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Moving to Work

The Moving to Work (MTW) program provides select public housing authorities with the opportunity to design and test innovative housing and self-sufficiency strategies for low-income families.

About Moving to Work

Moving to Work (MTW) is a HUD program that gives housing authorities flexibility around certain federal rules and regulations and allows the agency to implement local solutions. The Housing Authority of Washington County (HAWC) was selected for MTW status in May 2021. Our agreement is for participation for 20 years. 2022 will be our first submission of proposed MTW activities.

The MTW program provides the Housing Authority of Washington County with a unique opportunity to design and test innovative, locally designed housing and self-sufficiency strategies for serving low-income families. MTW agencies have greater flexibility to administer their public housing and Housing Choice Voucher programs with policies that can address local needs and that allow the housing authority to utilize restricted funds in creative ways.

MTW FAQs in English and Spanish are at the bottom of the page. More information can also be found on HUD’s website at www.hud.gov/mtw.

What are MTW Activities?

The Housing Authority will use our MTW flexibility by creating locally designed MTW activities. These MTW activities are ways the agency will propose to operate differently than standard federal regulation, in an effort to create strategies that best fit our local needs. MTW activities will be shared with the community, with our Housing Advisory Committee and with our Housing Authority Board of Directors to solicit feedback on changes before plans are submitted to HUD for approval.

The Moving to Work program has three statutory objectives: 1) increase affordable housing choices, 2) increase cost effectiveness, and/or 3) promote self-sufficiency. Each MTW activity will be designed to meet one or more of these statutory objectives.

2022 MTW Activities

The 2022 PHA Annual Plan included the Housing Authority of Washington County’s first MTW activities, described in the Form 50075-MTW. A description of our 2022 MTW plans (organized by activity rather than by HUD waiver) is also available below in the 2022 MTW Activity Plan.

2022 MTW Activity Plan (PDF 1.13 MB)

Quick Info – 2022 Activities

Quick Info – Tiered Rents

For more information on MTW, please visit HUD’s website at www.hud.gov/mtw.

Public Meetings

In March 2022, the Housing Authority of Washington County hosted four online meetings for community partners and for residents and participants to learn about our MTW Activity proposals for 2022-2023. The slideshow from those presentations can be found here.

FAQs

Congress created the MTW program to allow housing authorities to alter HUD program rules for the Housing Choice Voucher and Public Housing programs, including policy changes and flexibility in how it spends HUD money. The purpose is to identify areas where policy adjustments and local policy changes improve outcomes. MTW agencies represent just one percent (1%) of all housing authorities. MTW agencies are responsible for ensuring that the activities they pursue meet one or more of the following statutory objectives:

  • Increase affordable housing choices
  • Increase cost effectiveness, and/or
  • Promote self-sufficiency

With significant increases in housing cost in Washington County and insufficient resources to fill the gap, HAWC faces the prospect of reducing the number of households it serves. The MTW program provides HAWC with additional tools to reduce cost and to shift resources to help fill the funding gap. MTW also allows HAWC to adopt policies and implement programs designed to help clients become self-sufficient.

This is a prestigious designation, and the HAWC is honored to be designated as a MTW agency.

One of the goals of the MTW program is to increase affordable housing. HAWC will review a variety of options available using its MTW flexibility to provide more affordable housing in the County with creative funding solutions.

Each year, HAWC may adopt new MTW activities that may impact our residents and participants, depending on the policy change and the family's circumstances. Before adopting new activities, HAWC will hold public meetings and community discussions, to solicit feedback on the proposed changes.

At the onset of the program, HAWC will implement a tiered rent policy to simplify calculating rent costs. Eligible families are non-elderly, non-disabled households who are not participating in the FSS (Family Self Sufficiency) program. The tiered rent policy will change the way rent is calculated. Households impacted by the tiered rent policy will have a reexamination every three years instead of every year, minimizing the amount of paperwork and documentation families have to fill out.

As HAWC moves forward in the MTW program and begins to propose changes or new activities, we will hold public meetings and community discussions to help people understand the changes and provide an opportunity for questions and feedback. Information about those meetings will be posted on the HAWC website.

El Congreso creó el programa MTW para permitir que las autoridades de vivienda alteren las reglas del programa HUD para los programas de Vales de Elección de Vivienda y Vivienda Pública, incluyendo los cambios de política y la flexibilidad en la manera en que invierte el dinero de HUD. El propósito es identificar áreas donde los ajustes de políticas y los cambios de políticas locales mejoran los resultados. Las agencias MTW representan solo el uno por ciento (1%) de todas las autoridades de vivienda. Las agencias MTW son responsables de garantizar que las actividades que realizan cumplan con uno o más de los siguientes objetivos estatutarios:

  • aumentar las opciones de vivienda asequible
  • aumentar la rentabilidad o
  • promover la autosuficiencia

Debido al aumento significativo en el costo de la vivienda en el Condado de Washington y la falta de recursos para llenar la brecha, HAWC enfrenta la posibilidad de reducir el número de hogares a los que presta servicios. El programa MTW proporciona a HAWC herramientas adicionales para reducir costos y transferir recursos para ayudar a llenar la brecha de financiamiento. MTW también permite a HAWC adoptar políticas e implementar programas diseñados para ayudar a los clientes a ser autosuficientes.

Esta es una designación prestigiosa y HAWC tiene el honor de ser designada como agencia MTW.

Una de las metas del programa MTW es aumentar las viviendas asequibles. HAWC revisará una variedad de opciones disponibles utilizando la flexibilidad proporcionada por MTW para ofrecer viviendas más asequibles en el Condado con soluciones creativas de financiamiento.

Cada año, HAWC podría adoptar nuevas actividades de MTW que podrían afectar a nuestros residentes y participantes, según el cambio de política y las circunstancias de la familia. Antes de adoptar nuevas actividades, HAWC llevará a cabo reuniones públicas y diálogos comunitarios para solicitar comentarios sobre los cambios propuestos.

Al inicio del programa, HAWC implementará una política de alquiler por niveles para simplificar el cálculo de los costos de alquiler. Las familias elegibles son personas que no son ancianos ni discapacitados y que no participan en el programa de autosuficiencia familiar (FSS, por sus siglas en inglés). La política de alquiler escalonado cambiará la manera en que se calcula el alquiler. Los hogares afectados por la política de alquiler escalonado serán reexaminados cada tres años en lugar de cada año, lo que minimiza la cantidad de papeleo y documentación que las familias deben completar.

A medida que HAWC avanza en el programa MTW y comienza a proponer cambios o nuevas actividades, realizaremos reuniones públicas y diálogos comunitarios para ayudar a las personas a comprender los cambios y brindar una oportunidad para preguntas y comentarios. La información sobre esas reuniones se publicará en el sitio web de HAWC.

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