Move to Work allows greater flexibility to improve housing choice and self-sufficiency.
Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published PIH NOTICE 2023-20 seeking applications for the Overall Impact of Moving to Work Flexibility and Administrative Efficiencies Cohort of the Moving to Work (MTW) Demonstration Program. The notice outlines the process by which public housing agencies (PHAs) with 1,000 or fewer combined units of public housing and Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) units will be selected for the MTW Expansion. The new cohort will test the overall effects of MTW flexibility on a PHA and the residents it serves, with a particular focus on administrative efficiencies.
“Giving Housing Authorities flexibilities to care for their vulnerable populations under the Moving to Work Demonstration has led to excellent results for low-income families,” said HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge. “Today, we are pleased to invite additional Housing Authorities to join the program and replicate the successes we’ve seen across the country.”
“MTW reduces administrative burdens for PHAs, which creates tremendous opportunity for innovation that should deliver positive change for residents,” said Richard Monocchio, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing. “The power of MTW to drive policy change relies on housing authorities with strong leadership and resident-centered vision participating — and that is exactly who we are seeking with this latest notice.”
First authorized by Congress in 1996, MTW is a demonstration that provides public housing authorities (PHAs) the opportunity to redefine how they operate by giving them flexibility to try “outside the box” ideas that address local community needs in innovative ways. MTW allows PHAs the flexibility to create customized solutions to their community’s specific challenges. With the addition of the 14 PHAs selected for this cohort, HUD will have added a total of 100 PHAs to the MTW Demonstration Program since January 2021. MTW PHAs are now in 39 states and the District of Columbia.
MTW encourages an entrepreneurial spirit to think of and create solutions in a new way. MTW agencies have directly influenced national policy for over 25 years, paving the way for the future delivery of federally assisted housing. PHAs in the MTW demonstration have pioneered several innovative policy interventions that have been successful at the local level, and subsequently rolled out to the rest of the country’s PHAs. Examples include requiring less frequent recertifications for those on a fixed income, increasing payment standards for the reasonable accommodation of persons with disabilities, and allowing the owners to maintain site-based waiting lists for project-based vouchers.
For more information on the Moving to Work Demonstration Program, please see here.