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In the fall, as the heat of summer diminishes, site managers typically experience an increase in pest complaints from residents as outdoor pests move indoors seeking warmth. Site managers also find an increase in bedbug sightings, despite the fact that bedbugs are indoor pests that are rarely found outside. While other pests are trying to get into your home to get away from the cold, bedbugs are already inside. But bedbugs are hitchhikers.

When you certify or recertify households, some members may tell you that they’re getting disability payments through a short-term or long-term disability insurance plan. These payments replace part of the wages household members lose when they can’t work due to illness or injury. The household member may be getting short-term disability payments for a limited amount of time through a private insurance company or statewide insurance fund.

A consistent stream of hacks and large-scale corporate data breaches in the news have heightened the public’s awareness and sensitivity towards privacy issues. Most recently, a major bank broke news of a data breach that affected approximately 100 million customers in the U.S. and another 6 million in Canada. While data breaches of banks and large corporations generate the most news headlines, HUD has had its own problems with the data security of public housing residents.

HUD’s Office of Asset Management and Portfolio Oversight (OAMPO) recently issued a memo for multifamily regional directors, satellite office directors, performance-based contract administrators, and multifamily owners and management agents. The memo clarifies owners’ responsibilities to notify residents in advance of physical inspections and to make final inspection documents available for review and comment. The memo also encourages collaborative implementation of new house rules.

A housing assistance payments (HAP) contract is a contract between HUD and an owner to provide rental assistance for low-income residents. The rental assistance supplements what the resident pays for rent, which is usually 30 percent of the resident’s income.

A site’s community room is an ideal place for residents to throw parties or hold resident association meetings. But use of this amenity can cause problems. If residents or their guests act irresponsibly, they may damage the community room and its furnishings. And if someone’s injured while using the community room, your site could be held liable.

Lengthy unexplained household absences from your site can be frustrating and may even violate HUD lease provisions that require assisted households to use their units as their primary residences. You may have households that leave the site for months at a time during particular seasons. Or you may have a tenant serving in the armed forces who has been deployed for a lengthy amount of time. Regardless of the reason for extended absences, you need to be consistent in how you deal with long absences when it comes to your affordable housing site.

HUD regulations have three key requirements when rejecting applicants. Owners must not discriminate against an applicant based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, or disability. Also, for Section 8 program owners, HUD requires owners to comply with the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The VAWA protects victims of domestic violence, dating violence, or stalking, as well as their immediate family members, from being denied housing assistance if an incident of violence is reported and confirmed.

By Carolyn Zezima, Esq.

April is National Fair Housing Month, which, according to HUD, is time for people to come together “as a community and a nation to celebrate the anniversary of the passing of the Fair Housing Act (FHA) and recommit to that goal which inspired us in the aftermath of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968: to eliminate housing discrimination and create equal opportunity in every community.”