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all right everyone we are going to get started uh for the sake of time um so first of all i wanted to thank all of you for taking time out of your very busy days to join us today um today we are going to be discussing remote methods as part of the hopwa office hours series in particular we're going to be focusing on remote methods when it comes to intake initial initial and annual certifications as well as virtual inspections next slide so we're gonna do some introductions for those of you who i've never met before my name is steve ellis i am a senior analyst with the cloudburst group i know many of you through the hopwa technical assistance that we do either through the cares act or through modernization as well as the caper and apr validation process so thank you again for joining heather would you like to introduce yourself hi everybody my name is heather rhoda i also work at the cloudburst group and do quite a bit of work um with hopple grantees and their project sponsors also do some work with the apr and capers and provide quite a bit of hopwa related ta i'm glad everybody could join thank you and we'll go to ohhh hi i'm rita harcrow i'm the director of the office of hiv aids housing and appreciate everyone joining today and to our friends at cloudburst thanks for pulling all this great information together i hope we can answer a lot of questions today amy and i'm amy paolonis i'm a senior program specialist in the office of hiv aids housing and i'm looking forward to taking your questions today thank you everyone you'll see our faces again later on when we get to some of the questions next slide so as we get started before we go into details we just want to give you some general information so our goal our objective today is to buy to provide you an overview and a reminder about a few hop or program requirements to refresh you on some of the hopwa waiver flexibilities that have been issued due to the pandemic in covid19 and then finally we're going to get to and answer some of your burning questions about conducting virtual inspections and completing initial interim and annual certifications remotely slide so for those of you who like an agenda here's what we're going to be looking at during our 90 minutes so we'll start with those general hubble eligibility requirements and then we'll go into specifically the waivers and flexibilities for those requirements particularly around hiv status and income and how to document those we'll then pivot to hopwa habitability and hqs inspection requirements and what waivers and flexibilities were put out regarding that topic we'll then go to your questions and answers so as we are going through if you do have any questions please throw them into the questions box so that we can ask them when we get to that moment we most likely will not get to everyone's questions today so as always if we're not able to get to your question online we'll definitely handle it offline and we will also try to share a list of the questions and answers for everyone so that will eventually be posted to the hot exchange and finally we'll end today's office hours with some resources and reminders as where as well as where to find help if you need more information or assistance as you move forward after today's office hours with that i'm going to turn it over to heather hello everybody again thank you for joining today's office hours as steve mentioned we're going to first start with um just some refreshers and then we'll move into um specific information uh next slide please so we're going to be starting with as i'm sure everybody knows on this call um just a reminder about the hopwa eligibility requirements right um aqua eligibility requirements apply to all activities except for housing information services and those being at least one family member must be diagnosed with hiv aids this may include a minor and total income of all family members must be at or below 80 percent of the area median income this information area median income income level of the entire family must be verified initially and at least annually thereafter next slide so regarding verification of hiv in general i wanted to talk a little bit about um some key elements associated with hiv verification because we've had a few questions about it hiv only needs to be verified once right and physical documentation must be in the current household file and the form of hiv verification needs to be legible and meaningful to a non-medical professional and um as you as you might know um and if we haven't told you already you can follow along um along the presentation live right here you can also click on handouts where we have a pdf version of the slides from the office hours including some additional notes for each slide let's move to the next slide please so what are the hawkwa income verification requirements remember this is just in general so in general except for housing information services all family income and assets unless excluded that is received by or on behalf of any adult family member including minors must be verified before assistance is provided the same income and assets from all family members including minors must also be verified at least annually in addition any income source that being you know assets included that changes during the year should also be verified at the time of the change which we refer to as an interim recertification this is especially important when somebody is receiving hawker rental assistance because that income change particularly if it's a reduction could change um the assisted households portion of rent and therefore lower the portion that they are required to pay next slide please so knowing what the general eligibility requirements are for income and hiv verification and attempting to gather those types of documentation and verification in the middle of a pandemic are there waivers available regarding getting that type of documentation and yes i'm sure you're all aware that there are waivers covering this one of which is an hiv aids diagnosis can be verified via other credible information which includes self-certification and income of all family members can also be verified using self-certification next slide please but first to be able to verify using other credible information or self-certification if you're a project sponsor your grantee must have notified hud of their intent to use the waivers and then as a project sponsor you need to be in um you know open communication with your grantee about your intent to apply any potential waivers that they've notified that your grantee is notified hot about next slide so how do the waivers affect your current intake in um like for initial and annual and income income recertification process everybody has a process right for which they've established that they've been using you know pre pandemic and the waivers don't mean you need to throw out your process entirely what the waivers do is make it a little bit easier and quicker to determine eligibility and to begin providing most necessary services whether it be supportive services and housing assistance before obtaining physical or source documentation of hiv aids status and um income eligibility income verification for the household so the waivers are meant to complement your current eligibility determination process next slide please so regarding the hiv waiver um verification waiver what does that mean well you still should to the extent that you're able to obtain source documentation if possible right so as part of your intake um process you know that would include asking if you know a client or a potential household on the person who's hiv positive has any documentation on hand right or maybe you could obtain um hiv verification rather quickly through like a testing center or a medical facility in addition if you're going to be using the waivers um both grantee and project