Public Housing Evaluation and Oversight

This proposed rule would make two sets of amendments to improve evaluation and oversight of public housing agencies (PHAs).

First, this proposed rule would amend HUD's Public Housing Assessment System (PHAS) regulations for the purposes of:

1. consolidating the regulations governing assessment of a PHA's program in one part of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR);
2. revising certain PHAS regulations based on the Department's experience with PHAS since it was established as the new system for evaluating a PHA in 1998; and
3. updating certain PHAS procedures to reflect recent changes in public housing operations from conversion by PHAs to asset management, including updating and revising the PHAS scoring.

PHAS is designed to improve the delivery of services in public housing and to enhance trust in the public housing system among PHAs, public housing residents, and the general public, by providing a management tool for effectively and fairly measuring the performance of a PHA in essential housing operations of its projects, based on standards that are uniform and verifiable. The changes proposed by this rule are intended to enhance the efficiency and utility of PHAS.

Second, the proposed rule would establish, in a separate part of the CFR, the regulations that would specify:

1. the actions or inactions by which a PHA would be determined to be in substantial default,
2. the procedures for a PHA to respond to such a determination or finding, and
3. the sanctions available to HUD to address and remedy substantial default by a PHA.

To date, such regulations have been included in the PHAS regulations, but the actions or inactions that constitute substantial default are not limited to failure to comply with PHAS regulations. Accordingly, the proposed regulations applicable to substantial default are more appropriately codified in a separate CFR part.

This proposed rule is also publishing the scoring processes for each of the PHAS scoring categories as appendices to part 902. Although these scoring processes are proposed as appendices, it is also possible that, at the final rule stage, they will be published as separate notices as has been HUD's practice to this point.

Comment Due Date: October 20, 2008.