HUD Notice Implements HOTMA Voucher Changes for Manufactured Homes

HUD’s Office of Public and Assisted Housing (PIH) issued Notice PIH 2017-18 providing guidance on calculating the housing assistance payment (HAP) for households with a Housing Choice Voucher who own their manufactured homes but rent the space on which they sit. This guidance adds to the provisions in a January 18, 2017 Federal Register notice (see Memo, 1/23) implementing the “Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act of 2016” (HOTMA).

HOTMA changed the definition of “rent” that limits the amount of the HAP for households who rent the space on which their manufactured home sits. HOTMA now includes monthly payments a household makes to repay the loan for the purchase of the home, including any required insurance and property taxes. This amount is added to three expenses previously used in the rent calculation: rent charged for the manufactured home site, maintenance and management fees paid to the site owner, and the applicable public housing agency (PHA) utility allowance for tenant-paid utilities.

The January 18, 2017 implementation notice eliminated the separate Fair Market Rent (FMR) payment standard previously used for manufactured home space rentals. Now the payment standard is the same as that used for renting a home that is not a manufactured home.

Notice PIH 2017-18 reminds readers that manufactured home space rental assistance is a special housing type under the voucher program – PHAs are not required to make a special type of housing, such as manufactured home space, available as part of its voucher program.

Notice PIH 2017-18 is at: http://bit.ly/2xn7QtH