sponsor policies and procedures should be updated to include that you're going to be using other credible information including self-certification to verify hiv status when source documentation can't be obtained in addition you must then obtain source documentation within three months after safety measures within your community are no longer needed next slide please what are some examples of other credible information to verify hiv status well part as part of your intake you could be working with um a potential client and you know do a review of their hiv medic medications um you could um you know discuss with them a doctor that they might um be seeing or in treatment with their own knowledge of their own viral suppression and also self-certification of their own hiv status in hiv medical history another option is you could get a referral from another hiv specific agency that might have been providing um non-hopwa type services to the person um that you're conducting an intake with also you may be able to get some information or acknowledgement from a case manager within your same agency um who may have been providing um case management or already been working with the client and knows them to be hiv positive next slide please what does the waiver mean regarding income verification well self-certification of income can be used in lieu of source documentation including um you know third party so this means um in lieu of you know social security benefit letters paycheck stubs items like that this applies to any activity in which documentation of income is a factor or is needed right so you're looking at intake conducting intake and overall hopwa program eligibility except for housing information services and as part of determining income and calculating portions of rent for tenant-based rental assistance master leased units and facility-based housing both permanent and transitional and it also applies to when you're working with um existing clients and you're conducting an annual or interim recertification please also note that although you can use self-certification you should continue to try to collect you know source documentation for household income whenever it's possible next slide please now this is where steve is going to pick up and he's going to talk a little bit about um aqua habitability inspections thank you heather as you are all aware that there are some inspection requirements for the hopwa program so all units assisted with hopple rental assistance must pass habitability or hqs make sure whether or not your community uses habitability or hqs is outlined in your policies and procedures and uniformly applied across your area so particular note these units must pass the inspection at initial before any hopwa assistance is provided and at least annually next slide as part of any inspection requirement there's also a requirement to be aware of lead-based paint particularly anyone who might be doing a habitability needs to be aware of lead-based paint visual assessment requirements so as part of hud programs there are times when a unit will need to make sure that it passes this visual assessment so particularly for the hopwa program when it comes to hopwa tbra master leasing and facility based housing you need to be aware and do a lead-based paint visual assessment for any unit that's built before in 1978 where a pregnant person or in which a children under the age of six will reside these lead-based paint visual assessment requirements will also apply to hopwa sturmu but only in which where a unit which stermu will be used for over a hundred consecutive days assuming once again that the unit is built before 1978 and that unit is going to have a household that has a pregnant person or children under the age of six living there next slide so are there waivers available regarding this and of course there are so the first waiver april first extended some property standards to tbra the second waiver put out may 22nd applied these property standard waivers to all hopwa activities that required an inspection so these waivers gave programs the flexibility to say that all initial habitability and hqs inspections can be done virtually it means that inspection still needs to occur at initial before any assistance is provided but it does not have to be done in person and as a quick reminder that grantees do need to notify hud of their intent to use this waiver before they start applying it to their program next slide so let's talk about how to take these waivers and apply it to your current inspection process because if you are utilizing any of those hopway activities that were in inspections required you already have something and have been doing something for years and it's probably operating fairly well so what these waivers mean is that you do not need to throw your entire inspection process out of the window and start from scratch what this means is you now have the ability to do virtual inspections if physical in-person inspections are not possible or not safe so basically this is just going to complement what you're currently doing right because there might be situations where initial inspections can be done so in person right you know physical face to face particularly if it's an empty unit so it doesn't mean you have to automatically do initial inspections remotely but it is an option to make sure that everyone stays safe during the pandemic next slide so what this all means is that your initial lease up inspection uh that these inspections must continue before assistance is provided but they can just be conducted using remote technology so when we talk about remote technology and virtual methods we're talking about things such as live streaming pre-recorded videos or photographs for those of you who are able to join us in the past there was a webinar on doing remote inspections virtually we can make sure that when we are done we share that link with everyone in case you have any questions about how to do so but in the meantime if you do need to look it up it is posted on the hud exchange not just the slides but also some examples on how you can do your inspections remotely particularly using live streaming and pre-recorded videos as always it's worth noting that if you are going to do or need to do initial remote inspections to make sure to update your policies and procedures particularly that there is a requirement that in-person on-site inspections must be done once it's safe to do so so you'll need to make sure that not only are your policies updated but you're tracking the units where these inspections need to occur once the public health emergency is lifted next slide so so far we've been talking about initial inspections and now we're going to bring in this idea of annual inspections so we've seen a lot of questions in the past about if there are waivers available for annual inspections and so there are no per se waivers about annual inspections but there have been a number of waivers or sorry flexibilities have been put into place to help you with annual inspections so annual in-person on-site inspections can be postponed or done virtually if you're already doing your initial inspections virtually you can now also do your annual inspections virtually if this is what you're going to do or any changes that you're going to make please make sure to update your policies and procedures accordingly and if for some reason you aren't going to be doing in person or virtual inspections hud does expect hopple program staff to at least check in with clients about their conditions of their unit so make sure to have some sort of phone call that you're asking about is it safe is it livable maybe you're running through the questions that you normally run through when you do an in-person inspection maybe you're adding a few additional questions since you're not able to see the unit you're not able to touch things in the unit right so just make sure that's all