The Milton Housing Authority recently made a perfect score when it came to the U.S. Housing and Urban Development inspections. According to MHA board chairman Bill Bledsoe, the local housing authority earned the maximum number of 135 points during their annual Section Eight Management Assessment Plan, or SEMAP.
According to the housing department’s website, hud.gov, SEMAP measures the performance of public housing agencies throughout the country.
Bledsoe said the SEMAP inspection consists of 14 areas of operation which assist in identifying the deficiencies and capabilities of each PHA.
These are the 14 indicators of PHA performance, according to the HUD website.
· Proper selection of applicants from the housing choice voucher waiting list
· Sound determination of reasonable rent for each unit leased
· Establishment of payment standards within the required range of the HUD fair market rent
· Accurate verification of family income
· Timely annual reexaminations of family income
· Correct calculation of the tenant share of the rent and the housing assistance payment
· Maintenance of a current schedule of allowances for tenant utility costs
· Ensure units comply with the housing quality standards before families enter into leases and PHAs enter into housing assistance contracts
· Timely annual housing quality inspections
· Performing of quality control inspections to ensure housing quality
· Ensure that landlords and tenants promptly correct housing quality deficiencies
· Ensure that all available housing choice vouchers are used
· Expand housing choice outside areas of poverty or minority concentration
· Enroll families in the family self-sufficiency (FSS) program as required and help FSS families achieve increases in employment income.
Bledsoe, who has served on the MHA board for the past 12 years, said the high score was earned by the due diligence of the staff.
“With any federal programs the regulations change frequently,” Bledsoe said. “We keep training our clerks on the latest changes so they can do their job better. When we go by the rules we keep getting the top scores, it’s because of the training.”
MHA Executive Director Phyllis Sellars agrees.
“We keep all of our staff trained, Sellars said. “This training enables our staff to be as efficient as possible.”
Bledsoe said this is not the first time the local housing authority has received a maximum score.
“(The employees) know their job and it reflects on the audit,” he said. “The housing authority has done an excellent job and we are proud of them.”
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Milton Housing Authority earns perfect score