HUD presentation text describes new rules

HUD has posted a PDF version of the 58-slide Power Point presentation that accompanies its recently promoted Katrina emergency housing guidance webcast. Some of HUD's announcements have suggested the new webcast/presentation only addresses the new 18-month housing payment plan, but in fact the slides also summarize HUD's general response to the Katrina disaster and they mention highlights of many new emergency multifamily housing rules, some of which have not otherwise emerged as formal public regulatory announcements.

A large section of the document does discuss the new 18-month housing voucher program, lately dubbed the Katrina Disaster Housing Assistance Program (KDHAP), which it states in boldface type "should not be confused with the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program." The program, it states, is for displaced households from public housing, housing voucher units, or "other HUD assisted programs (e.g. 202, 811, Project-based Section 8, 236B). Also, mercifully, "Pre-disaster homeless individuals directly affected by the disaster."

An additional "Multifamily Housing Programs" section, beginning on p. 29, states that:

In Section 236 or 221(d) projects, a displaced family must be given priority over other applicants or placed on the top of the waiting list for temporary or permanent housing.

In Section 202 and 811 projects, a displaced individual may be given preference over other applicants on the waiting list provided that the diplaced individual meets other eligibility requirements (age, etc.)

More requirements follow for subsidized multifamily housing, and then PHA requirements begin at p. 33. Guidance on voucher housing begins at p. 41, including a statement that PHAs need not make September housing assistance payments if during that month the unit was both uninhabited and either uninhabitable or covered by a mandatory evacuation order.

The closing page provides an email address for questions: pihirc@firstpic.org. "FirstPic" appears to be a private consulting company.

Again, the rules summarized in this PowerPoint presentation are presumably based on more formal regulatory determinations that have not yet been posted. When copies of such determinations do turn up on public online regulatory sites, the links will certainly be noted in this space.