outlined in your policies and procedures so you're not only staying safe and keeping your clients safe but you're also meeting the hud requirements and hud recommendations for doing these inspections next slide and when it comes to waivers for lead-based paint visual assessments right now there are no waivers saying that you do not have to do them but you can also do them like these inspections virtually using live streaming or other methods so in general a lead-based paint visual assessment is going to be performed as part of any habitability or hqs inspection so you can easily fold that into your virtual methods that you're conducting already as always make sure to update your policies and procedures to reflect any changes that you are making there is a special note particularly this would come into effect for annuals but for any unit where lead-based paint visual assessment rules apply a visual visual in-person physical inspection must occur once it's safe to do so so this is going to be another instance of where you're going to need to track this to make sure that when the public health emergency is lifted you're going in to not only do your initial inspections in person but also any annual inspections or lead-based paint might be an issue and it might be worth trying to prioritize those units where lead-based paint might be an issue next slide all right those were our slides and so in the meantime let's get into some of the questions that have come through so one of the first questions has come through is people want to know how do they figure out if their grantee has notified hud of their community's intent to use these or any of the waivers in these instances if you're not aware of your grantee as notified hud please make sure to reach out to your grantee and ask there's a clear path for how grantees should do this and how everything should be documented so please do not implement any of these waivers until you are sure that your grantee is notified hud another question if a waiver is used do we need to document the use of that waiver in the household file the answer is yes so please make sure if you are going to allow any of the self-certification or any of the virtual inspections that there is a note somewhere in the file that you've applied this waiver i think this is especially key if you need to follow back up with physical documentation it's very clear to anyone who might monitor that file not only of you using the waiver but you doing your due diligence and following up it will also be a good way to maybe explain why you might have a habitability or hqs inspection that might say at the top that it was done virtually and then the exact same form might appear two months later when you did it in person so please make sure to document this in the client file this and any waivers that you might apply also tied to waivers there's a question do we need to track the waivers anywhere else besides the household file so in general tracking this anywhere else is not a hud requirement but it isn't a bad idea to go ahead and try to track the use of these waivers at a systems level maybe on an excel spreadsheet where you use client numbers as you can tell for some of the information that we've shared and from some of the information for other webinars there's required follow-up so having a list in front of you of clients that might need hiv documentation for the file having a list in front of you of what units might need to be inspected once it's safe to do so will make your life much easier instead of necessarily having to go through each individual household file i do know that there are some grantees that are requiring this additional layer of documentation asking people to track it at a systems level so please make sure to contact your grantee to see if there's any additional requirements besides the household file heather are there any other questions yes there are and i have a um a couple of questions um for hud staff um when do the waivers expire i can take that one um so there isn't a specific expiration date for the waiver regarding self-certification of income and credible information on hiv status grantees can utilize that waiver if they agree to obtain source documentation of hiv status and income eligibility within three months of public health officials determining that no additional special measures are necessary to prevent the spread of covid19 so that one is more open-ended and ongoing um and really has to do with uh you know how the pandemic plays out and recommendations on what safety practices are needed for the habitability standards waivers that allow for virtual inspections and those are a little different and that there is a date tied to those um so those waivers are in effect for one year beginning on the date of the waiver memorandums so until march of 2021 for the first waiver memo um that was specific to tbra and then may 2021 for the second waiver memo that was for all applicable housing types so grantees can use those waivers if they are able to visually inspect now using technology and they have policies and procedures in place to physically inspect the unit after health officials determine um special measures to prevent the spread of coven 19 are no longer necessary uh so i definitely just recommend that you reference the waiver memos that we published if you have uh questions at any point about the expiration of those waivers great thank you amy and to follow up on that on the waiver theme um when will the when will or will the waivers be extended so that's a good question uh so as i said um the documentation of income and hiv status waiver is pretty open-ended just the way that it was written um and there really isn't um an expiration date uh so that one is really just based on how the pandemic plays out and what the recommendations are uh related to safety practices by public health officials that one is ongoing and doesn't really there's not really a need to extend it at this point um as i said the habitability standards waivers expire in the spring of 2021. there isn't really a plan right now or a need to extend those at this point but we are constantly monitoring things and using any questions and concerns raised by grantees and project sponsors to inform our policy decisions so we will absolutely keep you all updated if any waivers will be extended or any new waivers will be granted great thank you i think that's what all we have for right this minute we do have a couple um other questions that um we have had uh grantees and project sponsors posed before um and are there any waivers for working with clients remotely and i can definitely take this one um there's no requirement to work directly with clients face-to-face so you don't need a waiver to work with clients remotely um the way in which case management is conducted and how you deliver you know housing hopwa housing assistance such as stermu tbra php how that's provided is at the discretion of the grantee right and according to their current policies but what i can tell you is that current guidance in addressing um the pandemic and making sure you know you're keeping program staff safe and clients safe is that when you're providing hopwa funded supportive services and housing assistance those activities should be done remotely as much as possible um another question that we've had before is can we work remotely with clients that are new to our agency and the answer to that is yes hopper program staff can work with existing and new clients remotely um as i mentioned earlier current um high guidance is to provide hud funded support supportive services and housing assistance remotely as much as possible during the pandemic but if that's not possible um to conduct those activities remotely and do need to be in person all work right that you're doing should be conducted using protective um health measures and considering precautions such as social distancing and wearing