Vickie Bell (00:05)
Hi Ebony, how are you today?

Ebony Hall (00:07)
I'm doing alright. It's another Tuesday tip.

Vickie Bell (00:10)
It's another Tuesday Tip meaning it's another Tuesday. I wondered if we were gonna get to Tuesday. Listen, today's tip is going to be simple. It's simple, but it's so, so important. At Navigate, I also get the appeals. When a person wants to appeal their M.O.R.

Ebony Hall (00:16)
You

Vickie Bell (00:35)
And something has been frightening me lately about the appeals and about the MORs and the exit interview. Now I know we're just waiting for HOTMA. I know we're just waiting for a thousand other things that have happened since the first of the week. But as my mother says, don't forget what you already have.

Ebony Hall (00:58)
Okay.

Vickie Bell (00:58)
And I have owners and agents who want to appeal their below average score or their unsatisfactory score. And I look at the exit interview. Now, the exit interview is something that any not just navigate, but any is to go over with the managers as they finish or wrap up the MOR.

And what I have been noticing lately is that they're getting below averages and unsats and they want to appeal them saying they don't think the score is right. Yet I read the exit interview and when I read the exit interview, the first thing I see is the file was not produced for the MOR. Now, yes.

Ebony Hall (01:45)
Isn't that a big part of the M.O.R.?

Okay.

Vickie Bell (01:49)
That's

what we do on an MOR. We go through and we audit the files. How can you expect to get an above average or satisfactory and you have not produced a file?

It worries me even more so than that because there is a lot of personal information on our residents in these files. And when the guys come back out in the field and they say, well, Ms. Vickie, they couldn't even produce the file. I had one lady says, Ms. Vickie, I asked for four files. And out of the four files, they could not produce one. So I want to encourage the management companies and the owners and agents,

Ebony Hall (02:10)
Absolutely.

Vickie Bell (02:31)
that our residents information is kept confidential. It should be in a lockable file cabinet. It says that in the handbook and everyone is not to have access to it. It really disturbs my spirit when I see or read no file produced.

Where's the folk's file? Where's the information? You know, and if it were I, it would be, where's my social security number? And my birth date? And my birth certificate?

Ebony Hall (03:00)
Yes.

Vickie Bell (03:04)
You know, where is my information? So I do want us to be cautious that sure, we're getting ready for HOTMA. HOTMA's ringing around in our head. But truthfully speaking, the residents file

is a personal thing and it's personal to them. That's why we have to sign the EIV rules of behavior. These files are not to just be floating around. In one particular state we had, the manager told the RM, well, I was reviewing it last night and I left it at home. I'll need to go home and get it. That's a no-no. That's a no-no. Whether HOTMA gets here or whether it doesn't,

My mom says, do what you've always done. Take care of your resident's file. Take care of their information. Another one that we had, and it was kind of unusual, but we had a break-in.

to a manager's office. And the gentleman sent in a notice, and he wanted to say that he should not have been given an M.O.R. because he had a break-in the day before the scheduled M.O.R.

And it appears that nothing was taken. They have section 8 files and they have conventional files, but it was only the section 8 files that were taken. They were stored.

Ebony Hall (04:24)
How were they stored?

Vickie Bell (04:28)
in a lockable file cabinet in the manager's office that only she had a key to. But it was the first time in my 40 plus years that I've ever had this to happen. It just seems like whomever the thief was, selected.

the Section 8 files, not the conventional files. And so HUD told us, we asked them what we had to do, and they told us, you've got to do that MOR, and not only that, but management has to let each one of the residents know that their information has been exposed. So if you find that you're running into these difficult times, not to say that you can stop a thief from being a thief, but you can try to deter them some, and you can make sure that before you leave,

Ebony Hall (04:59)
Very important.

Vickie Bell (05:12)
at night everything is locked up. The thing that I want our owners and agents to keep in mind is that what if it were you? know, what if it was your sister, your mother, your daughter? You know, those would be areas of concern for me. So when you send me an appeal and you tell me that you disagree with the score,

Ebony Hall (05:21)
Exactly.

Vickie Bell (05:36)
And the exit interview that you signed says that you could not produce the vows.

That's not an argument for me. That's an argument for HUD. I'm going to let the score stand and then you have to appeal it to HUD.

I had another call.

that said that an RM had given them a finding, but could not give them a justification for the finding. There was no reference, no HUD reference for the finding. If we write findings, we should be able to tell you how you're out of order. So we should be able to give you a regulation that shows that this is not the proper way. You're out of compliance.

And just keep in mind that sometimes things are going so fast that everybody's confused, even sometimes the contract administrator. If you feel that you have a reason or if you feel that the reason is not a valid one for receiving a finding or noncompliance, then feel free to talk to your contract administrator because we're supposed to tell you what you did wrong.

We're supposed to tell you where you could find it as a HUD reference. We're supposed to tell you how to correct it. And we're all in this together. We all want to be on the same page.

Ebony Hall (06:52)
Thank

of the 530 MORs that you guys did last year, only 30 were below average and three were unsatisfactory. So it's rare when it happens.

Vickie Bell (07:05)
Okay,

it is rare when it happens, but it does happen. So keep in mind that I don't know a perfect person.

Ebony Hall (07:09)
Mm-hmm.

Vickie Bell (07:15)
and that we are trying to keep you in compliance. That's our job. We want you to be in compliance. The more you're in compliance, the easier our jobs are. yes, and feel free to reach out. We won't have as many resident complaints, resident concerns. Feel free to reach out to us. Our RMs, they love training. They all after my job, guys. They want to train. So, all you've got to do

Ebony Hall (07:25)
and the better the housing.

Hahaha.

Vickie Bell (07:42)
is ask them for some help. And the CACs are wonderful too. We have always tried to extend the olive branch. Next week we're going out to a new property to our portfolio, but they're a little bit confused so we're going to take the training to them. I just want to say stay tuned, keep looking up.

That's what somebody used to tell me all the time. Don't look down because you won't find anything looking down. Continue to look up and we're going to all get through this together.

Ebony Hall (08:07)
Hehehe.

All right, well we will see you guys next week. It'll be Vickie again. So send your questions. You can email her at vbell at navigatehousing.com and we'll see you then.

Vickie Bell (08:24)
Okay, bye.