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Consulting for Public Housing Authorities, Non Profits, Municipalities and other Entitlement Jurisdictions
Consulting Services
HCP provides a range of consulting services as a part of our duty to affirmatively further fair housing. As an advocate for reducing generational poverty through housing mobility, HCP Consulting is ready to share its knowledge!
Areas of Consulting
Assessment
To decide if a mobility program or other fair housing program is feasible, HCP conducts an assessment to determine if the program is beneficial for residents and cost-effective for the organization. HCP takes the following information into account while making an assessment:
Current fair housing rules and regulations, mobility efforts and programs, and rental market patterns
Levels of mobility services related to local conditions
Cost of services at various levels
Fair market rent or exception rent consideration
Local or regional opportunity areas
Fair housing and civil rights compliance related to expanded housing choice and mobility (e.g. compliance with internal or external policies, development and implementation of plans to remedy issues identified in formal complaints)
Fair Housing Plan reviews related to affirmatively furthering fair housing through expanded choice and mobility
Implementation
Capacity building of local agencies to implement local programs
Development of program goals and objectives, and targeted populations
Design of internal procedures and processes specific to the Public Housing Authority (PHA) or organization
Development of materials (e.g. program forms, marketing materials, staff and family training materials)
Establishment and maintenance of required relocation documentation
Landlord outreach and listing of available units
Family workshops, meetings, orientations, or one-on-one counseling
Unit search assistance for families
Transportation and tours of neighborhoods and units for families
Partnership development for community and other social service resources
Coordination of transitional supportive services for moving families and follow-ups
Development of implementation plans, performance metrics, reports and tools for outcome measurement
Training / Workshops
HCP Consulting has the expertise and experience in the areas of housing mobility and relocation work to conduct training and workshops for PHA or housing agency staff, residents, or other stakeholders in the following areas:
Mobility Counseling program development and administration
Opportunity Area information and benefits
Landlord outreach and retention
Good Neighbor Workshops
Tenant and landlord rights and responsibilities
Home maintenance and housekeeping
Financial management and household budgeting
Importance of good schools
Building community
Other Activities and Special Projects
There are a variety of unique services HCP Consulting can provide in conjunction with services listed above or as a stand-alone service:
Management of portability programs
Centralized waiting list development and management
Project-based voucher program administration (state and PHA sponsored programs)
Assistance with civil rights reviews and complaints related to fair housing
Development of PHA plans to affirmatively further fair housing for annual plans and reports to HUD
Information management solutions (e.g. database development, case management system, SharePoint development and implementation)
Assistance in developing funding solutions and grant applications for mobility and other fair housing programs
Development of incentive programs for program participants (e.g. payments, gift certificates, or other financial incentives for opportunity moves)
Development of incentive programs for owner and landlord participation with Housing Choice Voucher or mobility programs (e.g. tax credit, holding fee programs)
Housing Mobility and Fair Housing Services
HCP has been involved in fair housing and mobility programs for twenty years following in the footsteps of the Gautreaux Assisted Housing Program—the first ever mobility program created in Chicago in the 1970s. The Gautreaux Program showed that assisting low-income voucher holders in moving to Opportunity Areas made a long-term difference, especially in the lives of children.
HCP built on the lessons learned from the Gautreaux Program, developing new services and techniques that are more efficient and effective in today’s housing markets. HCP worked with different client populations—those relocating from public housing, new voucher holders coming off of waiting lists, and second movers and households porting to different jurisdictions—creating programs for both large and small housing authorities.
HCP also manages a State of Illinois project-based subsidy program, administering income certifications and inspections as a Public Housing Authority would for the Housing Choice Voucher program. HCP also administers a regional waiting list for project-based units.
Direct Services
During the Plan for Transformation by the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), HCP helped over one thousand families relocate from public housing into market-rate rental units using a Housing Choice Voucher. Nearly half of those families moved from neighborhoods highly segregated by race and income into more integrated, low-poverty areas.
Currently, HCP provides mobility counseling for all CHA voucher holders who choose to participate in the mobility program. In the last four years, HCP has assisted with over 1,100 moves to areas of lower poverty and less segregation.
HCP organized seven other housing authorities in the Chicago region to create the Chicago Regional Housing Choice Initiative (CRHCI), a special demonstration program funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), several private foundations, and the Cook County CDBG program. The program was designed to test several strategies around tenant-based vouchers and regional mobility; project-based vouchers and a centralized waiting list; and regional portability administration.
Relocation Consulting Services
As part of a settlement in a fair housing case, HCP assisted Rockford Housing Authority (RHA) in relocating seventy-five public housing residents with a voucher. HCP created the mobility program in partnership with the RHA to ensure that all residents received their fair housing rights, and that the housing authority followed through on its duty to affirmatively further fair housing.
HCP also assisted the Port Arthur Housing Authority (PAHA) as they relocated approximately two hundred public housing families. Again, HCP created a mobility program in partnership with the PAHA and it was implemented by the housing authority. The housing authority also went through a civil rights compliance review from HUD. HCP helped garner fair housing support for the site selection for new mixed-income public housing.