face masks steve i think there are a couple other questions that you wanted to tackle yeah so some of the questions that we have seen come up are some more about physical signatures so people want to know are there any waivers regarding physical signatures so first of all it's worth noting that physical signatures are not a hopple requirement so therefore there is no waiver necessary for physical signatures so if this is something that you do have as part of your policies and procedures it is probably best to try to address this in some sort of safe method and that might be instead of physical signatures doing signatures via telephone maybe that might be involving a witness you might be able to get physical signatures for documentation via mail sending things back and forth but please make sure as always if you are changing any of your current processes that you update your policies and procedures particularly if you plan on reverting back to your usual process once it's safe to do so another way that people can get signatures and a question that's come up can programs use electronic signature software like docusign to get signatures and if hud has a preference for some type of electronic signature software so first of all it is totally allowable to use electronic signature software as an option to get those signatures for anything that you might have so please make sure if you're a project sponsor you're consulting with your grantee before purchasing or utilizing any of this once again to make sure that everything is updated in your policies and procedures this will definitely be something because you'll be purchasing software you're going to want to talk to your grantee about how to allocate those costs the cost of purchasing any software is allowable under the hopwa program and should be allocated similar to any of your other overhead cost in that it should either go to the activity that you're going to use the software or prorated across different activities or maybe even different funding sources if any software might be used for multiple programs say like hopwa and ryan white um hud does not have a preference for any specific type of electronic signature software outside of any requirements that you probably already aware of like confidentiality and safety right so just to make sure any software that you might purchase is safe for clients to use since most of that most of the forms they're going to be signing will most likely have some sort of sensitive information on it or some sort of information that can identify who the person is um if you if there is a particular software that a community emsa you know whatever your hop or grantee is whether that's a city or a state that should be covered in the policies and procedures as well so once again if you're a project sponsor please consult with your grantee for specifics heather what about some other questions let me take a look and see what we have um we have received some questions um regarding um the waivers in general specifically um allowing self-certification of hiv and or income and one of them being are programs required to automatically allow people to um self-certify hiv and income the short answer to that is no it's the waiver doesn't mean you're required to um automatically allow for that but you know ultimately that's up to the grantee first if they um even choose to utilize the waiver and notify hud of their intent to do so um so you should when you're working with a client you know you're doing intake to have a discussion about the availability right of the source documentation because it's possible and we have spoken um to you know several grantees and project sponsors that have been able to obtain you know source documentation of hiv status and income pretty quickly um in some cases um the applicants or existing clients especially if you're doing like an annual recertification or an interim they have that information on hand so definitely ask and at the point that you have asked and explored that information isn't available the waiver is there to allow you to you know quickly provide assistance and quickly and easily process your annual recertifications just be aware though if you waivers are being used grantees must have included this in their updated policies and procedures and also notified their project sponsors about the availability of those waivers so project sponsors should be checking in and confirming um with their grantee about what and if any waivers are available and when they intend to use them another question oh go ahead i just wanted to weigh in on that one too and just remind everybody that the purpose of the waivers is to give you flexibility to give the grantees flexibility in managing everything that we're all dealing with uh with the pandemic and the thing that you should have uh as your number one priority there is what's safe for your staff and for your clients that you serve so maybe you can conduct business safely and get documentation safely without utilizing these waivers um so just always remember that that should be the priority one is what is going to keep people from sharing breath thanks thank you um if a client self-certifies hiv diagnosis and income is physical documentation of both needed for the file yes um as amy mentioned earlier on the grantee and project sponsor must obtain source documentation of hiv status and income within three months of public health officials determining that no additional special measures are necessary to prevent the spread of covid19 and heather i just want to add real quick because i think there's some questions about that right the public health emergency really is locally defined right because the way that this disease is spreading and the pandemics occurring is it's really impossible for a federal program to explain this for everyone so if you're a project sponsor please make sure to contact with your grantee about when this documentation or any follow-up might need to occur right so all of these deadlines about three months as a grantee we would definitely recommend reach out to the public health department for for your particular area and find out from them right if there is a public health emergency already documented and if there's not is it safe to do so because a lot of this is going to come down to how you how the grantees define public health emergency and that's when that clock's going to start ticking so for anyone asking about when that clock ticks please make sure to contact your grantee right and also too if you might remember from um talking about um you know verification you might remember from the a remote um methods presentation we had done steve if you want to hop back on the camera um that we had done a while back where um we were sort of role-playing um remember when we were role-playing um a program and a client and that individual had was working right and had you know paycheck stubs and they had medical documentation and was showing those virtually to the program staff right and um in that sense that where you could even take a screenshot of that and print that that's documentation of income right so um grantees and project sponsors can be creative about the ways in which you know they've been obtaining source documentation including absolutely you know um you know obtaining self-certification of both you know when those items aren't available but the point is is that you have a lot of flexibility which is great of course um let me see any other questions that we have coming in through the question box that we want to address um i think some things i think worth addressing is people are asking um if a client can self-certify income for other family members so in general right you already had your own process you had uh what you've been doing for your humble program for a while so usually you're probably asking each adult household member to provide source documentation of whatever income