U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Public and Indian Housing (PIH), Real Estate Assessment Center (REAC), Inspection Standards & Data for Vouchers (ISDV) Division.

Our Challenge

The work of ISDV is to ensure that families who receive financial assistance from the federal government live in safe and decent housing. To accomplish this goal, the division oversees physical inspections of units in which such families will be housed. ISDV was mandated by Congress in 2016 to institute a new inspection process for public housing, and the mechanism by which the new processes are tested public is called the Uniform Physical Condition Standards for Vouchers (UPCS-V).  Public housing authorities, which control the units in which families receiving federal funds live, are able to sign up with ISDV to take part in the testing program. DFC assisted ISDV in nearly every aspect of this program, such as creating the standards for it, governance, training, IT, auditing, and oversight.

The DFC team worked with ISDV to move from the old inspection process, called Housing Quality Standards (HQS), to the UPCS-V process. In 2016 Congress directed HUD to implement consistent inspection standards across all of its programs and to ensure proper oversight of Section 8 housing (for those receiving federal housing funds). The HUD Office of Inspector General found that the old standard was interpreted and applied in a variety of ways by different federal housing assistance programs.

Our Strategy

DFC worked with REAC on the current inspection process to better understand what changes have been made to the process. We have applied the industry best practices when we created the new standards, performed stakeholder analysis, and engaged in governance, training, IT, auditing, and oversight on behalf of ISDV.

Our Results

DFC’s strategies have proven to be highly successful.  The team can boast the following achievements:

• completion of a new 130-page UPCS-V Inspection protocol
• implementation of a training program that has taught 11 public housing authorities about the new inspection regime
• creation of an internal testing plan, which will provide scientific rigor in demonstrating that the new protocol is objective, accurate, and consistent