HUD Announces PHAs Selected for Landlord Incentives Cohort of Moving to Work Demonstration Expansion

HUD’s Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) announced that 29 public housing agencies (PHAs) have been selected to participate in the Landlord Incentives Cohort (Cohort #4) of the Moving to Work (MTW) Demonstration expansion. Through this cohort, PIH will evaluate whether and to what extent landlord incentives improve residents’ abilities to use Housing Choice Vouchers (HCVs). Participating PHAs must implement at least two MTW landlord incentive activities from a list of nine described in PIH Notice 2021-03. PIH has posted summaries of the landlord incentives plans provided by each of the 29 PHAs.

PIH identified seven MTW activities in the MTW Operations Notice (see Memo, 8/31/20) that have the potential to act as landlord incentives (see Memo, 1/25/21). In addition, two Cohort-Specific MTW Waivers are available for PHAs. Together, the MTW Operations Notice and Cohort-Specific MTW Waivers are referred to as the “Cohort #4 MTW Activities List.” PHAs in Cohort #4 must implement at least two activities from the Cohort #4 MTW Activities List and vet those proposed waivers through a required resident engagement and public comment and review process. NLIHC has prepared a summary of key provisions of the Landlord Incentives Notice.

Brief Background on MTW Expansion

The “Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016” authorized HUD to expand the MTW Demonstration to an additional 100 high-performing PHAs over a seven-year period to end in 2022. PHAs will be added to the MTW demonstration in groups (cohorts), each of them overseen by a research advisory committee to ensure the demonstrations are evaluated with rigorous research protocols, quantitative analysis, and comparisons to control groups. Each cohort of MTW sites will be directed by HUD to test one specific policy change.

The MTW statutory objectives are to reduce costs, give households incentives to achieve economic self-sufficiency, and increase housing choice. The statute requires MTW agencies to: (1) serve the same number of low-income families as they would without MTW funding flexibility; (2) serve a mix of families by size comparable to the mix they would have served if they were not in MTW; (3) ensure that 75% of the families they assist have income at or below 50% of area median income; (4) ensure that assisted units meet housing quality standards; and (5) establish a reasonable rent policy.

The MTW Expansion cohorts and cohort aims are as follows:

  • Cohort 1 will evaluate the overall impact of MTW flexibilities on PHAs with fewer than 1,000 units.
  • Cohort 2 (Rent Reform) will evaluate the impacts of different rent structures (see Memo, 5/17/21, as well as NLIHC’s detailed summary and critique of Cohort 2).
  • Cohort 3 would have evaluated the impacts of work requirements, but PIH withdrew work requirements (see Memo, 6/1/21).
  • Cohort 4 will evaluate incentives to landlords to participate in the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program.
  • On January 27, PIH announced that it anticipates publishing a selection notice for an Asset Building Cohort.

Read HUD’s media release about the selection of PHAs for the Landlord Incentives Cohort at: https://bit.ly/3G6teoV

Read NLIHC’s summary of key provisions of the Landlord Incentives Notice.

Read Notice PIH 2021-03 at: https://bit.ly/3gNKo13

Find the MTW website at: https://www.hud.gov/mtw

Find the MTW Expansion website at: https://bit.ly/39PEXdF

Find the Cohort #4, Landlord Incentives website at: https://bit.ly/2UxFEUP

Read the Federal Register-version of the Operations Notice at: https://bit.ly/2ECV569

Find an easy-to-read version of the Operations Notice at: https://bit.ly/3hCrqZf

Read more about MTW and the expansion on page 4-60 of NLIHC’s 2021 Advocates’ Guide.

Read more about Housing Choice Vouchers on page 4-1 of NLIHC’s 2021 Advocates’ Guide.

Read more about public housing on page 4-30 of NLIHC’s 2021 Advocates’ Guide.