source they might have their income their assets all of that so in general you can apply much of that to any virtual method right so if for some reason an additional household member can't provide the source documentation or the source documentation might take a period of time to get you can definitely ask additional household members to verify that income however if there are situations or scenarios where that's not possible or it's not timely a client can self-certify income for others in their household in the same way maybe that hiv positive individual might have been declaring income from minors in the past right so it's just something to sort of take a look at what your current process is what might still be reasonable and adapting that with these flexibilities to make sure you aren't totally changing your process but you're also not delaying giving assistance to people who might need it because of a technicality such as requiring source documentation right and while at the same time you're keeping program staff and clients safe and not requiring people to go out to you know obtain um you know documentation and it taking you know a long time to get that information before you can give them assistance do you want to oh go ahead do you want to move on to some of the inspection questions because we have quite a few that are rolling in seems to be specifically related to um doing an inspection and um lead-based paint visual assessment as it pertains to an overall habitability inspection for something like tbra versus what you need to do and when first germio yeah so as as we had talked about so the habitability requirements whether or not you use uh habitability or hqs apply to hop or rental assistance programs as we outlined so for stermu there is no requirement that a unit pass habitability or hqs it's generally good practice as part of any steering you process you might have to ask these questions right to make sure it's generally safe it's generally livable right some of the same standards might might you might have tried to apply them but it does not need to pass to get that assistance as a matter of fact there are programs that if something um if there is something that needs to be repaired in a unit they can work that into a housing care plan and work with the landlord to try to get that repaired before any stermu assistance might be offered but there's no requirement for that however separate from the habitability or hqs are these lead-based paint issues right and so once again lead-based paint becomes an issue when you're going to use habwa in a unit that was built before in 1978 in a family where there's going to be a pregnant person or children under the age of six residing there unless a landlord can prove that there's no lead-based paint in those instances you need to do a lead-based paint visual assessment so many of you who are listening this have done that before right where you are looking at the outside of a building the common areas of a building as well as the unit looking for chipping peeling cracking paint or any issues that might occur in the near future where a child might be exposed to lead-based pain possibly poisoned so this lead-based paint visual assessment can be done remotely as heather had mentioned this was something that we did as part of our remote inspections webinar that we walk through and we're able to look at a unit and see where there might be chipping cracking peeling paint or dust and so that that component does apply to sturmew when you're going to use sturmu assistance for more than 100 consecutive days so please make sure particularly with the flexibilities with stermu that you can provide additional assistance that you are tracking this closely and even recommended if it is a situation or a family where there's the possibility of using stermu for more than 100 consecutive days to just go ahead and do the visual assessment that way you don't have to worry or potentially stop or delay assistance while that is conducted anything to add heather great do you want to get to some of the questions um the questions that we had beforehand that we received i say let's let's just sort of jump around because i think a lot of it's tied together so heather do you want to talk about um what to do if you do delay annual inspections and if they need to be done once it's safe to do so are you there heather all right so initial inspections do need to incur uh before you provide assistance right so that was something we had talked about um and something that should be that can be done virtually as part of the waivers and flexibilities annual inspections can be delayed or postponed so or can be done virtually at this moment right you still want to make sure that any unit is safe and livable so you should have a plan to do any annual inspections once it's safe to do so if you're not doing it virtually hi sorry [Laughter] i'm like little oh this is perfect we'll tie this in a little bit about some of the hazards of working remotely so go ahead no no is there is there anything that you just wanted to add about the importance of doing annual inspections um if you do delay them um no if if you if you are delaying annual inspections i think it's definitely important as part of like your annual recertification process right because generally when you're you know doing like an annual recertification of income in the inspection those things are lined up right together so you're not doing an inspection completely separate you know months later from the recertification process so you know if you're working with clients remotely during an annual research vacation you know you're on the phone talking to them you can include as part of your annual recertification ask some questions about the condition of the unit right has anything changed since the last annual inspection right or is this the first annual after somebody's moved in has anything changed um you know do your uh smoke detectors um still work are you having you know any problems with any of your large appliances are you noticing any you know peeling chipping cracking paint right um do you have any broken window panes kind of you know your your your regular you know life and safety um items that you might want to check on so i think that's important to talk to your clients about and just document the file so you know that you've gathered that information right and speaking of documentation for the inspections there's there's really not a difference in what you've been doing so if you are doing a virtual inspection you can use the exact same form that you have been using there's no requirement to save any videos to save any live stream to save any pictures um do what you've always done that whatever form that you've been using is perfectly acceptable if you are doing a virtual inspection and you come across something that is questionable or suspect and you do want to follow up when it's safe to do so that might be worth saving a picture in the file just so you can remind yourself that you need to follow up but there's no additional documentation requirements um for that and so any additional documentation requirements for inspections would all be local right so i see there are questions about having people sign um habitability or how habitability forms if done virtually like having the landlord and tenant sign it if that's something that you choose to do that is perfectly acceptable as a local requirement but please make sure that this is through your grantee and they are aware that you are doing this but that is not a hopwa requirement absolutely yep let me see there's some other questions too um i think we clarified that um when we were there someone asked to what because we tend to speak an acronym sometimes so we apologize for that um asked what hqs meant right um and so i just explained that it's housing quality standards so hopwa follows hopwa habitability and you know slash