Housing Choice Voucher Program Operations | HCV and Affordable Housing Leadership | PMW Management Partners, Inc.

PMW Management Partners, LLC (PMW) has a thorough and intimate knowledge of Mobile Housing Board’s (MHB) Low Income Public Housing (LIPH) and Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program. PMW’s key personnel have a deep background in working with and turning around “at-risk” LIPH and HCV program operations like MHB and recognize the severity of MHB’s recent challenges in its LIPH and HCV programs have brought executive leadership and the MHB board to this crucial strategic decision to contract out the executive management of its HCV program. The goal of contract management for the HCV program is to provide the leadership necessary to stabilize and rebuild its program to better serve the residents of the city of Mobile and support MHB’s LIPH program through its increased capacity to prepare for and manage the relocation of hundreds of LIPH residents as MHB repositions several obsolete developments.

Stabilizing and preparing the HCV program for future growth entails correcting systemic programmatic operational deficiencies including:

1. Bringing current, a backlog of several hundred annual re-certifications;
2. Bringing current, a backlog of several hundred Housing Quality Standard (HQS) inspections;
3. Reconciling and addressing all erroneous PIC data with Yardi System data and achieving a 95 percent accuracy in monthly PIC reporting;
4. Increasing HCV utilization to 98 percent and maximizing the HCV Annual Budget Authority (ABA) provided by HUD, ensuring all Special Vouchers are fully utilized by eligible program participants;
5. Increasing landlord participation in the program to increase the supply of housing for the growth of the HCV program to achieve full voucher utilization of the current voucher supply and future increases through the relocation of LIPH residents;
6. Updating the HCV Administrative Plan to fully comply with current HUD regulations and address the housing supply and demand capacity through establishing appropriate housing payment standards for the program;
7. Creating a friendly customer-centric service culture amongst the program staff that delivers positive interactions with our program participants and landlords. Our goal is to deliver a positive customer experience that builds a positive brand image for the Mobile Housing Board;
8. Ensure the MHB HCV program is financially stable and prepared for future downward fluctuations in funding pro-rations of the administrative fee.
9. Increase resident participation in the Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) Program.
10. Bring MHB’s HCV Program to a Standard Performer and then a High Performer by maximizing MHB’s SEMAP scores.

These ten areas of HCV program operations are currently deficient and must be rectified through the outsourcing of HCV program management. PMW Management Partners’ approach is two pronged. First, to address the program deficiencies, PMW will employ its team of subject matter experts to expeditiously address the most immediate and consistently outstanding issues impacting the program. This will occur during the Transition Period and is detail in the Transition Plan. Once these issues have been rectified we will normalize operations of the HCV program, which is informed by and will lead to MHB achieving Standard and then High Performer HCV program status. PMW will continuously monitor MHB’s performance against the Section Eight Management Assessment (SEMAP) requirements utilizing continuous quality control review of files, monitoring VMS and Yardi reports, and ongoing awareness of HUD Notices, guidance and schedules around implementation of the Housing Opportunities Through Modernization Act of 2016 (HOTMA) and PIC reports. SEMAP Indicators 1 (Waiting List), 2 (Rent Reasonableness), 5 (HQS QC Inspections) and 6 (HQS Enforcement) require file review; we will randomly select 3% over the minimum required for each indicator in the review period and conduct comprehensive review of files to ensure: applicant selection and eligibility determination were completed correctly; new admissions and re-exams were performed in accordance with MHB policy and adjusted income calculated accurately; and MHB is maintaining an on-time and complete schedule of inspections and inspections data entry in the MHB system of record. For the other SEMAP Indicators, compliance will be conducted as follows:

SEMAP progress reporting will be provided to MHB executive leadership monthly and will shape our approach to the daily management of the HCV program; to achieve performance improvement targets for MHB the three high-level and critical drivers that we will continuously address in management of the program are:

1. Increasing housing supply through increased landlord participation and on-time landlord payments (aggressive program marketing);
2. Accurate and efficient processing of new and existing voucher participants (excellent case management);
3. Superior financial management through accurate and timely HUD reporting, quality assurance of participant files and high-value partnership with the Central Office Cost Center (excellent compliance management).