Today's HUD News Briefing (April 8, 2013) is 312 pages long. What happened to the former briefing that provided a synopsis of important stories and could be viewed in 5 minutes. Even the index without summaries is 8 pages long, two columns and only provides the actual headlines. It isn't until you open an article do you realize it is a human interest story and not hard news that might be applicable. I find it hard to believe that anyone has the time to use this information anymore. Or maybe a better comment, I hope no one has this much free time to read this daily.

Two things that are true to HUD: 1 - EVERY office needs a certain mixture of skills that is either not available or not respected within their current personnel; 2 - EVERY office pays a ridiculous sum of money to contractors to say the exact same thing that HUD personnel has already described as needed for successful program operation.

Why not marry these two (and include HUD's rotation program) to create an office specifically designed to tackle HUD wide special projects and initiatives.

Currently, the rotation program is trying to fill that void. However, managers will not let their most talented employees apply for rotations because they are either bogged down with office essential projects or necessary to perform program operations as desired.

In addition, there are people on staff who have worked with/competed against the very consulting agencies that we currently employ to handle various tasks that agency personnel have experience performing prior to coming to HUD. Why is their experience in project management and corporate solutions continuously being tossed aside for yet another bloated contract with Deloitte?

In a year where most of us are taking paycuts due to the lack of funds... how about we start looking for internal fixes to our most pressing issues? That starts with a group that is created to do so - a Special Project Office.

I would like to suggest that FHA offer a new fifteen year refinancing instrument geared to multifamily operators and assisted living operators. The fifteen year mortgage would enable these owners to build up equity in their property, provide certainty in their obligations and give them the flexibility they might need in their portfolio.

I think this idea might also be beneficial to 202 senior housing operators. However, the negative for these owners is the up front cash requirements of a refinance. That might limit the applicability of this idea.

The benefit to this concept for HUD is to redirect the refinance momentum away from conventional sources and back to FHA insured loans. This concept will benefit FHA by increasing underwriting fees. Approvals for this type of refinancing should be limited to owners with a solid record of perfomance so this will help HUD retain owners who want to do a good job with assisted housing and who have done a good job with assisted housing in the past.

The real driver of this idea is that the affordable and low income restrictions on the property would terminate with the pay off of the refinanced mortgage. When an owner refinances with conventional sources, the low income provision is lost anyway. So why not offer an alternative that retains the affordable housing provision for fifteen years?

For that matter, the number of Americans living in assisted living or other types of senior housing should peak over the next fifteen years and then decline. We could offer new guaranteed mortgages to the business community that run for fifteen years and limited the low and moderate income provision to fifteen years and bring in a new influx of capital into the affordable housing segment of the multifamily housing industry.

At the end of that fifteen years, if a substantial portion of the portfolio converted to such mortgage obligations, we would see a decline in the size of the portfolio at that time. But HUD could adapt to the new circumstance and meet the needs that existed then. The forty year mortgages have a lower price associated with them but they reduce the flexibility we need in order to deal with changing conditions. This step will help give HUD that needed flexibility.

“HUD in your Neighborhood”

The Obama Administration has set the bar high in demanding a results-oriented government that is transparent and accessible to the people. “HUD in Your Neighborhood” is one way of trying to achieve that in communities throughout the United States The concept of HUD in your Neighborhood is to accommodate a one-day clinic/technical information session on HUD programs, tools and funding avaiabilites.

Regional and Field Offices serves as an important outpost to local communities and organizations, however we lack the capacity to meet and provide face-to-face consultation on specific specialized areas as a whole agency to those communities we serve. " HUD In Your Neighborhood 2011 " will “take the show on the road” and provide a forum to increase outreach and education activities of HUD Programs and tools.

The sessions are geared for Congressional Staff, Faith –Based, Community Based Organizations, Local Elected Officials or Industry Partners.It will also provide greater cross programming and interagency communication and collaboration combining National Strategic Goals and MAP. This will improve customer service and provide technical assistance for existing and future development projects to those we serve

The goal of the initiative is to offer Subject Matter Experts from various HUD departments to provided hands on training and practical assistance empowering Stakeholders HUD program and funding opportunities for future development from our, team of experts. The majority of the HUD funds are administered locally by local non-profit and government partners.

HUD will provide SME’S , information , technical assistance and logistics for the development of HUD in your Community, marketing, organizing, and sponsorship of the event will be the responsibility of the host agency or municaplity

Participating in the Innovation Time Pilot would provided me the opportunity to transform how HUD does business by improving customer service and provide technical assistance for existing and future development projects to those we serve

I would like to suggest an idea that I think might reduce costs and thereby extend budgeted resources a little further. My thought is to imitate the financial services industries in the securitization and collaterilization of mortgage loans. But instead of loans, I propose that HUD act as a facilitator to put together needed and approved repair programs into bundles that could then be offered in a competitive bidding process to the construction industry.