housing quality standards but then there's a separate like section 8 housing quality standards some grantees and project sponsors use haka habitability and the checklist that's available you know on the hud exchange under i think it's the um papa administration administrator's toolkit there's also section 8 housing housing quality standards inspections which is a completely different form um and a lengthy form longer and so either either can be used um and i think generally overall there's a mix between um you know grantees and project sponsors that you know some use hopper habitability and some use hqs um but whatever one you're using using you should stick to that and you know be consistent anything you want to um add to that it looks like we clarified the sturmu question um steve talked about it's not that hqs or habitability is required specifically it's that there's a point in time where depending on like you said steve how you know how many days sturmeu is being provided that would trigger a lead-based paid visual assessment but then that's only if the unit meets certain requirements itself right did you talk about that you did the pre-78 and the great yep and for uh you know anyone who's going to do the lead-based paint visual assessment it is a required training it's a 20-minute training through the hud exchange um so please make sure you're looking through that because it has some additional requirements or right ways or situations that lead-based paint that will not apply so you just want to make sure that you're aware of all of those and particularly to take that training so you're aware of what exactly a visual assessment is but also what a visual assessment is not so you're sticking to the scope and responsibilities of your job and knowing what you need to do if you find any potential issues right we have a question too about is it necessary to do a consent form for each application or can we use one form for the entire year i'm i'm assuming this means like release of information consent right um i mean first of all when you're when you're doing an intake right you're gonna want to have you know anybody you know any adult right in the household if you're gonna be using if you're gonna be seeking information from an outside party about somebody residing in the household in addition to the client then you need you know to have them sign a consent form um and so consent forms you know should be signed initially and then updated um annually each year thereafter i want to note that there's there's a number of of questions i'd like to ask but i think there's some additional details that might be difficult so as i said earlier there if we don't get to everyone's question we will address them offline so so i apologize to some people you're asking questions and i think they're they're too complicated for a webinar or office hours and might require some back and forth so i said so we'll reach out to you if you're one of those individuals and like i said we will share um questions and answers with everyone so you all get that information one topic that has come up that i wanted to talk about a little bit is about technology to assist clients in actually doing these right because these flexibilities these waivers are really great ways to keep everyone safe but your actual clients the individuals you're assisting need to be able to connect to do that so first of all any if you do need to purchase any equipment um so that clients can do these things virtually whether that's a tablet whether it's a cell phone because not every household has access to that those are allowable costs under the hopwa program as i mentioned earlier please make sure if you're a project sponsor you are connecting with your grantee before spending any funds because you'll want to make sure that you're allocating those costs correctly across the correct top activities and any non-hopwa sources but you can purchase and loan devices for clients whether that's to help them with doing a virtual you know a virtual annual assessment to have virtual case management contact even to do an inspection those are all things that you can do and the client just needs to return those devices to the hopwa program when they are finished with them because they are the property of the hopwa program we are also aware that there are going to be individuals and households out there that just aren't tech savvy that may not be able to operate some of this software or hardware even if you provide it which is completely understandable which is why you want to think through different ways to do some of this right which is why we've talked about different methods you know for inspections we've talked about you know doing it virtually or doing videos or doing pictures so that way you can be in communication with a client and see what ways they might be comfortable with i've also spoken with some communities who are trying to be very mindful and thoughtful and creative in how they solve this so in some situations it might involve doing part of the hopwa paperwork or a hopwa annual or even part of the inspection with the client alone on say like a telephone but maybe that individual has a friend or maybe an additional you know person who lives in their building that can assist them with the rest and so that's not for everyone right because it's all going to be up to the client what they're comfortable with but i am aware of programs that have sort of talked to clients and say let's get all the sensitive information out of the way right anything that might tip anyone off why you are connecting with me or getting assistance and if you're comfortable and you just want to get the inspection out of the way right is there anyone in the building that could help operate the tablet for you who might have a smartphone that we can connect with right and we'll we'll use our pseudonym name they don't need to know the specifics of why we're doing this um but that way we can get it done right so we really encourage you all because if there's one thing that i've noticed for the hop up program is you all are very creative thoughtful and resilient people and programs so keep applying that creativity and resilience in what you're doing and just problem solve through this and as you've heard me say if you have questions about something you're doing is allowable reach out to your grantee and ask that way they can help you think through any problems that might pop up particularly in situations that clients don't know how to navigate some of this new hardware software sorry steve i wanted to um mention um one question two that um was posed that clients too could um like say you're working with a client and you need them to sign something like a release that that can be done like remotely like over the phone you know a intent to sign or permission can you talk about that a little bit yeah could you sorry can you just ask that again yeah sure it was um actually our um lovely colleague who um asked if a client could agree to consent right yeah sorry so as i mentioned right the one thing that makes webinars like about remote methods fascinating to do is there are always technology glitches so i don't know about all of you but this is currently one of those days that everyone's at home so we have uh we have people working from home people teaching from home and people learning from home today so our internet's a little glitchy at moments and i'm sure you've all experienced that so thank you for repeating that heather just cut out for a moment um of course a client can verbally consent over the telephone this was something when i worked for an aid service organization we would do all of the time have a client consent over the phone our particular organization we required if it was um a telephone release of information and someone consented we would have a witness if we could we would write on the release of information that it was done over the