![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2012\/04\/MarkLivanec.jpg\" "\\"MarkLivanec\\"")
Mark Livanec, Vice President of Affordable Housing and PHA Sales at Yardi Systems, is an active advocate for Yardi clients when it comes to state and federal legislation affecting affordable and public housing.<\/p>\nMark Livanec, Vice President of Affordable Housing and PHA Sales at Yardi Systems, is an active advocate for Yardi clients when it comes to state and federal legislation affecting affordable and public housing.<\/p>\n
Mark serves as secretary of the Board of Directors of the National Affordable Housing Management\u2019s Educational Foundation, which raises scholarship funds for residents in affordable housing developments; he is also a member of the NAA\u2019s Affordable Housing Task Force.<\/p>\n
Mark was recently in Washington, D.C. to participate in NAHMA\u2019s winter meeting and the NAA Capitol Conference. We asked him to brief us on the latest developments<\/p>\n
Federal budget \u2013 Widespread concern about funding<\/strong><\/p>\n There\u2019s substantial concern about the 2013 federal budget, especially the fact that it has not authorized all affordable housing and public housing programs. SEVRA \u2013 the Section Eight Voucher Reform Act – that\u2019s been in place for the last year \u2013 is looking at the way housing choice vouchers are being budgeted and reported on. It really has got a many people concerned, especially in the public housing sector as well affordable housing owner-agents, those organizations who are using the housing choice voucher dollars to help pay for resident rent. We are concerned those programs will be cut dramatically.<\/em><\/p>\n The 2013 budget isn\u2019t even authorizing all of the funds being requested. It\u2019s \u00a0expected to authorize funds covering only a partial year. \u00a0There\u2019s a lot of concern about \u2018are owners going to be paid on time for voucher payments?\u2019, and \u2018are Housing Authorities going to see cuts in the funding and the availability to deliver vouchers?\u2019 Everybody is concerned on the owner-agent side that they will to be able to meet their deliverables. <\/em><\/p>\n HUD has been working on the TRACS 202D update.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0This is a large effort involving HUD\/TRACS staff, Contract Administrators, Owner Agents and a number of software \u00a0vendors.\u00a0 The project was originally scheduled to be deployed in July of this year.\u00a0 Due to recent changes and contracting issues, the project has been delayed to March of 2013. Most vendors have been working on a 202D-compliant version of their software for some time and expected HUD to be ready in July. Yardi was prepared to deliver in mid \u2013April to meet the July go live date.\u00a0 We expected that the TRACS software would be completed, and we would start testing in April.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n HUD has also announced that they are considering the addition of three new subsidy types to the TRACS specification; \u00a0this has also served to impact the go-live date. As a result, we will not be releasing TRACS\u00a0202D compliant software until the end of this year on in early 2013. <\/em><\/p>\n The good news for our customers is that \u00a0there are no compliance based upgrades expected this year meaning you are free to concentrate on other elements of your operations.\u00a0 For many, this is the best possible news.<\/em><\/p>\n Performance Based Contract Administrators<\/strong><\/p>\n The project-based side of HUD uses a program called Performance Based Contract Administrators; basically using third party contractors to perform the day-to-day work of monitoring Contracts for performance and compliance. These Contract Administrators serve as HUD\u2019s eyes and ears for almost all the Section 8 contracts within HUD\u2019s Multi Family Housing Program.\u00a0 Last year HUD put most of the contracts up for re-bid and \u00a0quite a few of the awards were granted to new vendors. Many of the current contractors were upset and have contested the awards.\u00a0 As a result a large number of these contracts need to be re-bid.<\/em><\/p>\n In essence, the award of the contract will be in dispute and HUD has about five months to make those decisions. Where we all expected new contract administrators would be in place going into 2012, it\u2019s very unlikely we\u2019re going to know who finally wins the contract for project-based contract administrator in about 12 different states until later in 2012, maybe 2013. <\/em><\/p>\n The concern that we have on the affordable side is: are inspections taking place, what\u2019s going to happen with renewing contracts, what\u2019s going to happen with owner payments, and if there is a new contract administrator, what will \u00a0be the transition processes?<\/em><\/p>\n Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program status<\/strong><\/p>\n At NAA we heard an interesting statement about government policy. That was that while the low income tax credit program is really the only subsidy program that\u2019s significantly producing dollars for affordable housing for new project development, there are some in Congress that believe it\u2019s a very expensive program and it isn\u2019t the best program. I was surprised to hear one of the insight organizational people who has been meeting with Congress say that there is an undercurrent of Congressional opinion that the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program should be cancelled. The question in our minds is: If that\u2019s the only program that\u2019s developing new housing, and we know there\u2019s a dramatic gap in housing, how are we going to fill the gap? The government\u2019s being very tight lipped and saying the Low Income Housing Tax Credit is the best program we have, but really is the future and how is that going to affect us.<\/em><\/p>\n Layered financing: Subsidy challenges for affordable managers<\/strong><\/p>\n When we look at an affordable property that has project-based Section 8, low income housing tax credit, bond funding, home, funding, they could have up to 10 layers of funding from federal and state sources to try to meet the needs of that property. The impact on that property for asset management, inspections, regulatory reviews, the cost is increasing on a regular basis. There\u2019s an interesting dilemma that\u2019s happening in the industry today. <\/em><\/p>\n If you manage a market rate property and you have a Section 8 or Housing Choice voucher holder, who comes to you and says, \u2018I would like to rent a unit in your property,\u2019 you start conversation with that resident. The Housing Authority has the right to come over and inspect that unit, and in fact inspect that property, to make sure it\u2019s up their levels. If they come back to you after the inspection and say \u2018well, you have all this work to do, you have to paint the property, you have to repair these violations,\u2019 the market rate property has the right to say \u2018well, we\u2019re just not going to accept that resident.\u201d The dilemma is, if a property that\u2019s affordable receives 5059 subsidy or tax credit subsidy they can\u2019t turn that resident away. <\/em><\/p>\n In essence, for the same residents and the same programs, affordable managers are being treated differently than market rate managers. They have to go through a series of inspections, and that inspection is from inspector to inspector, inconsistent. The rules that Housing Authorities are inflicting are inconsistent. If they\u2019re applying for a tax credit unit that would accept housing choice vouchers, they may be involved in one building in a tax credit project, the inspector could come in and say I\u2019m not saying you have to paint one building, I\u2019m saying you have to repaint the entire project. The cost burden on an affordable manager is dramatic, and in today\u2019s environment it is extremely prohibitive to make major renovations like that. Owners of tax credit properties, especially in the South and the Southwest, are starting to see more and more of these inconsistencies coming in and they\u2019re looking for ways for the legislative organizations and the associations to help. It\u2019s really a significant problem. <\/em><\/p>\n The NAA Affordable Housing Committee plans a white paper on industry best practices to try to address the problem.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mark Livanec, Vice President of Affordable Housing and PHA Sales at Yardi Systems, is an active advocate for Yardi clients when it comes to state and federal legislation affecting affordable and public housing. Mark serves as secretary of the Board of Directors of the National Affordable Housing Management\u2019s Educational Foundation, which raises scholarship funds for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":413,"featured_media":1131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_s2mail":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3236,4],"tags":[26,16],"class_list":["post-960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-affordable-housing","category-news","tag-affordable-housing","tag-yardi-insight"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2012\/04\/Inspector-feat2.jpg\" "\\"home")
Technology \u2013 HUD \u00a0TRACS 202D update postponed<\/strong><\/p>\n