Following strong LeadingAge advocacy, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has begun approving affordable senior housing property requests for HUD to waive outdated requirements that prohibit service coordination programs at certain properties.

In the fourth quarter of 2022, LeadingAge members from HUD’s Midwest Multifamily Housing region began to report instances where HUD disapproved service coordination costs in the agency-approved Section 202 PRAC property budgets.

The programs were cut from HUD budgets where the property did not meet standards related to minimum property unit count or resident frailty level. LeadingAge pushed back strongly and urged HUD to correct its interpretation of outdated policies on property eligibility requirements. After a lengthy appeal at one Ohio property, HUD agreed to waive the requirement and said it will do so moving forward while the agency also works on a big policy fix.

The outdated property eligibility requirements (minimum 40 units in the building and minimum of 25% frail or at-risk residents) are outlined in a HUD notice from 1993, which has since expired, and are only partially supported by the HUD handbook.

LeadingAge will continue to work with HUD on a long-term policy solution that will prevent disruptions in both budget-based and grant funded service coordination programs.

In the meantime, member properties facing service coordinator program eligibility issues should contact Juliana Bilowich (jbilowich@leadingage.org) for assistance in requesting a waiver. More information is available here.