phone um that way it was clear that we weren't forging a client's signature and as part of our requirement is we would follow back up um with the client when we met them in person right so if if we were going to end up meeting the client for either case management or an inspection we would take those to be signed um in some instances because we served a large geographical area we might send that release via the mail to try to get the physical signature but at least we had the client consent verbally over the phone so we can continue our work and not need to delay it great thank you um there's also a question two is there a form available that um you know a client or a household can use to um self-certify income and even beyond that self-certify um hiv status yeah but yes there is please heather go ahead um there is um on the hot exchange and i think right it's the um hopboy administrators toolkit there is a um self-certification of income form that could be used um to uh you know self-certify that you have an income source also located there on the hud exchange is a zero income affidavit right that can be used to verify that you don't have any income um there there isn't there is a statement of um hiv form on the hot exchange but i think the original intent of that form was you know that form would be you know provided to you know a medical provider right to fill out and sign um so if you're gonna you could possibly absolutely adapt that form to you so a client could then um you know self-certify their hiv status and i would add particularly looking at some of those forms and adapting them um particularly if you're going to apply self-certification to rent calculations because you'll want to make sure that you're asking clients all of the relevant questions that you sort of just subconsciously think of right that if someone's working what's their gross income versus their net income what deductions are on a pay stub that might affect other mandatory deductions so having some sort of adapted form that you use universally across your program would be really key to make sure that you're accurately getting the information you need so that if income verification does come in or at their next annual there's not potential wild swings of income because maybe you forgot to ask about net income or any deductions that might occur okay did you address on the question about if if for annual inspections if virtual inspections are occurring um does somebody need to go back and do a physical inspection once it's been deemed safe to do so of this moment if you if you were doing the virtual inspection there is no requirement to do an in-person habitability or hqs there is a requirement that if lead-based paint is an issue and so you've done a visual assessment that you do go back in and at least do that once it's safe you may choose to go back in and do in-person physical inspections particularly if there's something that you are worried about or questionable about because you would rather catch that early um than have to wait and potentially get worse but at least if you are doing all your due diligence and don't have to worry about lead-based paint no um i wanted to back up for a second because there's some additional questions coming in about releases of information and so i just want to make sure to be i was just going to do that yeah i was afraid forgetting so i just i we just want to be very clear right that while while you do have flexibility and and how you get that release of information including right maybe over the phone you should not have one blanket release of information for the entire program right so you shouldn't have one release in a file that you leave blank and you just photocopy and apply to every situation you should be you should be getting client consent for every different entity that you're connecting with that client is aware that you're going to be discussing them and potentially sensitive information with whomever that person is and because particularly then the client might have the ability to limit some of that information shared right because what you share with a doctor on a release of information is probably going to be radically different than what you share with the landlord so right so just being clear right you have a lot of flexibility in how you get that release signed or verified but you still have the same idea that you need a different release of information for every situation that's going to occur right and your release should spell that out right released really you know released from and to you know obtained from and released to and a description of what it is you're requesting right and it's not even just the client it's any adult household member right that you're getting in for information about um so you need to have releases for everybody and um they need to um be updated annually you may not need one release that you had the previous year the next year because maybe their job is different right or maybe something else is different but you would need a new release we have seen you know these blanket releases with all these organizations and everything listed um but yeah you definitely need in individual and descriptive releases um let me see uh if we certify income and a client needs help more than once during the year do we need to re-qualify income for each application or is this for one year this seems to me like this might be um i mean for instance i'll i'll take tbra and then you can talk about stermu okay for say say tbra for just for example right so you're deter first of all you're determining income eligibility for hawa in general right so you're going to determine their income level for hopwa initially right and so say then you're going to be working with them um for tenant-based rental assistance so you did the initial determination of income eligibility and then at the annual one year later right for tbra you're going to be recertifying their income for continued income eligibility but when you when we're talking about tbra um your your your certifying income for the income eligibility but also as part as doing a rent calculation so you want to talk about certifying income for stermu yeah so a lot of what heather said applied sorry just sometimes now you're on the right of me before you are on the left of me my luck so a lot of what heather said is going to apply to the sturmy program because you do need to determine income eligibility for hopwa as a whole but because you're not doing a rent calculation right you're really looking at verifying income as a client might need assistance right because once they're coming through the door for initial assistance you could determine sturmu eligibility and then from there you really only need to worry about documenting income if there's some other change that might affect their sturmew eligibility or if you're a program that asks households to share in the expense so if someone might have something that might change that right how much they should pay towards rent or mortgage or utilities you might ask for that but that's not a requirement for hop eligibility that's going to be basing it on need but then you could still go through all of the waivers and flexibilities that are offered so you don't have hard documentation requirements and not able to help people when needed okay there's a question um some of these and as as steve mentioned before some of the questions that you're posing they could seem like you know straightforward questions but when when we read them we we can see some nuances in them so you know we do apologize but um we're not going to answer them you know in this format but we will absolutely um you know get to those and you know follow up offline and um make sure everybody you know is able to see a response because there's some really good questions um you know about what happens when somebody claims zero income and then you find out later they have