Lawyers Manual - Unified Court System

Public Assistance and Housing 271
Plan” or “Tenant Selection and Assignment Plan.” For the Section 8/Housing
Choice Voucher program, practitioners should request the “Administrative Plan”
for that PHA. Additionally, practitioners can obtain a copy of the PHA’s overall
operating plans (referred to by both the Section 8/Housing Choice Voucher
administrators and public housing authorities as the “PHA Plan”).
Despite specific direction from HUD in the early 2000’s encouraging the
creation and implementation of domestic violence survivor-friendly policies and
procedures, many local PHAs elected not to institute such accommodations in
either the Section 8 or the public housing arenas. 102 However, as a part of
federal housing reforms contained in the recent Violence Against Women Act
(VAWA III), effective January 5, 2006, PHAs are now required to formally
address domestic violence, stalking, and dating violence survivors’ needs in both
their annual103 and their five year plans. 104 Therefore, in order to comply, PHAs
must now describe any goals, objectives, policies, or programs they have in
place to serve the housing needs of these victims and collaborate with victim
service providers in creating these new policies and procedures. 105 Where legal
advocates want to have input into drafting and implementation of survivorfriendly
policies in their locality, they should consider meeting directly with
local PHA administrators or writing letters or testifying during annual openpublic
comment periods. On June 23, 2006 HUD issued PIH 2006-23, which
discusses the implementation of VAWA III and directs PHAs to “make tenants
participating in all public housing and voucher programs as well as owners
participating in the Section 8 voucher program aware of the requirements of
VAWA III as soon as possible.”
Because the demand for public housing and Section 8 vouchers often
exceeds the available resources, PHAs may establish a list of local preferences
for selecting priority applicants from its waiting list. Each PHA has the discretion
to determine its own preferences, which might include homelessness, involuntary
displacement, high rental costs or domestic violence. Priority preferences are not
a guarantee of housing or a voucher, but they offer those who are otherwise
eligible an opportunity to have quicker access to this scare resource. Although
there remains policy direction from HUD encouraging local PHAs to consider
preferences for domestic violence survivors and their children, many PHAs have
not implemented such preferences to date. 106 Unfortunately, VAWA III does not
require the creation of such preferences. However, utilizing both the HUD policy
guidance together with the broad VAWA III policy directives, domestic violence
service providers may want to advocate with their local PHAs for the adoption of
these preferences, as well as other protections. 107