U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Office of Public and Indian Housing

Special Attention: Notice PIH 96-83 (HA)

Directors, Offices of Public Housing; Issued: October 11, 1996

Administrators, Offices of Native Expires: October 31, 1997

American Programs; Section 8 Public

Housing Agencies and Indian Housing Cross References:

Authorities

Subject: Rental Vouchers for the Relocation of Witnesses Cooperating

With Law Enforcement Agencies in Efforts to Combat Crime in

Public, Indian, and Assisted Housing

1\. Purpose. This notice describes the procedures for assisting

families under a special allocation of approximately 200 rental

vouchers provided for the relocation of families that have

cooperated as witnesses in efforts to combat crime in public,

Indian, and other assisted housing.

2\. Background. The Balanced Budget Downpayment Act II of 1996 (P.L.

104-134, 110 Stat. 1321) provides that Section 8 rental

assistance may be used for the relocation of witnesses in

connection with efforts to combat crime in public, Indian, and

assisted housing pursuant to a request from a law enforcement or

prosecution agency. The Department of Housing and Urban

Development has approximately 200 rental vouchers available for

this purpose. In order to ensure that the families are assisted

as quickly as possible, the Department will enter into a single

annual contributions contract (ACC) with the Richmond

Redevelopment and Housing Authority (RRHA) for these rental

vouchers. The witness relocation vouchers will be administered

in a manner similar to the existing portability billing

procedures with RRHA serving as the initial public housing

agency. RRHA and the receiving public housing agency or Indian

housing authority (hereafter referred to as HA) will follow

existing portability procedures, except as modified by this

notice.

3\. Law Enforcement or Prosecution Agency Referral. In order for a

family to be eligible for a witness relocation voucher, a law

enforcement or prosecutive agency must request that the family to

be relocated receive assistance pursuant to this notice.

However, witness relocation requests by a law enforcement agency

must have the written concurrence of the appropriate prosecutive

entity. This means that federally initiated requests require

written concurrence from an Assistant United States Attorney,

while State, Tribal, and locally initiated requests require

written concurrence from their duly authorized State, Tribal, and

local prosecutive entities. In exigent circumstances, telephonic

concurrence of a prosecuting attorney is acceptable; written

concurrence can be provided at a later time.

The referral must be made to the Office of Inspector General

Special Agent In Charge (SAC) in the local District Office. A

list is attached to this notice providing the names, mailing

addresses, telephone and fax numbers for each SAC. The SAC may

also serve as the primary initiator of witness relocation

referral.

The law enforcement/prosecutive entity requesting the witness

relocation assistance must provide the SAC with data on the

composition of the family, including the name of the head of

household; the name, age, and sex of each family member and their

relationship to the head of household; social security numbers

for each household member; current family income; whether the

family is currently receiving housing assistance; and the area

where the family will be relocated. If the family is currently a

resident of public or Indian housing, the law

enforcement/prosecutive entity must also justify why the family\'s

relocation cannot be accomplished by transferring the family

within the public or Indian housing program. If the SAC is the

initiator of the relocation request, the SAC is responsible for

meeting these same documentation requirements.

The written concurrence of the prosecutive entity must document

the need for the relocation; the nature and extent of the

individual\'s cooperation as a witness; the focus of the

investigation; the potential importance of the witness to the

success of the investigation; and the nature and seriousness of

the threat to the witness.

The relocation of the family must be in connection with efforts

to combat crime in public, Indian, or assisted housing. However,

the family is not required to be a current resident of public,

Indian, or assisted housing in order to be considered for a

rental voucher under this special allocation.

The District Office SAC is responsible for acknowledging in

writing the receipt of all requests from law enforcement or

prosecutive agencies for witness relocation assistance and

communicating with the law enforcement and prosecutive agencies

on the status of the request and any additional documentation

needs. The District Office SAC will also keep the family or the

requesting agency advised of the progress of the relocation

effort.

4\. HUD Contacts the Receiving HA. Upon the District Office SAC\'s

determination that the family is a strong candidate for

assistance under these provisions, the SAC will contact the

Operation Safe Home (OSH) Coordinator in HUD/OIG Headquarters.

The OSH Coordinator, in consultation with the Office of Rental

Assistance and the RRHA, will track the availability of funds for

this initiative. The OSH Coordinator will inform the District

Office SAC whether or not to proceed based on the availability of

funds.

The District Office SAC must advise the family and the referring

law enforcement/prosecutive agency of the OSH Coordinator\'s

initial determination. If the District Office SAC is authorized

to proceed, the SAC must inform the family and the referring law

enforcement/prosecutive agency that issuance of a rental voucher

under these provisions is contingent on the family meeting the

eligibility requirements of the rental voucher program, as

determined by the receiving HA.

The District Office SAC is responsible for finding an HA that is

willing to take the witness relocatee. The District Office SAC

may consult with the OSH Coordinator and the Office of Rental

Assistance in identifying this agency.

If the receiving HA has funding available at the time the

District Office SAC contacts the HA, the Department encourages

the receiving HA to absorb the family into its own program. In

these cases the RRHA will not be involved, since assistance is

not provided through the special witness relocation allocation.

The District Area SAC should always explore this possibility with

the receiving HA, as the use of regular program funds wherever

possible increases the number of witnesses that may be relocated

with rental assistance and will further bolster Operation Safe

Home efforts. The Department would prefer to use the witness

relocation vouchers only in cases where the receiving HA does not

have funding available to assist the family.

The District Office SAC works directly with the receiving HA and

the family or requesting agency in order to expedite the process.

