HUD’s Real Estate Assessment Center (REAC) sent Inspector Notice No. 2019-01 to inspectors requiring them to collect information about carbon monoxide (CO) detectors in all federally assisted and insured housing. This information collection will not affect a property’s REAC physical inspection score, however. The requirement became effective on April 1, 2019.
Inspectors conducting Uniform Physical Condition Standards (UPCS) inspections must determine whether a building being inspected has units with sources of carbon monoxide such as fuel-fired/burning appliances and/or an attached garage. If so, the inspector must determine whether the units have CO detectors and whether they are operating. If a CO source is present, the inspector must indicate the number of CO detectors missing, the number that are working, and the number that are not working. HUD stresses that this exercise is for data-collection purposes only, that the information will not affect a property’s REAC score.
NLIHC signed on to a March 11 letter from the National Housing Law Project urging HUD Secretary Ben Carson to require CO detectors at all HUD-assisted housing (see Memo, 3/11). Since 2003, at least eleven federally assisted tenants have died from carbon monoxide poisoning, including two very recent deaths of public housing residents at the Allen Benedict Court in Columbia, SC. All 26 buildings at Allen Benedict Court were evacuated due to carbon monoxide leaks and exposure. Many of the Allen Benedict Court residents are still living in hotels or with relatives or are struggling to find housing that will accept vouchers. An NBC report on the project is at: https://nbcnews.to/2UfCv78
The Carbon Monoxide Detection Data Collection Inspector Notice 2019-01 is at: https://bit.ly/2UaMzSU