[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 41 (Monday, March 3, 1997)] [Notices] [Pages 9442-9443] From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] [FR Doc No: 97-5298] ======================================================================= ----------------------------------------------------------------------- DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT [Docket No. FR-4123-N-03] Public Housing/Section 8 Moving to Work Demonstration Program; Extension of Application Deadline AGENCY: Office of the Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing, HUD. ACTION: Notice. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: On December 18, 1996, HUD published a notice inviting public housing agencies and Indian housing authorities to submit applications for the Public and Indian Housing/Section 8 Moving to Work demonstration program (``MTW''). The December 18, 1996 notice set an application submission deadline for MTW of March 18, 1997. This notice extends the MTW application submission deadline from March 18, 1997 to May 19, 1997. The deadline is being extended to give public housing agencies and Indian housing authorities the time necessary to adequately prepare their applications, and, in particular, to allow sufficient time for a thorough and constructive planning process, including a public hearing. This notice also provides clarification on several provisions of the December 18, 1996 notice. Except for the extension of the application submission deadline made by this notice, and subject to the clarifications made by this notice, all of the requirements of the December 18, 1996 notice remain in effect. EFFECTIVE DATE: March 3, 1997. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Stephen I. Holmquist, Policy Development Advisor, or Beth M. Cooper, Program Analyst, Office of Public and Indian Housing, Room 4116, Department of Housing and Urban Development, 451 7th Street, SW, Washington, DC 20410, telephone (202) 708-0713. For hearing or speech impaired persons, this number may be accessed via TTY by contacting the Federal Information Relay Service at 1-800-877-8339. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: (1) General The Public and Indian Housing/Section 8 Moving to Work demonstration program (``MTW'') offers public housing agencies and Indian housing authorities (HAs) the opportunity to design and test innovative housing and self-sufficiency strategies for low-income families by permitting HAs to combine funds from several HUD programs into a single pool and by exempting HAs from existing public and Indian housing and Section 8 certificate and voucher program rules, as approved by HUD. HUD is authorized to select up to 30 HAs that administer the public and Indian housing and Section 8 programs to participate in MTW, which was authorized by section 204 of the Omnibus Consolidated Rescissions and Appropriations Act of 1996 (Pub. L. 104-134, 110 Stat. 1321). The statutory purposes of MTW are to give HAs the flexibility to design and test various approaches for providing and administering housing assistance that reduce cost and achieve greater cost effectiveness; provide work incentives to promote resident self-sufficiency; and increase housing choices for low-income families. To achieve these goals, each selected HA will have considerable flexibility in determining how to use Federal funds, as long as the HA meets specified criteria. Furthermore, the selected HAs will be permitted to combine funds from the public and Indian housing operating and modernization programs, and from the Section 8 tenant-based rental assistance program, for uses which meet the purposes of the demonstration. Funds used in the demonstration (whether combined or not) are generally not subject to statutory and regulatory requirements of the public and Indian housing and Section 8 programs. On December 18, 1996 (61 FR 66855), HUD published a notice inviting applications for MTW. That notice described the application submission requirements and the criteria to be used by HUD in evaluating applications. It also established an application submission deadline of March 18, 1997. (2) Clarifications Several provisions of the December 18, 1996 notice require clarification, as follows: (a) For HA's that are not subject to PHMAP because they only administer the Section 8 program, HUD will determine the HA's score for evaluation criterion 1, ``HA Management Performance'', using objective criteria that assess HA management capability based on relative performance in meeting the requirements of the Section 8 program; (b) The December 18, 1996 notice advised HAs to assume a 3-year term for their MTW plans. HUD expects that the actual term of each HA's demonstration will be stated in the MTW Agreement negotiated between HUD and the HA following the HA's selection for MTW. No MTW proposal will be implemented [[Page 9443]] until the MTW Agreement is executed. HUD invites HAs to state and justify, in their proposed MTW schedules, the minimum period of time which they believe is necessary to implement their MTW plans; (c) The December 18, 1996 notice recognized that HA plans might not be finalized by the application deadline, and requested that HAs identify any outstanding issues and the process and schedule for resolving those issues. In other words, HUD does not expect all MTW plans to be ready for implementation at the time HAs are selected for MTW. Rather, at this stage of the demonstration, HUD expects an HA's MTW plan to be conceptually and analytically sound in that it identifies local needs and explains how the HA believes its assets and resources can be deployed to most effectively and efficiently address those needs. In scoring applications under evaluation criterion 3, ``Quality and Feasibility of MTW Plan'', HUD will reward plans that demonstrate an HA's capacity to operate in a deregulated program environment, where the HA has broad discretion to use Federal funds flexibly and creatively based on its understanding of local conditions. The level of detail provided in an HA's plan will help HUD to assess the HA's capacity in that regard. At the same time, HUD encourages HA's to be creative and to make full use of the broad local discretion that this demonstration permits. Accordingly, HAs should provide as much detail as they can at this point. HUD seeks a wide variety of approaches in making selections for MTW, and does not expect plans that are highly innovative (in that they depart significantly from current program rules) to have as much detail as plans that are less innovative. However, as the December 18, 1996 notice provided, where a plan lacks detail, HUD does expect an HA to describe the process and schedule by which the HA will resolve the outstanding issues. (3) Extension of Submission Deadline For several reasons, HUD has found that it is in the best interests of the demonstration to allow HAs additional time to prepare their applications. Because the notice appeared in the Federal Register during the winter holiday season, some HAs were not aware that it had been published until several weeks after the application period had already begun to run. Further, HUD has concluded that additional time would be helpful so that HAs can give proper notice of and hold the required public hearing, and to otherwise conduct a thorough and constructive planning process in their communities. Most importantly, HUD recognizes that the degree of programmatic innovation which MTW allows, and which HUD hopes to encourage through this demonstration program, may require a level of deliberation and analysis that the original 90-day application period does not permit. Extending the deadline will give HAs more time to conduct this process, resulting in higher-quality applications and a more valuable demonstration program. Dated: February 25, 1997. Kevin Emanuel Marchman, Acting Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing. [FR Doc. 97-5298 Filed 2-27-97; 2:41 pm] BILLING CODE 4210-33-P