It is of critical importance that the SAC and the receiving HA

coordinate in a manner that only HA staff that have a \"need to

know\" are involved, so as to ensure that every precaution is

taken to protect the identity of the witness. Access to all

information relating to the relocation of witnesses must be

strictly limited, as many of these persons are under constant

threat of physical/mental harm and abuse.

5\. Receiving HA Determines Family Eligibility in Relocation Area.

In order for a family to receive a witness relocation rental

voucher, the family must either qualify as (1) a very low-income

family in the area where the family will initially lease a unit

with assistance; or (2) a low-income family in the area where the

family will initially lease a unit if the family qualifies as

continuously assisted under a 1937 Housing Act program. A family

is considered \"continuously assisted under the 1937 Housing Act\"

if the family is already receiving assistance under any 1937

Housing Act program when the family is admitted to the rental

voucher program (e.g., the witness relocation family is a current

resident of public housing).

Under the special procedures for witness relocation vouchers, the

receiving HA must determine if the family is income eligible for

Section 8 rental assistance. A very low income family is a

family whose annual income does not exceed 50 percent of the

median income for the area, as determined by HUD, with

adjustments for smaller and larger families. A low-income family

is a family whose annual income does not exceed 80 percent of the

median income for the area, as determined by HUD, with

adjustments for smaller and larger families. (Note: unlike

applicant families moving under the normal portability

procedures, the family does not need to be income-eligible in the

initial HA (RRHA) jurisdiction.)

The receiving HA determines whether the family applying for the

witness relocation rental voucher meets the definition of a

family.

If the family is eligible, the receiving HA will issue the family

a rental voucher, the unit size of which is determined by the

receiving HA\'s subsidy standards. Unless the receiving HA

chooses to absorb the family under the portability procedures,

the rental voucher does not represent funding under the receiving

HA\'s ACC and is not counted as part of the receiving HA program.

The receiving HA may deny an otherwise eligible family admission

to the rental voucher program for any of the grounds stated in

§982.552(b), regardless of the fact that the family was referred

to the HA under the witness relocation program. The receiving HA

must notify the District Office SAC if it has denied the family

admission to the rental voucher program under the grounds stated

in §982.552(b). The family must be afforded the opportunity for

an informal hearing in accordance with §982.555.

Once income verification is completed and the family\'s

eligibility or ineligibility has been determined, the receiving

HA notifies the District Office SAC. The SAC is responsible for

notifying the family and the law enforcement/prosecutive agency

and coordinating the issuance of the voucher. The SAC must

immediately inform the OSH Coordinator regarding whether or not

the family has been issued a rental voucher. The OSH Coordinator

assigns the family a coded number and informs the SAC of the

number. The OSH Coordinator also notifies the Headquarters

Office of Rental Assistance.

The OSH Coordinator will advise a single point of contact at the

Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority (RRHA) of the

family\'s number and the name and location of the receiving HA.

6\. Receiving HA Sends Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority

HUD Form 52665. The receiving HA informs the District Office SAC

if the family successfully leases a unit or if the family fails

to lease a unit. The SAC must immediately inform the OSH

Coordinator, who in turn informs the Headquarters Office of

Rental Assistance.

Once the receiving HA executes a housing assistance payments

(HAP) contract on behalf of the family, the receiving HA

completes and sends Part II of the Form HUD-52665 to RRHA. If the

family fails to submit a request for lease approval for an

eligible unit within the allotted time period, the receiving HA

checks the appropriate box on the Form-52665 and sends it to

RRHA. (Part II of the HUD-52665 must be completed and mailed by

the receiving HA within 10 working days from the date a HAP

contract is executed on behalf of the family or from the

effective date of the change in the family status.)

The receiving HA always writes \"Witness Relocation\" and the

family\'s code number in the space for Head of Household Name

instead of the family\'s name and leaves the social security

number space (#2 on the form) blank on the Form HUD-52665.

Unlike the normal portability procedures, the receiving HA does

not attach a copy of the HUD-50058 to the Form HUD-52665. (The

receiving HA is still responsible for sending the Form HUD-50058

to the Department for MTCS, and the receiving HA must include all

data on the form, including the family name, address, and social

security number. The family is designated as a new admission on

the initial Form HUD-50058 completed by the receiving HA.)

The receiving HA will receive the same amount of reimbursement as

it would under the regular portability billing procedures. RRHA

will make the initial payment to the receiving HA within 30 days

following receipt of the billing form. RRHA will make subsequent

payments each month the billing arrangement is in effect, unless

both HAs agree to a different schedule for billing payments, in

accordance with the normal portability procedures.

As under the normal portability procedures, the receiving HA may

absorb a family assisted with a witness relocation voucher into

its own program at any time. The receiving HA checks the

appropriate box on the Form HUD-52665 to inform the RRHA. Once

the receiving HA is able to assist the family with funding under

its own ACC and absorbs the family into its own program, the

witness relocation voucher can be used to assist another family

under the witness relocation procedures. The Department

encourages the receiving HA to absorb the witness relocation

family into its own program whenever possible.

7\. Further Information. If the receiving HA needs to contact RRHA

in regard to witness relocation portability billings, for

security purposes the receiving HA point-of-contact must only

refer to the family by the family\'s number, never by the family\'s

name. The mailing address for RRHA is:

Ms. Nell Latney Morris

Assistant Director for Assisted Housing

Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority

Post Office Box 26887

Richmond, VA 23261-6887

Any questions regarding this notice should be addressed to the

Operations Division, Office of Rental Assistance, at (202) 708-

0477\.

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_/s/\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

Kevin Emanuel Marchman, Acting Assistant

Secretary for Public and Indian Housing

Attachment (Not included.)