NAHMA Update: HUD Issues Updated Multifamily Q and As; Treasury Provides ERAP Promising Practice

August 10, 2021

Dear NAHMA Members,

HUD’s Office of Multifamily Housing has updated the Multifamily COVID-19 Q&As to reflect the CDC's new eviction moratorium order announced on August 3rd, that temporarily halts evictions in counties with heightened levels of transmission through Oct. 3, 2021. Please note the new addition on page 18--question 26, that specifies penalties for violating the CDC eviction moratorium order:  

“Question: What are the penalties for a landlord, owner of a residential property, or other person with a legal right to pursue an eviction or a possessory action violating the CDC Order? Answer: With regards to penalties for violating the Order, please refer to the HHS/CDC Temporary Halt In Residential Evictions to Prevent The Further Spread of COVID-19 FAQs, the CDC Declaration Form, and more information at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-eviction-declaration.html.”  

To view the attached Multifamily COVID-19 Q & As, click here.

Additionally, the Department of the Treasury has made $46 billion in funding available through Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) programs to address the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on millions of American renters. Each ERA grantee has some flexibility to develop their rental assistance program to suit the needs of their local community, while complying with requirements outlined in their ERA financial assistance agreement, the ERA statute, and Treasury’s guidelines. Treasury has engaged with ERA grantees across the country to identify program strategies that promise to speed up program implementation, more efficiently deliver program benefits, enhance program integrity, and improve tenant and landlord access to programs—particularly for vulnerable and harder to reach populations. This includes outreach, landlord engagement, eviction diversion, help with utilities, an updated CDC Eviction Protection Declaration form and examples of self-attestation forms. As grantees across the country build program infrastructure designed to meet the specific needs of their communities, many have reported that early successes have relied on leveraging local resources, data-driven operational analyses, and incorporating continuous operational improvement strategies into their regular practices. The program information provided below is intended solely to illuminate “promising practices” that grantees might consider when developing their jurisdiction’s program policies and infrastructure. Specific promising practices include: 

• Partnerships in Program Implementation
• Culturally and Linguistically Competent Outreach
• Intentional Landlord Engagement
• Partnerships with Broader Eviction Diversion Programs
• Collaboration with Local Utility Companies
• Adjusting Program Strategies to Meet Local Needs
• Making the Application Process Simple and User Friendly
• Using Fact-Specific Proxies to Establish Applicant Income
• Automation Supporting Application Prioritization
• Data-Driven Program Strategies
• Example self-attestation forms
• Program Web sites

While this is not an exhaustive list of promising practices, these insights may be useful to ERA grantees as they build out programs to help households maintain their housing, despite the financial uncertainty experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Treasury recognizes that programs vary according to local circumstances; these examples are intended to help programs identify opportunities to enhance the effectiveness of their own programs but may not be universally applicable to all grantees. All such policy development must proceed in accordance with the governing legal authorities and published policy guidance. Nothing herein should be construed as (i) altering these requirements or (ii) confirming that any specific grantee’s program policies or administrative practices have been fully reviewed and found compliant.

To learn more about Treasury’s Promising Practices for ERA programs, click here.