Moving to Work (MtW)

In November 2010, Boulder Housing Partners wrote an application to HUD to be accepted into the Moving to Work Demonstration Program. The application was written in collaboration with residents, participants, partners, and service agencies in Boulder. We are very pleased to announce that HUD accepted our application. In November, we received our fully executed MTW Agreement.

As background, Moving to Work (MTW) is a demonstration program for 33 public housing authorities (PHAs) that provides them the opportunity to design and test innovative, locally-designed strategies that use Federal dollars more efficiently, help residents find employment and become self-sufficient, and increase housing choices for low-income families. MTW gives PHAs exemptions from many existing public housing and voucher rules and more flexibility with how they use their Federal funds. MTW PHAs are expected to use the opportunities presented by MTW to inform HUD about ways to better address local community needs.

The next steps are to implement the MTW program activities as of January 1, 2012. 

MTW Standard Agreement 

MTW Annual Plan for 2012 

 The link to the HUD press release can be found here.

The link to the BHP press release can be found here.

The link to BHP's application, which was submitted on November 30, 2010 can be found here.

MtW Factsheets:
Program Overview, 
Public Housing Residents, 
Public Housing Conversion,
Section 8 Participants,
Section 8 Landlords

Contents:
Benefits to our new MtW status
Our MtW Goals
Our proposed first year activities
Our anticipated impacts and outcomes


There are many, many benefits to our new MTW status, including:

  • All of our funding for our core HUD programs - public housing operating subsidy, capital funds, housing choice voucher assistance payments and housing choice voucher administrative fees - will come to us in a single block grant, allowing us complete flexibility about how to use our resources. The total of these funds in 2011 is $7.3 million.
  • We establish a contractual relationship with HUD which means that our baseline level of funding is no longer subject to wild swings in appropriations. Our contract will run through September 30, 2018.
  • We will submit an annual work plan that outlines the regulations that need to be waived in order for us to pursue our MTW goals.
  • The centerpiece of our application is to replicate the very successful model at Broadway East to the balance of the public housing inventory. In other words, convert the inventory to tax-credit funded entities with full renovation for all Public Housing units.


In addition to that goal, the equally important goals that we applied to pursue include:

  • Use federal housing resources as compelling tools in creating positive change for families,
  • Manage converted public housing as a real estate asset and a vital part of our community's infrastructure,
  • Encourage the community, and our prospective customers, to perceive public housing as a place to Live, Learn, and Earn,
  • Accelerate the shift of staff focus from paper to people,
  • Complete the transformation of a public agency from bureaucratic to entrepreneurial,
  • Accelerate changes in outcomes for families from tepid to catalytic,
  • Enhance our role in the industry from thinkers to doers, and
  • Provide a more complete continuum of housing choices.


Our proposed first year (January 1, 2012) activities include:

  1. Allow BHP to commit project-based vouchers to cover 100% of the units at converted public housing developments.
  2. Create a rent simplification structure specifically for elderly households and people with disabilities.
  3. Create a rent simplification structure for family households.
  4. Implement rent simplification measures for all households.
  5. Design the rent reform study.
  6. Eliminated the 40% of income cap in the voucher program.
  7. Implement a flat utility allowance for the voucher program.
  8. Implement a landlord self-certification system for HQS inspections for the voucher program.


Our anticipated impacts include these specific outcomes:

  1. Convert all of our public housing to a Section 8 project-based financing model that replicates the tremendously successful model we used with our first public housing conversion at Broadway East.
  2. Achieve 100% service enrichment at all of our public housing properties.
  3. Transform both the practice and perception of public housing into an environment where residents "Live, Learn and Earn".
  4. Focus substantial service support to the voucher population.
  5. Amend our rent and program administration guidelines to make the programs more user-friendly, less staff-intensive and more conducive to economic self-sufficiency.
  6. Address critical gaps in the housing continuum at the entry and exit points for the public housing and voucher program's participants. We can do this in two ways: by committing up to 60 new vouchers to project-based transitional programs and using the flexibility of our existing funds, along with resources generated by conversion, to create a minimum of 100 new units to be included in BHP's Boulder Affordable Rentals program.
  7. Use leveraged funds from the public housing conversion initiative to bring much-needed gap funds to two projects already in development: Lee Hill Housing for chronically homeless individuals and Red Oak Park Phase II, the Valmont building, for 20 units of transitional housing.
  8. Expand the successful partnership that provides college tuition to BHP children who participate in the I Have A Dream (IHAD) program. MTW flexibility will allow us to create more community space, which will allow for another classroom.
  9. Incentivize movement along Boulder's housing continuum by encouraging economic self-sufficiency and moving people towards market-rate housing, thus creating more housing opportunities for those on the waiting list.