Pam Kazlauskas (00:01.518)
Hello everyone, I'm Pam Keslauskas with this week's Navigate Tuesday Tip and what better way to start the new year than with a hotma update. Happy New Year to everyone. I hope you had a restive and restorative holiday and are ready to start the new year. HUD has given us a gift this year. The HUD notice, 2025-07.

has now said that the compliance date for HOTMA for notice 2023-10 is hereby revised to January 1st of 2027. So we now get a full year before HOTMA is going to go into effect if things stay the way they are. Make sure when you're referring to that 2023-10 notice that you are using the one that's dated February 2nd, 2024.

There were a couple of versions that came out before that, but this is the one that you want to use. Bear in mind, changes could still come, so you wanna stay informed. So we know that we have a year before these things are gonna go into effect, we think. What should you be doing now? Well, right now you need to make sure that your tenant selection plan and your EIV policies and procedures are properly updated and compliant with the notice.

This was due May 31st of 2024, and you will get findings if your plan has not been appropriately updated. Findings are now being issued for failure to update and absent or incorrect information. You also wanna be training your staff and educating and informing your residents to the best of your ability.

There are some helpful tools when it comes to educating residents. There are HUD exchange videos on YouTube. There's HOTMA, What Does It Mean For Me? And it's geared more to public housing, but there's a lot of information in there that does apply to private housing with a Section 8. So it can be a useful tool when you're trying to convey to your residents what HOTMA means for them.

Pam Kazlauskas (02:12.706)
helpful information for you when you're looking at what HOTMA means. The HUD Exchange YouTube channel, again, has lots of videos on HOTMA, navigates website, has a HOTMA section. There is a list of HUD discretionary policies that you can get on the HUD website. And again, that HUD notice 2023-10 is the one that lays out all the provisions of HOTMA. You do wanna be careful to look for the right date on that notice.

February 2024 issue date is the one that you want. Remember there are a lot of discretionary policies and some of those can be implemented now. There's discretionary policies when it comes to income, things like the $100,000 asset limit. There's income exclusions, inflationary adjustments, some guidance on interim certifications.

and verifications that you can accept. Navigate strongly recommends waiting to implement anything until tracs 203A is enforced, but you are able to implement some things now. And if you choose to do so, just make sure you document in your selection policy and you document the file appropriately as to what policies are enforced and why you made the calculations that you did.

This is the list of mandatory and discretionary policies. The link is there. It's in their HOTMA section. So if you go into their HOTMA section, you can find this list.

specific documents and practices that you want to review and or update, your tenant selection plan, your occupancy standards, your LEP policies. Remember that even though there was an administrative order that said English is our official language and you will find very few materials on the HUD site and other languages, that does not change your responsibility to assist tenants with limited English proficiency.

Pam Kazlauskas (04:24.694)
Your marketing plan, remember that has to be reviewed within five years. Have you been doing your advertising and is there documentation on site? Review your reasonable accommodation policy, review your postings and review the training of your staff to make sure everybody's up to date. That's going to do it for our hotma update for now. If you have questions, you can certainly reach out to us. You can reach out to Vicki or to me.

and we will continue to keep you updated as we hear how much changes. Thanks and have a great new year.