Development Foundation are awarded $25,000 and 5 laptops to prepare youth for college

Alhambra - June 10, 2014 - The Los Angeles County Community Development Foundation (CDF), which is affiliated with the HACoLA, was awarded a $25,000 grant and 5 laptops from Southern California Edison to prepare public housing youth for college. CDF Executive Director, Jennifer Blackwell-Trotter, stated "we are excited to continue this long-standing partnership with Edison - a business leader supporting educational programs that emphasize science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM)."

With the support of Edison, the CDF will continue to provide low-income students living in Public Housing owned and operated by the HACoLA with its "Project: Scholars" initiative that focuses on STEAM education and creating a college bound and career exploring culture within disadvantaged communities. Participants of "Project: Scholars" are eligible for college scholarships, to attend afterschool programming and SAT/ACT exam preparation, to receive mentorship from college graduates, and prepare for life after school by attending various career and life skills workshops. 

To hear more amazing and inspiring stories or to provide donations, please contact Jennifer Blackwell-Trotter at the Community Development Foundation (626) 586-1899 or visit www.lacdf.org.

Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara (HACSB) introduces paperless HAP
System provides 18-month payment history to landlords on program

The Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara is the latest agency to offer landlords direct deposit of Housing Assistance Payments (HAP).

Additionally, all landlords have the option to access payment information online through the HMS PAL website. It provides an 18-month payment history, year to date totals and the most current check and direct deposit data is available.

Because landlords can view the same information online as on paper statements, the Housing Authority encourages going paperless, and opting to not receive the paper remittance advices.

In a letter to the HACSB landlords dated March 1, 2014, Finance Director Bob Peirson, said, "Now, I can tell you that the online system is easy to use, convenient and is available anytime. I can tell you that it provides you with access to at least two years of detailed historical payment information, that it contains all of the same information contained on the paper remittance advices that we mail you each month."

The program was scheduled to be fully implemented in May. Switching to the paperless HAP voucher payment system was expected to save the HACSB approximately $3,500 annually.

New Management Specialist Joins LAOPH Staff

In May, the Los Angeles Office of Public Housing (LAOPH) welcomed a new staff member. William M. Rhodes joins the staff as a Portfolio Management Specialist (PMS). A native of Augusta, Ga., Mr. Rhodes is an U.S. Air Force veteran with more than 20 years of active duty service. He has more than 10 years of housing authority experience.

As a PMS, his duties will be to serve as internal support on technical issues involving PIH programs and projects. He will also work on ensuring the physical integrity and financial viability and managing the efficient and effective coordination and operation of PIH activities and projects.

He is a professional Master Scuba Diving Instructor with PADI, the Professional Association of Dive Instructors and his a licensed U.S. Merchant Marine Captain. Among his list of hobbies is cooking, playing both the acoustic and electric guitar.

HUD Provides Local Homeless Programs Additional Funding

WASHINGTON - U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan announced a second round of grants totaling $140 million to nearly 900 local homeless assistance programs across the country. Provided through HUD's Continuum of Care Program, the funding announced will ensure additional permanent and transitional housing renewal projects are able to continue operating in the coming year, providing critically needed housing and support services to those persons and families experiencing homelessness.

The grant announcement includes 436 new local projects aimed at providing permanent supportive housing for persons experiencing chronic homelessness through a Housing First approach and to "rapidly re-house" families with children that are living on the street or in emergency shelters.

"Communities all across the country are changing their approach to reducing homelessness and now is not the time to retreat from doing what we know works," said Donovan. Donovan added, "Investing in proven strategies such as 'Rapid Re-housing' and 'Housing First' help to break the cycle of homelessness as we have known it in these communities."

This year, local planning agencies called 'Continuums of Care' were asked to make strategic and hard decisions in order to implement a required five percent cut as a result of sequestration. While HUD was able to fund all eligible new permanent housing projects requested, the Department was only able to fund permanent housing and transitional housing renewal projects requested in this second round of grants (Tier 2). Despite these cuts and the tough budgetary decisions they forced, most local planners chose to reallocate funds from lower priorities in order to create projects following best-practice models that serve those homeless persons most in need and to help the community achieve the goal of ending homelessness. 

Earlier this year, HUD awarded $1.6 billion in the first round of funding to more than 7,100 existing programs operating across the U.S. Donovan added, "During this touch budget climate, ending homelessness requires a continued bipartisan commitment from Congress. The grantees receiving funds today will join the thousands of local programs that are already on the front lines ending homelessness as we know it.

