[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 241 (Monday, December 16, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 76160-76161]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-29837]


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DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

[Docket No. FR-5747-N-01]


Public Housing Assessment System (PHAS) Capital Fund Interim 
Scoring Notice: Reinstitution of Five Points for Occupancy Sub-
Indicator and Request for Comment

AGENCY: Office of the Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian 
Housing, HUD.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: This notice advises public housing agencies (PHAs), as well as 
members of the public, that HUD intends to reinstitute, temporarily, 
the award of 5 points for the occupancy sub-indicator of the Capital 
Fund Program Indicator to all PHAs for the PHAS Capital Fund Program 
Indicator. This award of points is provided as regulatory relief from a 
non-statutory element of PHAS and intended to help lessen the impact of 
decreases in funding in recent appropriations acts. Adding automatic 
points for the occupancy sub-indicator will allow PHAs to focus on the 
statutory criteria for assessing performance under the Capital Fund 
Indicator, which is timely obligation of the Capital Funds and will in 
no way limit HUD's oversight and monitoring of PHAs.
    HUD welcomes public comment on the scoring adjustment HUD intends 
to make as provided in this notice.

DATES: Effective Date: December 16, 2013.
    Comment due date: January 15, 2014.

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments regarding 
this notice to the Regulations Division, Office of General Counsel, 
Department of Housing and Urban Development, 451 7th Street SW., Room 
10276, Washington, DC 20410-0500. Communications must refer to the 
above docket number and title. There are two methods for submitting 
public comments. All submissions must refer to the above docket number 
and title.
    1. Submission of Comments by Mail. Comments may be submitted by 
mail to the Regulations Division, Office of General Counsel, Department 
of Housing and Urban Development, 451 7th Street SW., Room 10276, 
Washington, DC 20410-0500.
    2. Electronic Submission of Comments. Interested persons may submit 
comments electronically through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at 
www.regulations.gov. HUD strongly encourages commenters to submit 
comments electronically. Electronic submission of comments allows the 
commenter maximum time to prepare and submit a comment, ensures timely 
receipt by HUD, and enables HUD to make them immediately available to 
the public. Comments submitted electronically through the 
www.regulations.gov Web site can be viewed by other commenters and 
interested members of the public. Commenters should follow the 
instructions provided on that site to submit comments electronically.

    Note: To receive consideration as public comments, comments must 
be submitted through one of the two methods specified above. Again, 
all submissions must refer to the docket number and title of the 
rule. No Facsimile Comments. Facsimile (FAX) comments are not 
acceptable.

    Public Inspection of Public Comments. All properly submitted 
comments and communications submitted to HUD will be available for 
public inspection and copying between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays at the 
above address. Due to security measures at the HUD Headquarters 
building, an advance appointment to review the public comments must be 
scheduled by calling the Regulations Division at (202) 708-3055 (this 
is not a toll-free number). Individuals with speech or hearing 
impairments may access this number via TTY by calling the Federal Relay 
Service at 1-800-877-8339. Copies of all comments submitted are 
available for inspection and downloading at www.regulations.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Claudia J. Yarus, Real Estate 
Assessment Center (REAC), Office of Public and Indian Housing, 
Department of Housing and Urban Development, 550 12th Street SW., Suite 
100, Washington, DC 20410, telephone 202-475-8830 (this is not a toll-
free number). Persons with hearing or speech impairments may access 
this number through TTY by calling the toll-free Federal Relay Service 
at 800-877-8339. Additional information is available from the REAC 
Internet site at http://www.hud.gov/offices/reac/.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background

    The purpose of PHAS is to provide a management tool for measuring 
the performance of a PHA in essential housing operations of projects, 
on a program-wide basis and individual project basis. PHAS measures a 
PHA's performance through four indicators: physical condition, 
financial condition, management operations and performance under the 
Capital Fund Program. Each of these indicators contains subindicators, 
and the scores for the subindicators are used to determine a single 
score for each of these PHAS indicators. The PHAS regulations, codified 
at 24 CFR part 902, were revised and updated by an interim rule 
published on February 23, 2011, at 76 FR 10136.
    The Capital Fund Program Indicator consists of two subindicators. 
One subindicator required by statute focuses on the time taken by a PHA 
to obligate Capital Funds (see 42 U.S.C. 1437g(j)). The other 
subindicator, which is regulatory, focuses on a PHA's occupancy rate as 
of the end of a PHA's fiscal year. Each subindicator is worth up to 5 
points for a total possible score of 10 points for the Capital Fund 
Program Indicator. (See 24 CFR 902.50.) In addition to measuring a 
PHA's occupancy rate under the Capital Fund Program Indicator, a PHA's 
occupancy

[[Page 76161]]

rate is accounted for under another indicator, the management 
operations indicator, at 24 CFR 902.43(a)(1).
    Scoring for this indicator as originally implemented is described 
in the Capital Fund Scoring Notice, also published on February 23, 
2011, at 76 FR 10053. Under this indicator, PHAs can receive up to 5 
points for the timeliness of fund obligation and up to 5 points for the 
occupancy rate. That scoring notice was modified to award an automatic 
5 points for the occupancy sub-indicator of the Capital Fund by an 
interim notice for public comment, 77 FR 34399 (Monday, June 11, 2012), 
which was, after consideration of the public comments, made final at 78 
FR 21623 (April 11, 2013). At that time, this action was done to give 
PHAs time to adjust their systems and procedures to the new scoring 
regime.
    As a result of automatic across-the-board funding cuts required 
under the Budget Control Act of 2011, Public Law 112-15 (approved 
August 2, 2011), which became effect in January 2013, funding for 
public housing was significantly cut. HUD recognizes PHAs' resources 
are more severely strained and they need the flexibility to make 
choices about how Capital Funds are expended in accord with statutory 
requirements.
    Given the current funding environment and the fact that the 
occupancy rate is also addressed under the management operations 
indicator, HUD believes that reinstating and extending the automatic 5 
points for the occupancy sub-indicator of the Capital Fund Program 
Indicator is appropriate, and will provide some relief to PHAs as they 
weigh options for expenditure of limited Capital Funds and will result 
in no PHA losing any Capital Funds as the result of the non-statutory 
portion of the regulatory PHAS Capital Fund Program indicator.

II. Action

    This notice advises that HUD will award an automatic 5 points for 
the Capital Fund occupancy sub-indicator for PHAs with fiscal years 
ending March 31, 2014, June 30, 2014, September 30, 2014, December 31, 
2014, March 31, 2015, June 30, 2015, September 30, 2015, and December 
31, 2015.
    HUD welcomes public comment on this interim notice, and will 
consider all significant and relevant issues raised in issuing a final 
notice.

    Dated: December 6, 2013.
Sandra B. Henriquez,
Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing.
[FR Doc. 2013-29837 Filed 12-13-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4210-67-P