[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 36 (Wednesday, February 23, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 10050-10053]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-2658]
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DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
[Docket No. FR-5094-N-05]
Changes to the Public Housing Assessment System (PHAS):
Management Operations Scoring Notice
SUMMARY: This notice provides additional information to public housing
agencies (PHAs) and members of the public about HUD's process for
issuing scores under the management operations indicator of the Public
Housing Assessment System (PHAS).
DATES: Effective Date: March 25, 2011.
Comment Due Date: April 25, 2011.
ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments on this
notice to the Regulations Division, Office of General Counsel,
Department of Housing and Urban Development, 451 7th Street, SW., Room
10276, Washington, DC 20410-0500. Communications must refer to the
above docket number and title. There are two methods for submitting
public comments. All submissions must refer to the above docket number
and title.
1. Submission of Comments by Mail. Comments may be submitted by
mail to the Regulations Division, Office of General Counsel, Department
of Housing and Urban Development, 451 7th Street, SW., Room 10276,
Washington, DC 20410-0500.
2. Electronic Submission of Comments. Interested persons may submit
comments electronically through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at
http://www.regulations.gov. HUD strongly encourages commenters to
submit comments electronically. Electronic submission of comments
allows the commenter maximum time to prepare and submit a comment,
ensures timely receipt by HUD, and enables HUD to make them immediately
available to the public. Comments submitted electronically through the
http://www.regulations.gov Web site can be viewed by other commenters
and interested members of the public. Commenters should follow the
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instructions provided on that site to submit comments electronically.
Note: To receive consideration as public comments, comments
must be submitted through one of the two methods specified above.
Again, all submissions must refer to the docket number and title of
the rule.
No Facsimile Comments. Facsimile (FAX) comments are not acceptable.
Public Inspection of Public Comments. All properly submitted
comments and communications submitted to HUD will be available for
public inspection and copying between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays at the
above address. Due to security measures at the HUD Headquarters
building, an advance appointment to review the public comments must be
scheduled by calling the Regulations Division at 202-402-3055 (this is
not a toll-free number). Individuals with speech or hearing impairments
may access this number via TTY by calling the Federal Information Relay
Service, toll-free, at 800-877-8339. Copies of all comments submitted
are available for inspection and downloading at http://www.regulations.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Claudia Yarus, Department of Housing
and Urban Development, Office of Public and Indian Housing, Real Estate
Assessment Center (REAC), 550 12th Street, SW., Suite 100, Washington,
DC 20410 at 202-475-8830 (this is not a toll-free number). Persons with
hearing or speech impairments may access this number through TTY by
calling the toll-free Federal Information Relay Service at 800-877-
8339. Additional information is available from the REAC Internet site
at http://www.hud.gov/offices/reac/.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Purpose of This Notice
The purpose of this notice is to provide additional information
about the scoring process for the PHAS management operations indicator.
The purpose of the management operations indicator is to assess the
project's and PHA's management operations capabilities. All projects
will be assessed under the management operations indicator, even if a
PHA has not converted to asset management.
This PHAS Management Operations Scoring Notice has been revised to
reflect research HUD conducted through informal meetings with
representatives of PHAs, residents, projects, and public housing
industry groups, and to provide the basis for scoring projects on the
management operations.
II. Transition to Asset Management and Frequency of Management
Operations Assessments
The number of units in a PHA's Low-Rent program and the PHAS
designation for small PHAs will determine the frequency of management
operations assessments during and after the transition to asset
management. PHAs with less than 250 public housing units will receive a
PHAS assessment, based on its PHAS designation, as follows:
(1) A small PHA that is a high performer will receive a PHAS
assessment every 3 years;
(2) A small PHA that is a standard or substandard performer will
receive a PHAS assessment every other year; and
(3) All other small PHAs will receive a PHAS assessment every year,
including a PHA that is designated as troubled or Capital Fund troubled
in accordance with Sec. 902.75.
In baseline year, every PHA will receive an overall PHAS score and
in all four of the PHAS indicators: physical condition; financial
condition; management operations; and Capital Fund program. This will
allow a baseline year for the small deregulated PHAs.