Local Counties Receiving Funding

• Los Angeles County - $2,100,867
• San Diego - $654, 949
• Santa Ana/Anaheim/Orange County - $1,487,909
• Bakersfield/Kern County $95,128
• Long Beach CoC - $417,163
• Pasadena CoC - $325,194
• Riverside City and County - $980,635
• San Bernardino City & County - $911,193
• Oxnard/San Buenaventura/Ventura County - $300,675
• Glendale - $185,437

Real Estate Assessment Center's TAC moves to Capital View Building

As part of a broad-based Technical Assessment Center (TAC) Modernization Initiative, effective Monday, June 30, the Real Estate Assessment Center's (REAC) TAC is moving from the Potomac Center facility to the Capital View Building. Both locations are within the HUD Headquarters LAN. Please note that the REAC mailing address will not change. The TAC phone number will remain 1-888-245-4860. In order to minimize the time TAC services will be offline and unavailable, TAC operations will cease promptly at 3:00pm ET on Friday, June 27, and will reopen at 7:00am ET Monday, June 30.

During that period, TAC customers have the option of leaving a voice mail message or sending service requests by email requests to REAC_TAC@hud.gov. It is expected that REAC will be able to process those voice mail and email requests on Monday, June 30, 2014.

Acting Deputy Director is a Recipient of the Secretary's Award for Exceptional Field Operations

The Secretary's Award recognizes employees for exceptional achievements which substantially contribute to the accomplishments of major program objectives in field operations.

"I'm honored to receive such a distinguished award," said Stephen Kidd, Acting Deputy Director of the HUD Los Angeles Office of Public Housing. Acknowledging his team members, Kidd added, "working with such esteemed colleagues continues to be a truly rewarding experience."

The Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) is responsible for the administration, monitoring, and oversight of over $26 billion in program funds (nearly 60 percent of HUD's total 2014 appropriated budget authority). In spring of 2013, this special team reviewed existing risk assessment tools, compiled the best of the best, and developed a comprehensive National Risk Assessment which was piloted nationally in August 2013. The national team worked tirelessly to create a risk assessment model using standards defined by the ISO 31000 (International Organization for Standardization) and OMB Circular A-I 23 Management Responsibility for Internal Control. The National Risk Assessment helps the field offices identify and analyze risk at all PHAs, including the causes and establish custom risk treatment plans.

Take Notice of PIH Notices!

Visit http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/administration/hudclips/notices/pih

Announcements

Public Housing Capital Fund Program Final Rule Publication

The Public Housing Capital Fund Program Final Rule was published in the Federal Register October 24, 2013 (Docket No. 5236-F-02) and became effective on November 25, 2013. This regulation combines the Capital Fund requirements for modernization and development into a single regulation. It also updates and streamlines many of the Capital Fund and development requirements, incorporates recent energy requirements, and directs more funding towards modernization. This rule along with a new Capital Fund guidebook, which is under development and expected to be available in the spring, will ensure that the Capital Fund Program is more efficiently and uniformly implemented by PHAs and managed more effectively by the HUD Field Offices.

http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/documents/huddoc?id=CapFundFinalRule2013-23230.pdf

HUD REAC Monitoring of PHA Program Compliance

As part of its internal control efforts, the Department's Real Estate Assessment Center (REAC) continuously monitors the timeliness and accuracy of tenant information reported to the Public and Indian Housing Information Center (PIC). REAC performs data comparisons of tenant information reported in PIC to data obtained from other Federal databases to validate the accuracy of tenant-reported Social Security Numbers (SSNs), names, and date of birth. The intended outcome of this monitoring is to identify, reduce, and recover improper payments within HUD's rental assistance programs; improve the accuracy and integrity of tenant data; and to verify Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) compliance with PIC reporting and use of the Enterprise Income Verification (EIV) system.

The following lists the PIC data and frequency of REAC monitoring. PHAs should also ensure monitoring of the data below on a monthly (m) or quarterly (q) basis:

• PIC Delinquency Report (m)
• PIC Rexam Report (m)
• EIV PHA Usage Report
• EIV Deceased Tenants Report (m)
• EIV Identity Verification Report (m)
• EIV Multiple Subsidy Report (q)
• EIV Immigration Report (m)
• EIV Income Report (m)
• Tenant Unreported Income (m) 

If further assistance is needed or for questions regarding the above listed data, please contact Martha.E.Murillo@hud.gov.

