On
Tuesday, February 1, 2005, HUD issued guidelines to Public Housing
Authorities (PHAs) to identify and clarify ways in which PHAs can
assist people with disabilities to find safe, decent and affordable
housing under the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program. This
notice is in response to President Bush's New Freedom Initiative
and the Executive Order "Community-Based
Alternatives for Individuals With Disabilities.
HUD's implementation suggestions to PHAs include allowing a longer
search term for people with disabilities, providing referral services,
providing housing search assistance and cooperating with other governmental
agencies.
This
notice also offers clarification to PHAs administering special
purpose vouchers for people with disabilities (i.e. "Designated" vouchers, "Certain
Developments" vouchers and "Mainstream" vouchers). Specifically,
a PHA must issue the number of vouchers that they were originally awarded
to families in the target population defined by the Notice of Funding
Availability (NOFA). Furthermore, the notice states that "these
vouchers, to the extent practicable, must continue to be issued to
non-elderly disabled families upon turnover. To the “extent practicable” means
that all non-elderly disabled families on a PHA's waiting list have
been issued these turnover vouchers, and PHA outreach efforts specifically
directed to non-elderly disabled families has yielded no eligible
applicants."
The
notice provides guidance on special housing types, definition of
a "family", exception
payment standards and earned income disallowance.
Until recently, no HUD program guidance on these vouchers set aside
for people with disabilities had been issued by HUD other than the
original Notices of Funding Availability (NOFAs), some of which were
published as far back as 1997.
For more information, see the following links:
HUD's
Press Release
HUD's
Guidelines Full Text
Opening
Doors Issue 25, "Section
8 Problems Negatively Affect People with Disabilities"
