HUD’s Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD) issued the HTF IDIS User Manual for Grantees to show national Housing Trust Fund (HTF) state grantees how to set up, fund, draw funds for, and complete HTF activities in the Integrated Disbursement and Information System (IDIS). Although the manual is very technical and intended for state staff tasked with entering information into IDIS, advocates deeply engaged with their state’s HTF program might benefit from a quick look at some features in the manual.
IDIS is the online system grantees of CPD program funds, such as the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, use to track and draw CPD funds as well as to record the results of their CPD-funded activities.
IDIS requires a set of completion pages for each HTF-assisted activity (property). In addition to an assisted property’s address and activity type (e.g., new construction, rehabilitation, acquisition and rehabilitation, etc.), IDIS Completion Page 1 (see pages 6-7 through 6-11) asks states to indicate the total number of completed units, HTF-assisted units, Section 504 accessible units, and Energy Star certified units. States are also asked to indicate how many of the units are designated (but not necessarily occupied by):
- disabled individuals and families who do not have mobility impairments;
- homeless individuals;
- chronically homeless individuals;
- homeless veteran individuals;
- homeless families;
- chronically homeless families;
- homeless veteran families;
- persons with HIV/AIDS;
- victims of domestic violence;
- homeless youth; and
- youth aging out of foster care.
Also, indicated here is how many years HTF-assisted units are to remain affordable, if a state imposes an affordability period greater than 30 years.
Completion Page 2 consists of three screens. The “costs” screen (see pages 6-14 through 6-16) shows the form of HTF assistance, such as amortized loan, deferred payment loan, grant, or other form of assistance. The amount of other public resources in the property are to be listed, such as the Low Income Housing Tax Credit proceeds, tax-exempt bond proceeds, HOME funds, and state housing trust fund dollars. There are lines to indicate whether a property is receiving private loans and owner cash contributions.
The beneficiaries screen of Completion Page 2 (see pages 6-17 through 6-20) should show unit-specific information, such as:
- Number of bedrooms in an HTF-assisted unit;
- Number of people occupying the unit;
- Head of household’s race or ethnicity;
- Type of household living in the unit (single, non-elderly, elderly, single parent, two parents, other);
- Whether the household’s income at the time of initial occupancy is less than 30% of the area median income (AMI) or greater than 30% AMI but less than less than the federal poverty guideline;
- Total initial monthly rent (tenant contribution plus any subsidy); and
- Whether the household is receiving other housing assistance, such as a tenant-based or project-based voucher, HOME tenant-based rental assistance, other federal, state, or local tenant-based or project-based assistance, or no assistance.
The manual does not cover the set of HTF performance reports that seem to be set up in IDIS. It is too soon for these reports to be populated by states. However, in the future advocates will want to study PR100 HTF Activity Status Report, PR103 HTF Beneficiary Report, PR104 HTF High Priority Performance Goals Report, and PR105 Status of HTF Activities Report.
The HTF IDIS User Manual for Grantees is at: http://bit.ly/2rf6a1C
The content of HTF IDIS Performance Reports are hinted at in the IDIS Online Reports Users Guide at: http://bit.ly/2syg1n4