income that's you know kind of complicated to get into in this situation but believe me we completely understand what you're referring to um and that's an important question so we definitely want to give that some thought before we um respond um there was a question i apologize it was oh about um housing assessments you know aren't those what was the question something like do um conducting a housing assessment fall like the same for the the housing stability assessment fall like in the same thing as the waivers like the inspection um that doesn't really give you a lot to go on steve does it no all right but i mean and any in general right any assessment that you're going to do just be mindful i mean i think i think one thing that's very aware from the ta work that we've done and the webinars and these questions is you all are very thoughtful and you all want to do things to the benefit of families living with hiv aids right so if you do have any assessment forms any applications any standard forms it doesn't mean you don't have to not use those because of the pandemic it just means be flexible on how you apply those right so that therefore a form because there are no requirements for what those forms look like or say that a form doesn't become a barrier so a household might not be able to exit homelessness quickly or might become homeless because of a standard form or standard assessment so um the question is is the house ability is the housing stability assessment or does it fall on the same category of of inspections as far as waivers need um so your housing stability assessment can should occur like it's like it's always been occurring right you don't if if i'm understanding the question correctly like you know steve was talking about you can do that remotely you don't need to meet face-to-face with a client to do a housing stability um assessment so whatever your process or policy is right your grantee the project sponsor for conducting you know as part of case management a housing stability assessment um i think in most instances that could occur you know at the same regularity as it was before maybe a little bit differently but it might just be that you're doing it remotely and over the phone versus face to face and as an in-person um appointment or meeting yeah does that make sense steve yeah yeah i think that's spot on um so these these questions are great everyone like i said there's some really good ones i wish we had time to get to but i want to be mindful of time because you all have welcomed us into your world um for over an hour and so we have a few more slides that we want to get to but yet again we will remind people right any questions we didn't get to we will definitely address offline and we will put together a list of questions and answers and make sure that shared with everyone those who are here as well as those who are unable to make today's webinar so you will have the same information yes with with that's a knob do you want to go to the next slide okay so um and i'll just stay on camera that now at this point so um what's next so after um the office hours everybody is going to receive um a hop what cares act survey it's going to ask some questions about um you know is there any information that you you know would would like about um the hopwa program um and administering and providing you know hopwa supportive services and and housing assistance any resources tools um we also too wanted to mention uh an amazing tool that was recently created by some of our ta partners um hopwa guidance for covid19 it's a recently published tool um for uh policy development um for grantees that are developing policies around you know cares act funding and um using waivers and both of these links are live so once you get on this presentation or if you select the um little title here that says handouts you click that there'll be a pdf version um and you should be able to save that to your you know desktop and then print that out next slide and these are just some reminders folks that have been um present during some of our other webinars we've included these you know last slides and every presentation and i'm just going to read the title just make sure that you're applying hud guidance to the correct program right there is you know lots of changing information coming out lots of flexibilities and waivers for different hud-funded programs such as coc esg public and indian housing programs cdbg community development block grant coc means continuum of care esg means emergency solutions grant sorry again for the acronyms um make sure you're applying the right program guidance and the right waivers to your hopwa program grant uh grantees are responsible um for pro notifying hud of their intent to use the waivers and for developing new policies and procedures those policies and procedures should also trickle um or be carried over to your project sponsors so project sponsors who are on the call make sure you're talking to your grantees you're talking to each other and updating policies accordingly and stay tuned for lots of new guidance that is still forthcoming make sure you're signed up for the hop on listserv and also visit the hopwa landing page for information about um covid19 and um housing and urban developments community planning and development um hopwa landing page next slide also coming attractions stay tuned um wednesday december 9th 2020 2 to 3 30 p.m eastern time the next hopwa office hours will occur and this one is about supportive services please join next slide and there's technical assistance available right so grantees can submit a request for ta individualized ta related to responding to covid19 as well as regular hof4 program administration and requirements um there's information here on the slide about where and how to submit um a request for ta next slide and here we have some additional resources when you have some time take some time to um select each of these links there was a question earlier on about the waivers and where they were these are live links right here on this slide um first uh the first mega waiver april 2020 and then the second one um a month later may 2020 next slide and also we have the hopwa ask a question desk so if you have a question about the hoffa program hop on notice waivers implementing covid 1919 activities it's not only about cares act and not only about covet 19 but generally hawker program administration requirements we'd love to hear from you so um please submit your question to the hopwa ask a question desks and that link will take you to um the portal where you can submit your question and just follow the instructions on the page next slide that might be it oh the last one um stay informed like i said um make sure you're signed up for the hopwa list serve on the mailing list here's a link right here with instructions um on how to subscribe to the list lister and also a live link on where you can get updated information uh about hofwa guidance for covid19 final slide please and that wraps up today's office hours thank you everyone again for letting us into your hectic crazy busy lives for 90 minutes we really appreciate the time that you give us and also the great work that you all do so we'll be emailing this presentation out and so please make sure to follow those links and reach out to the ask a question or the ta portal if you do need any additional assistance we're here to help you however we can thank you very much and um we apologize um for the audio issues um in the beginning but yes the uh presentation is being is was being recorded and we'll make sure that that's available to everybody as soon as possible as well as um we'll provide responses to the unanswered questions um and you know there'll be information available about the answer questions also and now we have rita and amy from our wonderful oh staff thanks everyone thank you everyone have a good day have a great day thank you you