HUD SELECTS TACOMA AS ONE OF THREE INNOVATING HOUSING AUTHORITIES TO JOIN ELITE PROGRAM TO ENHANCE FEDERAL RENTAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS
Tacoma, Champaign County and Orlando housing authorities gain special status

WASHINGTON - U.S. Housing and Urban Development Assistant Secretary Sandra B. Henriquez today announced
that three public housing agencies to participate in HUD's Moving To Work Program (MTW). MTW allows housing agencies to design and test innovative housing strategies that assist lower income families living in public housing
or who are assisted through HUD's Housing Choice Voucher Program.

Public housing authorities in Tacoma, Champaign County, Illinois and Orlando, Florida; will join 30 other agencies across the U.S. These three housing authorities were selected from among eight agencies that applied for MTW designation late last year and will reap the benefits this designation until 2018.

The other already-approved MTW housing authorities in the Northwest are the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation and the Portland, Seattle, Vancouver and King County housing authorities.

"The agencies we selected today clearly demonstrated their ability to create innovative approaches to housing and
to form private partnerships that can really build on public dollars," said Henriquez, who leads HUD's Office of Public and Indian Housing. "HUD supports our housing partners to think outside of the box to improve our federal programs
to better assist low-income families."

The MTW program was created in 1996 as a demonstration or "test project" to give housing authorities the opportunity to design and test innovative, locally developed housing and self-sufficiency strategies for low income families participating in HUD's public housing and Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) programs. HUD exempts these agencies from certain rules and permits them to combine their multiple sources of HUD funding into a single agency-wide funding source. MTW agencies also get considerable flexibility in determining how to use their HUD funding. These agencies are, however, required to serve substantially the same number and type of households as they
would without MTW designation. The program aims to accomplish three goals:

• Reduce costs and achieve greater cost effectiveness in federal expenditures;
• Give incentives to families with children where the head of household is working, is seeking work, or is
  preparing for work by participating in job training, educational programs, or programs that assist people
  to obtain employment and become economically self-sufficient; and
• Increase housing choices for low-income families.

As part of HUD's 2009 budget appropriation, Congress directed HUD to add three agencies that met certain criteria
to the program. In August 2009, HUD invited eligible public housing agencies to apply for admission to the MTW program. The agencies had to be: high performing under HUD's Public Housing Assessment System (PHAS); a
recipient of a HUD HOPE VI Revitalization grant; and operate no more 5,000 aggregate housing vouchers and public housing units. HUD identified 17 potential applicants and received applications from eight housing authorities. The agencies selected received the highest scores after a ranking and rating system.

The Tacoma Housing Authority and its related tax-credit partnerships own 1,225 public housing units and have
3,500 Housing Choice Vouchers (HCV), serving approximately 12,000 residents or 6% of Tacoma's population. THA plans to demolish 104 public housing units and replace them with 127 public housing and project-based voucher
units. Disposition is planned for 34 scattered site units with 13 units being sold and the remaining 21 units qualifying for market rate rentals with project-based subsidies.

The Authority owns and manages 265 Family Units, 510 Disabled/Mixed Units and 271 Elderly Units. The HCV Program currently serves 622 elderly households, 1,712 disabled households and 2,282 family households. The percentage of extremely low income residents in public housing is 66 percent with 23 percent of families served being very low-income. The HCV under contract include 79 percent extremely low income and 17 percent very low income. HACC plans to serve an additional 95 families in the Public Housing Program and an additional 83 families through the HCV Program.

Tacoma Housing Authority has eight strategic objectives designed to achieve the three MTW statutory objectives. These include: housing and real estate development; building strong communities; managing properties in a safe and efficient manner; providing high quality housing and supportive services; becoming a more self-sustaining agency; developing and managing properties in an environmentally responsible manner; providing quality information about housing authority activities and residents served and housing and community development; and creating and maintaining excellent administrative systems with highly qualified staff for effective customer service.

To encourage self-sufficiency the Authority plans to replace the mandatory earned income disallowance with flexible enrollment in the Family Self-Sufficiency Program, redefine adjusted income and expenses, use agency resources to fund resident training programs, extend allowable tenant absence from units and create a special rental assistance program with McCarver Elementary School and Tacoma Public Schools. Activities planned to increase housing
choices include a local project-based voucher program and allowing transfers between public housing and the
voucher program. THA plans to reduce costs through triennial recertifications for fixed-income households, institute local verification policies, modify the housing choice voucher inspection process and limit the number of moves for
HCV households.

Notable Proposed MTW Initiatives

Creation of a Digital Dashboard - The Authority intends to design a digital dashboard to track performance measures for its strategic objectives and operations. The performance measures that will be captured include:
earned income from different populations, savings rates, educational outcomes, number of households by subpopulations served, metrics for housing stability, per unit cost of operations, per voucher cost of operations, metrics of individual properties and portfolio aggregates. This tool will allow staff to identify the successes and
failures for different activities and focus resources where they are needed.

Use Combined MTW Funds to Fund Resident Training Programs - This initiative will require the trainee to
engage in training activities and be tested at the end of each activity. If an employee passes each phase they will become a regular The Authority employee. MTW authority is needed to have the funding flexibility to train residents for these positions and assign them administrative functions within the agency.

McCarver Elementary School Project: Pilot Housing and Education Program - This initiative aims to stabilize families through a special rental assistance program in partnership with Tacoma Public Schools to assist families at McCarver Elementary School and stabilize student turnover which was 121% for the 2007-2008 school year. Rental assistance will be provided for 50 families for the duration of the school year with the expected outcome of higher student performance. THA will also explore two related initiatives of conditioning assistance on parent's commitment to their children's education and cooperating with the school to provide matching funds to for these types of activities.

Significant Partnerships

Tacoma Housing Authority uses both public and private community partnerships for the full range of its activities. Partnerships include the City of Tacoma, Tacoma Public Schools, Seattle Housing Authority, king County Housing Authority, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Building Changes, The Helping Hand House, Catholic Community Services, the College Success Foundation and Tacoma 360.

Matching Housing Assistance with Supportive Services - The Authority matches housing resources with supportive services in a partnership with Helping Hands House.

Project Basing Vouchers to Finance New Construction and Supportive Services - In this initiative, the
Authority partners with Intercommunity Mercy Housing, Tacoma Rescue mission, Harborview Manor and other
organizations to finance new housing and make it affordable in the long-term for poor families.

Washington Families Fund program - THA participates in this program with the State of Washington, other local authorities and service organizations to provide housing and supportive services to homeless families with minor children.

Other Programs - These include the Family Unification Program Voucher Program, The Martin Luther King Jr.
Corridor Project, Sound Families and Washington Families Fund Partnership.

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HUD's mission is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all. HUD is working to strengthen the housing market to bolster the economy and protect consumers; meet the need for quality affordable rental homes: utilize housing as a platform for improving quality of life; build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination; and transform the way HUD does business. More information about HUD and its programs is available on the Internet at www.hud.gov and espanol.hud.gov.