III. Subindicators
A. Subindicators of the Management Operations Indicator. The three
subindicators of the management operations indicator are:
Occupancy;
Tenant accounts receivable; and
Accounts payable.
B. Points for the Management Operations Indicator. This indicator
assesses the management operations of projects and PHAs. The management
operations indicator score is based on a maximum of 25 points.
Subindicator 1, Occupancy. This subindicator measures the
occupancy for the project's fiscal year, adjusted for allowable
vacancies pursuant to 24 CFR 990.145.
A PHA will achieve 16 points if it has an adjusted occupancy rate
equal to or greater than 98 percent. It will receive 12 points if it
has an adjusted occupancy rate of less than 98 percent but equal to or
greater than 96 percent. It will receive 8 points if it has an adjusted
occupancy rate of less than 96 percent but equal to or greater than 94
percent. It will receive 4 points if it has an adjusted occupancy rate
of less than 94 percent but equal to or greater than 92 percent. It
will receive 1 point if it has an adjusted occupancy rate of less than
92 percent but equal to or greater than 90 percent. It will receive 0
points if it has an adjusted occupancy rate of less than 90 percent.
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Occupancy value Points
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[gteqt]98%..................................................... 16
<98% but [gteqt]96%............................................ 12
<96% but [gteqt]94%............................................ 8
<94% but [gteqt]92%............................................ 4
<92% but [gteqt]90%............................................ 1
<90%........................................................... 0
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Subindicator 2, Tenant accounts receivable. This
subindicator measures the tenant accounts receivable of a project
against the tenant charges for the project's fiscal year. Charges
include rents and other charges to tenants, such as court costs,
maintenance costs, etc.
A PHA will receive 5 points if it has a tenant accounts receivable
ratio of less than 1.5. It will receive 2 points if it has a tenant
accounts receivable ratio of equal to or greater than 1.5 and less than
2.5. It will receive zero points if it has a tenant accounts receivable
ratio of equal to or greater than 2.5.
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Tenant accounts receivable value Points
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<1.5........................................................... 5
[gteqt]1.5 but <2.5............................................ 2
[gteqt]2.5..................................................... 0
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Subindicator 3, Accounts payable. This subindicator
measures the money that a project owes to vendors at the end of the
project's fiscal year for products and services purchased on credit
against total operating expenses.
A PHA will receive 4 points if it has an accounts payable ratio of
less than 0.75. It will receive 2 points if it has an accounts payable
ratio of equal to or greater than 0.75 but less than 1.5. It will
receive zero points if it has an accounts payable ratio of equal to or
greater than 1.5.
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Accounts payable value Points
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<0.75.......................................................... 4
[gteqt]0.75 but <1.5........................................... 2
[gteqt]1.5..................................................... 0
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IV. Elements of Scoring
A. Points and Threshold
The management operations indicator score is based on a maximum of
25 points. In order to receive a passing score under this indicator, a
project must achieve at least 15 points or 60 percent of the available
points available under this indicator.
B. Scoring Elements
The management operations indicator score provides an assessment of
a project's management effectiveness. Under the PHAS management
operations indicator, HUD will calculate a score for each project, as
well as for the overall management operations of a
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PHA, that reflects weights based on the relative importance of the
individual management subindicators. The overall management operations
indicator score for a PHA is a unit-weighted average of the PHA's
individual project management operations scores. In order to compute
the score, an individual project management operations score is
multiplied by the number of units in each project to determine a
``weighted value.'' The sum of the weighted values is then divided by
the total number of units in a PHA's portfolio to derive the overall
PHAS management operations indicator score.
The computation of the score under this PHAS indicator utilizes
data obtained from the Financial Data Schedule and requires three main
calculations for the subindicators, which are:
Scores are calculated for each subindicator;
A management operations score is calculated for each
project; and
A score is calculated for the overall indicator score,
which is a unit-weighted average of the individual project management
operations scores.
The point values of the subindicators are listed in Table 1.
Table 1--Management Operations Subindicators
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Point
Subindicator value
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Occupancy...................................................... 16
Tenant Accounts Receivable..................................... 5
Accounts Payable............................................... 4
--------
Total Points............................................... 25
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C. Example of Score Computations
The indicator score for each project equals the sum of the
subindicator scores, as shown in Table 2.