HUD Secure System 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 to: 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.

Public and Indian Housing One-Stop Tool (POST) for PHAs

PHA staff can use POST to obtain quick access to PIH systems, tools, training opportunities, program requirements, commonly used external websites, PIH contacts, and much more.

Some of the most helpful links are as follows:

• PIH A-Z Index
• News You Can Use
• Calendar of Due Dates

If you have recommendations to improve POST or if you are having difficulty accessing web pages, we want to hear from you! Please email us at POSTforPHAs@hud.gov.

Access POST

http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/public_indian_housing/post

Proactive Exchange

New Dates for this year! Please save the dates and mark your calendars! Please plan to attend these informative sharing sessions designed to improve communications and to ensure that our jurisdiction has no troubled PHAs.

• Tuesday, July 22, 2014
• Thursday, November 13, 2014
• Time: 10-12pm
• 8th Floor Conference Room
• 611 Sixth Street
• Los Angeles, CA 90017 

If you will like to present at any of our upcoming Proactive Exchanges or have topic suggestions please email Maria.J.Granata@hud.gov. We encourage you to attend in person and will continue to have Live Meeting available for those who can't be here. Hope to see you at our next Proactive Exchange coming up November 13 2014.

Helpful Resource Links

Two Year Forecasting Tool - PHA staff can use this tool to forecast the relationship between current HCV leasing and future funding. - http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/public_indian_housing/programs/hcv

REAC Technical Assistance Center - The Real Estate Assessment Center (REAC) Technical Assistance Center analyses data and develops objective performance scores. PHA staff can use the REAC technical assistance for helpful links. http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/public_indian_housing/reac/support/tac

Upcoming Deadlines

Financial Data Schedule (FDS) Submission Deadlines

Unaudited submissions are due no later than 2 months after the PHA's FYE; for those entities required to have an audit, the audited submissions are due 9 months after the PHA's FYE. PHAs are required to submit their financial information through the FASS-PH system.

Environmental Intervention Blood Lead Levels (EIBLL)

The PHA shall make quarterly attempts to obtain from the public health department(s) with area(s) of jurisdiction similar to that of the designated party the names and/or addresses of children of less than 6 years of age with an identified environmental intervention blood lead level.

At least quarterly, the designated party shall also report an updated list of the addresses of units receiving assistance under a tenant-based rental assistance program to the same public health department(s), except that the report(s) to the public health department(s) is not required if the health department states that it does not wish to receive such report.

If it obtains names and addresses of EIBLL children from the public health department(s), the PHA shall match information on cases of environmental intervention blood lead levels with the names and addresses of families receiving tenant-based rental assistance, unless the public health department performs such a matching procedure. If a match occurs, the designated party shall carry out the requirements of 24 CFR 35.1225.

Deadlines and Key Dates

The Energy Performance Information Center (EPIC)

Change in EPIC Reporting Frequency

In order to provide PHAs with some administrative relief, starting October 1, 2013, PHAs will only be required to report on planned/completed Energy Efficiency Measures (EEMS) in the Energy and Performance Information Center (EPIC) system ANNUALLY. Under the revised system, PHAs would report at the end of their fiscal year rather than each quarter, as follows:

*Reminder: EPIC reports are cumulative. For example, if a PHA installs 10 Energy Star refrigerators in the first quarter in which it is reporting on a grant, it would report that in the Q1 report - if it then installs 5 more Energy Star refrigerators in the next quarter, it is to report 15 in the next quarter's report, not 5.

What is EPIC?

The Energy and Performance Information Center (EPIC) is a program designed to collect summary capital fund grant activity and energy efficiency measures (EEM) - planned and completed - being implemented with PIH Capital Fund Formula or RHF grants. It is similar in appearance and functionality to the RAMPS program which was used to collect EEM for ARRA grants. PHAs are required to report their activities in EPIC on a quarterly basis after the conclusion of each quarter. PHAs must submit a report for all open Formula and RHF grants.

Accessing EPIC

EPIC can be found at: http://portal.hud.gov/app_epic. Please add this to your Favorites in your web browser for easy future access.

Help!

EPICHelp@hud.gov In your help request, you should include your M number, your full name, your office telephone number, and your PHA code. Additionally, the EPIC login page provides additional information about what to do and who to contact if you encounter problems logging into the system. To access EPIC, go to: http://portal.hud.gov/app_epic. Please add this to your Favorites in your web browser for easy future access.

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