This idea would primarily apply to Public Housing and approved repairs of housing projects. It might also apply to Multifamily Housing although it would be necessarily more restrictive. The product is detailed lists of repairs needed and approved in contiguous areas.

This concept would save costs through the power of competition. By making the jobs larger, a greater number of qualified bidders would be likely to submit bids for the contract right. By obtaining a large number of jobs at once, the contractors could schedule material orders in a cost effective manner, thus saving them money on the job. They would not have to be concerned so much with the stop and start nature of construction and could better manage their working capital needs.

I expect that the documentation on the HUD end would be some kind of simple legal document apportioning costs to the various projects in the consolidated repairs program. As an addendum, the documentation would include the standard repair language customary to a major construction project.

The one thing that HUD would have to give up as a part of this concept is the reservation idea that certain projects and certain activities are the preserve of designated contractors and groups. That would have to be done by some type of waiver.

This is the only real cost I see to the idea. The process of proving whether or not it might be beneficial could rely on studies of existing contracts. This kind of analysis is done all the time. The legal documents to coordinate disbursements and cover the standard issues for a construction project should not require much of the time of program attorneys. I would expect with competitive bidding, a bundle of approved repair projects would reduce authorized PIH expenditures on such items by as much as ten percent. But this action would mean that small and designated contractors would not be able to participate in the process. That cost compared to the benefit would have to be something for management to decide.

Believing a healthy body primes us all for the best, more efficient, effective life-style and reduces costs associated with unhealthy bodies and minds, it is time HUD soldiers in the fight to improve the lives of our citizens, begin a supported investment in improving their health through teamwork. Each office within a Region can establish a team (Team OGC, CPD, etc.), they will get a base-line fitness work-up, have an official HUD weigh-in and record keeper, and after 90-days, (1) the Team that loses the moset weight gets bragging rights; lunch; and each member of the team gets two days off; the individual that loses the most weight in the competition gets three days off; and the individual whose #'s improved the most (not including weight, so cholesterol, blood pressure) gets one day off.

HUD had a program that was designed to help struggling homeowners. The Assignment Program was government assistance to homeowners that went into default on their FHA mortgage loans.

Instead of foreclosing on the borrowers, qualified borrowers would be able to stay in their homes and pay their mortgage directly to HUD. HUD would provide temporary relief when needed to further assist the homeowners.

Curently, HUD has a Loan Modification program that should act as a temporary aid for homeowners. However, the Assignment Program was a much broader and effective method for continued homeownership possibilities.

With the Assignment Program, whena mortgagor went into default on his/her mortgage, they would be sent to HUD for an application into the program. If they qualified for the program, their mortgage would be assigned to HUD. HUD would pay off the existing mortgage and become the mortgagee. HUD could then provide the homeowner assistance without incurring any further delinquent interest due to the mortgagee,

Someone previously suggested that a Servicing Mortgagee should be allowed to reduce interest rates to help struggling mortgagors, well that could happen under a HUD controlled environment.

I would like to suggest a new way of leveraging HUD's financial assets to accomplish the mission of development and redevelopment. I see this concept as something that would be most beneficial for disaster recovery, where the idea is not to build something new for which a market is an unknow, but something for which a market existed.

What I propose is a limited, experimental budget allowance for performance bonds for commercial contractors to build projects that meet criteria set by HUD on a project basis. This guarantee of performance bonds could be in addition to or in lieu of loan guarantees for mortgaged projects. It would be extended to contractors rather than developers or project owners. As such, it would be a very short term guarantee product.

That might be a negative as far as HUD is concerned because of underwriting or review times that would be needed to grant an approval. While I think this idea would be beneficial and assist HUD in accomplishing its mission, most particularly in projects to rebuild major properties, it will need some study. Any thoughts or comments on this idea would be appreciated.

I would like to see HUD take a collaborative role with HHS in sponsoring an international exposition for operators of nursing homes and continuum of care facilities in the United States. This health care fair would showcase speeches by the principal licensing regulators in a number of countries. The only explicit cost to HUD in this proposal would be to provide lodging and travel for invited speakers and a venue. For a venue, I would recommend Baltimore as it is the operational center for many HHS units.

The topics at this licensing fair would be the licensing requirements for opening nursing homes overseas, financial incentives that might be available to operators, and the prospects for obtaining local residents for the properties. It is planned and contemplated that this health care fair would also include discussion by federal speakers about opportunites for U. S. citizens to obtain units in international developments using federal benefits such as Medicaid.

Such focused discussions would be the principal benefit of this exposition. It would provide a venue as to whether or not long term care providers and those who pay the bills for long term care could use locations in other countries to provide qualified care at a reduce cost to insurance companies and whatever federal programs might be called upon to support long term care of our citizens in the future.