Table 2--Example of Project Score
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Subindicator Points
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Occupancy...................................................... 16
Tenant Accounts Receivable..................................... 2
Accounts Payable............................................... 4
--------
Total Points............................................... 22
------------------------------------------------------------------------
D. Physical Condition and/or Neighborhood Environment
The overall management operations score for a project will be
adjusted upward to the extent that negative conditions are caused by
situations outside the control of the project. These situations are
related to the poor physical condition of the project or the overall
depressed condition of the major census tract in which a project is
located. The intent of this adjustment is to avoid penalizing projects
through appropriate application of the adjustment. In addition, the
overall PHA Management Operations Indicator score will be adjusted
upward to reflect the individual project adjustments.
Definitions and application of physical condition and/or
neighborhood environment factors are:
(1) A physical condition adjustment applicable to projects at least
28 years old, based on the unit-weighted average Date of Full
Availability (DOFA) date.
(2) A neighborhood environment adjustment applicable to projects in
census tracts in which at least 40 percent of the families have an
income below the poverty rate, as documented by the most recent census
data. If a project is in more than one census tract, the census data
for the census tract where the majority of units are located shall be
used. If there is no census tract data available for a project, the
census data for that project will be based on the county's census data,
and if county data is not available, then the state census data will be
used.
Adjustment for physical condition and/or neighborhood
environment. HUD will adjust the overall management operations score of
a project subject to one or both of the physical condition and/or
neighborhood environment conditions. The adjustments will be made to
the individual project scores, and then to the overall management
operations score, so as to reflect the difficulty in managing the
projects.
The adjustment for physical condition and/or neighborhood
environment will be calculated by HUD and applied to all eligible
projects. The data to determine if a project is eligible for either
adjustment will be derived from the Public and Indian Housing
Information Center databases.
In each instance where the actual management operations score for a
project is rated below the maximum score of 25 points, one unit-
weighted point each will be added for physical condition and/or
neighborhood environment, but not to exceed the maximum number of 25
points available for the management operations indicator for a project.
Table 3 shows an example of the calculation of physical condition and/
or neighborhood environment points for a hypothetical PHA with four
projects. The adjustment for physical condition and/or neighborhood
environment is a unit-weighted average of a PHA's individual project
physical condition and/or neighborhood environment adjustments.
Table 3--Calculation of Physical Condition and/or Neighborhood Environment (PCNE) Points
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Proj. 1 i>2 i>3 i>4 Total PHA
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1............. Units..................... 133 65 89 25 312
2............. Weight.................... 42.6% 20.8% 28.5% 8.0% 100.0%
3............. Physical Condition Points. 1 1 1 0 ............
4............. Neighborhood Environment 1 1 0 0 ............
Points.
5............. Total PCNE Points at 2 2 1 0 ............
Project Level.
6............. Weighted Physical 0.43 0.21 0.29 0.00 0.92
Condition Points.
7............. Weighted Neighborhood 0.43 0.21 0.00 0.00 0.63
Environment Points.
8............. Weighted PCNE Points...... 0.85 0.42 0.29 0.00 1.55
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This PHA has 312 total units in four projects (see line 1). The
weight of each project is based on units and is calculated by dividing
the project units into the total PHA units (see line 2). Project
1 and project 2 qualify for both points; project
3 qualifies for only physical condition; and project
4 does not qualify for any points (see lines 3 through 5).
Each project contributes its physical condition and/or neighborhood
environment points to the overall PHA management operations indicator
score based on its weight. For example, in project 1, the
weighted physical condition and neighborhood environment point is 0.85
and is calculated by multiplying the project
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weight of 42.6 percent (line 2) by the physical condition and
neighborhood environment point of 2 (see line 5). The overall physical
condition and neighborhood environment adjustment at the PHA level is
calculated at 1.55 points by adding the individual project weighted
scores (see line 8 under the Total PHA column).
Dated: February 1, 2011.
Sandra B. Henriquez,
Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing.
[FR Doc. 2011-2658 Filed 2-22-11; 8:45 am]
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