HOTMA: An In-Depth Review of Programmatic Changes-Participant Guide

Participant Guide - HOTMA In-Depth Review

Pdf Summary

This participant guide is a training workbook on HUD’s HOTMA programmatic changes. It contains four activities designed to help participants practice applying updated housing rules:

1. <strong>Safe Harbor Income Verification</strong>
   - Learners review sample documents and decide whether they meet HUD Safe Harbor requirements.
   - The checklist asks whether the document is dated within 12 months of receipt, states total family size, includes the entire family, and lists total annual income.
   - The guide emphasizes that Safe Harbor documentation only needs total annual family income, not income by person or source.

2. <strong>Net Family Assets and Actual Income</strong>
   - Participants classify assets as necessary or non-necessary personal property.
   - They determine which assets count toward net family assets and whether actual asset income must be counted.
   - Scenarios include checking and savings accounts, vehicles, jewelry, stock portfolios, tax refunds, and furniture.
   - The exercise uses the <strong>2027 HUD threshold of 54,898</strong>.

3. <strong>Calculating Imputed and Final Asset Income</strong>
   - Learners determine whether families exceed the HUD asset threshold and calculate actual income, imputed income, and total asset income.
   - The guide uses the <strong>2027 HUD passbook rate of 0.38%</strong>.
   - Scenarios include savings accounts, money market accounts, vacant land, boats, and coin collections.

4. <strong>Calculating the Interim Change Threshold</strong>
   - Participants compute percentage changes in adjusted income to determine whether an interim reexamination is required.
   - They use formulas for dollar change and percentage change.
   - Scenarios include reduced work hours, new child-care expenses, household composition changes, and repeated income reductions.

Overall, the guide is a practical exercise tool for understanding HOTMA rules related to income verification, assets, imputed income, and interim reexaminations.

Keywords

HOTMA

HUD

safe harbor income verification

net family assets

imputed asset income

passbook rate

interim reexamination

adjusted income

housing rules

participant guide