Announcement of Funding Awards for Fiscal Year 2008 for the Housing Choice Voucher Program

AGENCY:

Office of the Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing, HUD.

ACTION:

Announcement of Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 awards.

SUMMARY:

In accordance with Section 102(a)(4)(C) of the Department of Housing and Urban Development Reform Act of 1989, this document notifies the public of funding awards for Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 to housing agencies (HAs) under the Section 8 housing choice voucher program. The purpose of this notice is to publish the names, addresses, and the amount of the awards to HAs for non-competitive funding awards for housing conversion actions, public housing relocations and replacements, moderate rehabilitation replacements, and HOPE VI voucher awards.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Danielle Bastarache, Director, Office of Housing Voucher Programs, Office of Public and Indian Housing, Department of Housing and Urban Development, 451 Seventh Street, SW., Room 4228, Washington, DC 20410-5000, telephone (202) 402-0477. Hearing- or speech-impaired individuals may call HUD's TTY number at (800) 927-7589. (Only the “800” telephone number is toll-free.)

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

The regulations governing the housing choice voucher program are published at 24 CFR part 982. The regulations for allocating housing assistance budget authority under Section 213(d) of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 are published at 24 CFR part 791, subpart D.

The purpose of this rental assistance program is to assist eligible families to pay their rent for decent, safe, and sanitary housing. The FY2008 awardees announced in this notice were provided Section 8 funds on an as-needed, non-competitive basis, i.e., not pursuant to the provisions of a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFAs). Tenant protection voucher awards made to PHAs for program actions that displace families living in public housing were made on a first-come, first-served basis in accordance with PIH Notice 2007-10, Voucher Funding in Connection with the Demolition or Disposition of Occupied Public Housing Units. Announcements of awards provided under the NOFA process for mainstream housing and designated housing programs will be published in a separate Federal Register notice.

Awards published under this notice were provided (1) to assist families living in HUD-owned properties that are being sold; (2) to assist families affected by the expiration or termination of their project-based Section 8 and moderate rehabilitation contracts; (3) to assist families in properties where the owner has prepaid the HUD mortgage; (4) to provide relocation housing assistance in connection with the demolition of public housing; (5) to provide replacement housing assistance for single room occupancy (SRO) units that fail housing quality standards (HQS); and (6) to assist families in public housing developments that are scheduled for demolition in connection with a HUD-approved HOPE VI Revitalization or Demolition Grant. Limited administrative fees were added to each assignment for the administration of housing choice vouchers awarded under this notice. Awards made subsequent to the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008, are assigned administrative fees quarterly under a separate process. Special housing fees were included for applicable Housing tenant protection awards.

PHAs awarded housing choice vouchers in connection with a public housing demolition/disposition plan were authorized to use their available net restricted assets (NRA) to offset the required budget authority for units requested, if the PHA had a significant accumulation of unspent housing assistance payment funds available.

For NRA criteria, the Department determined that the amount of total January 1, 2008, NRA remaining after offsets exceeded 17% of CY 2008 eligibility for PHAs with 251 through 1000 units or 8.5% for PHAs with over 1000 units could be used to fund tenant protection actions. For PHAs with 250 or fewer units, HUD did not use NRA for tenant protection needs. PHAs that were awarded vouchers for public housing relocation or replacement and HOPE VI tenant protection, and whose budget authority is indicated with an asterisk, were awarded minimal funds for authority due to the use of NRA to fully or partially fund their tenant protection voucher needs.

The Department awarded total new budget authority of $146,833,794 for 19,605 housing choice vouchers to recipients under all of the above-mentioned categories. In addition, HUD authorized 18 PHAs to use a total of $15,560,146 in net restricted assets to offset awards made in FY 2008. The total cost of vouchers awarded is $162,393,940, which includes $2,932,211 that was provided from the HOPE VI account.

In accordance with Section 102(a)(4)(C) of the Department of Housing and Urban Development Reform Act of 1989 (103 Stat. 1987, 42 U.S.C. 3545), the Department is publishing the names, addresses, and amounts of those awards as shown in Appendix A alphabetically by State then by PHA name.