2019 Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing: Phase 1 Report

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The survey was administered online through a University enterprise account with SurveyMonkey.com. Each agency provided a list of all staff members, who were then sent invitations to participate in the survey in the first week of December. Staff who wished to do so could provide their email address to be entered into a gift card drawing. Subsequent email reminders were sent to each staff member over the first half of December 2019. Overall, the survey completion was highly successful: over 70% of agency staff completed the survey — a remarkably high response rate. Specific agency response rates are found later in the report. We are extremely grateful for the assistance of our agency partners and staff members who ensured the success of the survey. Document Review Each agency provided a set of documents that summarized their agency's policies, procedures, and training related to fair housing. The list of policy documents requested from each agency was as follows: Policy Manuals, Rules, and Regulations We would like to review all policy manuals (including rules and regulations) used by your staff for each of the housing programs you administer. These may include, but are not necessarily limited to: 1) Housing Choice Voucher Program; 2) Public Housing; 3) Project Based Section 8; 4) the federal and state LIHTC programs; 5) other supply-side housing programs (202, 203b, 811, etc.); 6) the Rental Assistance Payment (RAP); 7) rental housing revolving funds (state or local); 8) VASH; 9) CBGB; 10) HOME; 11) other homelessness programs; 12) TBRA; 13) Hawaiian Homelands. Agency Reports All plans and reports produced by your agency (annual reports, 5 -year plans, previous consolidated reports). State and Local Policies under Your Purview If there are relevant pieces of legislation that have not yet been consolidated into your internal rules and regulations, please share those as well. Scoring and Ranking Systems If not included in the Policy Manuals, please submit all scoring and ranking systems. These can include project evaluation criteria (QAP, for example), information on the waitlist management and scoring, rent reasonableness determination processes, and so forth. Training Materials We would like to review and materials used to onboard new employees related to fair housing (or offered to existing employees). Each agency provided a different document set. The full set of documents provided for this report can be found in Appendix B. 5