[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 239 (Thursday, December 14, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 86667-86668]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-27466]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

[Docket No. FR-7076-N-19]


60-Day Notice of Proposed Information Collection: Public Housing 
Agency (PHA) 5-Year and Annual Plan; OMB Control No.: 2577-0226

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

ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: HUD is seeking approval from the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) for the information collection described below. In 
accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act HUD is requesting comment 
from all interested parties on the proposed collection of information. 
The purpose of this notice is to allow for 60 days of public comment.

DATES: Comments Due Date: February 12, 2024.

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments regarding 
this proposal. Written comments and recommendations for the proposed 
information collection can be submitted within 60 days of publication 
of this notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Find this 
particular information collection by selecting ``Currently under 60-day 
Review--Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search function. 
Interested persons are also invited to submit comments regarding this 
proposal by name and/or OMB Control Number and can be sent to: Colette 
Pollard, Reports Management Officer, REE, Department of Housing and 
Urban Development, 451 7th Street SW, Room 8210, Washington, DC 20410-
5000 or email at [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Colette Pollard, Management Analyst, 
Reports Management Officer, REE, Department of Housing and Urban 
Development, 451 7th Street, SW, Washington, DC 20410; email 
[email protected], telephone 202-402-3400. This is not a toll-
free number. HUD welcomes and is prepared to receive calls from 
individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, as well as individuals 
with speech or communication disabilities. To learn more about how to 
make an accessible telephone call, please visit https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/telecommunications-relay-service-trs. Copies of 
available documents submitted to OMB may be obtained from Ms. Pollard.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This notice informs the public that HUD is 
seeking approval from OMB for the information collection described in 
Section A.

A. Overview of Information Collection

    Title of Information Collection: Public Housing Agency (PHA) 5-Year 
and Annual Plan.
    OMB Approval Number: 2577-0226.
    Type of Request: Revision of currently approved collection.
    Form Number(s): HUD-50075-5Y, HUD-50075-HCV, HUD-50075-HP, HUD-
50075-MTW, HUD-50075-SM, HUD-50075-ST, HUD-50077-CR, HUD-50077-CRT-SM 
HUD-50077-ST-HCV-HP and HUD-50077-SL.
    Description of the need for the information and proposed use: The 
Public Housing Agency (PHA) Plan was created by section 5A of the 
United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437c-1). There are two 
different PHA Plans: The Five-Year Plan and the Annual Plan. The Five-
Year Plan describes the agency's mission, long-range goals, and 
objectives for achieving its mission over a five-year period. The 
Annual PHA Plan is a comprehensive guide to PHA policies, programs, 
operations, and strategies for meeting local housing needs and goals. 
This revision addresses updates to the HUD-50075-HCV form and the 
automation of all the PHA Plan forms including the Moving to Work (MTW) 
Supplement for PHAs that joined the MTW Demonstration under the 2016 
Appropriations Act (i.e., MTW Expansion).
    PHA Plans are needed to inform the Department of Housing and Urban 
Development (HUD), residents, and the public of the PHA's mission and 
strategy for serving the needs of low income, very low-income, and 
extremely low- income families in the PHA's jurisdiction. This 
information helps provide accountability to the local community for how 
PHAs spend their funding and implement their policies. The PHA Plan 
submission also includes various certifications to confirm that PHAs 
will abide by all Federal civil rights laws and that the PHA Plan is 
consistent with the applicable Consolidated Plan.
    PHA plans also allow HUD to monitor the performance of programs and 
the performance of the public housing agencies that administer them. 
Since 2000, HUD has taken several steps to reduce the administrative 
burden of the PHA Plan submission including the use of streamlined plan 
submissions for certain PHA based on size and performance. Most 
recently, the Housing and Economic Reform Act (HERA) removed the 
requirement for qualified PHAs to submit an annual PHA Plan and to only 
submit the 5-year Plan. A ``qualified PHA'' is one that manages 550 or 
fewer public housing units and vouchers and is not labeled as a 
troubled public housing agency. Currently, qualified PHA must only 
submit an annual certification to confirm that they will abide by all 
Federal civil rights laws.
    In January 2021 HUD requested from OMB that the PHA Plan collection 
be reinstated with change. These changes included a new section to 
accommodate the new requirements of the Affirmatively Furthering Fair 
Housing (AFFH) Rule and the introduction of the MTW Supplement. OMB 
approved the changes, reinstated the collections and HUD made the new 
templates available to PHAs on the HUD website as individual word 
processing files. After publication, HUD made subsequent minor changes 
to the forms and certifications to remove unnecessary sections, make 
minor edits and to account for updated or removed regulatory citations. 
Additionally, HUD took steps to automate the MTW supplement in the 
Housing Information Portal (HIP).
    With this current proposed information collection, HUD intends to