I personally think that on a limited basis this can reduce health care costs for long term care. I believe that an international exposition is the one way to set some parameters on internationalizing long term care and on determining how it can best be used to benefit our country and other nations. A graying population is a global issue. It is not just an issue for the United States.

I propose a new smartphone app focused on location based, subsidized housing searches.

HUD has an app for HUD Homes but it is limited in scope. HUD needs a complete overhaul of how it approaches IT and how it delivers information to the public.

We have publicly available information from the National Housing Preservation Database listing federally subsidized housing units. We can geocode those locations to render as points on a map. A user can filter their search by radius from current location, whether the unit accepts Section 8, does a PHA have an open waiting list...the possibilities are endless. The app can link to the local PHA/HRA of a user, can provide typical housing information that each field office receives calls on a regular basis, and should provide contact information to the nearest PHA/HRA (phone number, address, URL).

In addition to the new subsidized housing app, a similar location based, interactive subsidized housing map should be placed on the front page of each public field office website.

Finally, this project will truly give HUD the WOW factor in terms of technology that is has been lacking in the past. This idea also covers Goal 5 of the HUD Strategic Plan: Transform the Way HUD Does Business. More Americans are getting their daily news and information from smartphones and web-based searches yet HUD is content with mailing thick paper copies of public housing lists.

Let's create a 21st century product and get this smartphone app created.

I met a gentleman who used to manage 811 and 202 HUD assisted units for a non-profit housing provider in Pittsburgh and one of his duties was to submit a rent roll, waiting list, and 50058/50059 summary report to a processing center in Iowa (he thinks) to receive the organization's monthly subsidy payment from HUD. Although this information was used to reimburse the organization for its HUD subsidy, he also sees another use in it if it were re-sent out to Continuums of Care and other housing professionals who work with people looking for housing in a manner that showed where the vacancies in these assisted units existed. Since this submission to HUD included a list of vacant units along with a waiting list, HUD could use this information to let those in the field know where HUD assisted properties had long waiting lists, small waiting lists, no waiting lists, and/or vacant units without anyone on the waiting list.

The concept basically works like this:
1. HUD assisted housing provider sends in subsidy reimbursement with backup documentation to HUD
2. HUD cleans data, removes personally identifiable data, summarizes property info
3. HUD determines vacant units and merges with waiting list at each property
4. HUD sends summary report to Continuums of Care, 211 centers, housing locators, Social Serve/pahousingsearch/PHFA, others
5. Housing professionals in the field (above) can then see where vacancies exist to assist clients in their housing search

Is there any way that HUD would consider doing this? If so, the gentleman would certainly be willing to serve as a pilot area for such a project if HUD felt that there might need for the bugs to be worked out.

HUD should have a process to require that any interest accrued while HUD funds are in a Title Company's escrow account prior to a closing be returned to HUD/Treasury at the completion of the closing. There is sometimes a few days to few weeks delay in HUD Section 202-811 Capital Advance closings after HUD funds have been deposited, and the interest earned on these sometimes sizable amounts -- sometimes over $10M -- deposited into escrow by HUD Funding Control, could earn interest -- provided that HUD requires: 1) such funds go into an interest bearing account, and 2) that any such interest earned is accounted for by the Title Company and sent to HUD/Treasury. Suggestion should apply to all HUD programs in which HUD funds are placed into Title Company escrow accounts in advance of closings.

Many other funding sources require such a procedure, but HUD does not have such a process. If HUD were party to escrow instructions and had an procedure for this, then we could collect interest on the HUD funds as they sit in an escrow account before closing. Again, we sometimes see amounts as large as $15M parked in escrow accounts awaiting closing and disbursement by the title company.

HUD should work directly with lenders who are currently servicing FHA Loans. If the Mortgagee has been current without a late payment for at least 24 to 48 months the lender should be able to reduce the interest rate of the loan without having to go through the refinancing process. If the interest rate drops .75 percent from the rate the borrower financed the loan the lender would be able to identify the loan and automatically reduce the interest on the loan .50 percent without the hassles of trying to refinance. The new rate would show up on the next mortgage statement. This would be a benefit to individuals who stayed current with their loans and would be another incentive for individuals to pay their mortgage on time.

I just heard on the news that New York City HA (NYCHA) residents were without electricity and heat due to wet equipment. Meanwhile the public housing residents are struggling to cope with severely cold weather conditions. When Hurricane Katrina impacted our assisted clientele, FEMA gave them the option to move to any part of the country and they were assisted in the cities to which they chose to move. If that option was given to eligible residents of NYCHA and other residents impacted by Sandy, maybe they could come to Texas and/or other states in the country where it is warmer and hygienically safer until their units were restored. Their children could go to school here and they could return without loss of school credit. Thus whichever Housing Authority that administers a low rent program and has vacancies could house the impacted residents. This temporary relocation would only be feasible if the Head of Household was in a position to temporarily relocate.