[[Page 86668]]

automate all PHA Plan templates and certifications in the web based 
Public Housing Portal (formerly known as the Operating Fund Web 
Portal). While the templates will be automated, the content and 
required elements will be with same with minor modifications as needed. 
Modifications to the collection include the following:
    (1) HUD is adding an additional element to the HUD-50075-HCV form. 
The revised HUD-50075-HCV form will include an additional element 
requiring Section 8 only PHAs to report on their Project Based Voucher 
(PBV) activities. This template will be used by HCV-only PHA's that 
administer the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program which may also 
include PBV developments.
    (2) HUD is adding an optional feature for PHA's to attach their 
written Admission and Continued Occupancy Policy (ACOP) or 
Administrative Plan documents to their Five-Year Plan and Annual Plan 
submissions. This will create a centralized database of all local PHA 
policies which currently can only be found at each individual PHA or on 
their websites.
    (3) HUD will now require complete electronic submission from all 
PHAs. Currently, PHA Plan templates are downloaded, edited, and 
submitted as email attachments which must then be individually 
uploaded, analyzed and organized by HUD. Automating the PHA Plan forms 
will make the PHA Plan review process more efficient by streamlining 
the submission and reducing the administrative burden on both HUD and 
the PHA. HUD estimated that automating the PHA Plan form will reduce 
both the PHA and HUD administrative burden by approximately 25% each. 
Electronic submission and collection of this information will also make 
future data and policy analysis feasible.
    Overall, the burden hours associated with the collection is 
expected to decrease by 2,024 hours due to the automation of the PHA 
Plan templates. Additional time may be required in the first year to 
train PHAs on the system, however, because the Public Housing Portal is 
an existing HUD system that PHAs use and are familiar with, this burden 
is expected to go down in subsequent years. Accordingly, the additional 
burden of the one-time training is not expected to exceed the time 
savings created by the system.
    Finally, revisions were made to this collection to reflect 
adjustments in calculations based on the total number of current, 
active public housing agencies (PHAs) to date. Since the last approved 
information collection, the number of active public housing agencies 
has changed from approximately 3,780 to 3,763. The number of PHAs can 
fluctuate due to many factors, including but not limited to performance 
scoring, the merging of two or more PHAs or the termination of the 
public housing and/or voucher programs due to the Rental Assistance 
Demonstration (RAD).
    Respondents: Local, Regional and State Body Corporate Politic 
Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) Governments.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 3,763.
    Estimated Number of Responses: 4,570 (Certifications: 2,321 
[Qualified PHAs], Annual Plans: 1,496 and 5-Year Plans: 753 [3,763/5]).
    Frequency of Response: Once every five years for all PHAs (5-Year 
Plan), annually for all PHAs except HERA Qualified PHAs (Annual Plans), 
and annually for all PHAs (certifications).
    Average Hours per Response: 5.07 hours.
    Total Estimated Burdens: 12,590 hours.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                    Hourly
            Information collection                Number of   Frequency of   Responses  Burden hour per    Annual burden hours     cost per  Annual cost
                                                 respondents    response     per annum      response                               response
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Form HUD-50075-ST.............................           796             1         796             5.64                 4,489.44   * $26.62  $119.508.89
Form HUD-50075-SM.............................           202             1         202             2.67                   539.74      26.62    14,367.99
Form HUD-50075-HP.............................           152             1         152             5.26                   799.52      26.62    21,283.22
Form HUD-50075-HCV............................           246             1         246             4.52                 1,111.92      26.62    29,599.31
Form HUD-50075-MTW............................           100             1         100             6.50                      650      26.62    17,303.00
Form HUD-50077-CR (Qualified PHAs)............         2,321             1       2,321             0.16                   371.36      26.62     9,885.60
Form HUD-50075-5Y.............................         3,763             1     3,763/5    1.23 (6.15/5)   4,628.49 (23,142.45/5)      26.62   123,210.40
                                               ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.....................................         3,763             1       3,763            25.98                12,590.47      26.62      335,158
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Hourly cost for response assuming a GS-9, Step 5 ($55,564), Executive Assistant, hourly rate is $26.62.

B. Solicitation of Public Comment

    This notice is soliciting comments from members of the public and 
affected parties concerning the collection of information described in 
Section A on the following:
    (1) Whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for 
the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including 
whether the information will have practical utility;
    (2) The accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the 
proposed collection of information;
    (3) Ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and
    (4) Ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on 
those who are to respond; including through the use of appropriate 
automated collection techniques or other forms of information 
technology, e.g., permitting electronic submission of responses.
    HUD encourages interested parties to submit comment in response to 
these questions.

C. Authority

    Section 3507 of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 44 U.S.C. 
chapter 35.

Nicholas J. Bilka,
Chief, Office of Policy, Programs, and Legislative Initiatives.
[FR Doc. 2023-27466 Filed 12-13-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4210-67-P