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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 8 / Wednesday, January 13, 2021 / Proposed Rules annual compliance with the expanded part 5, subpart G.
Under this proposed rule, the Moderate Rehabilitation program regulations at 882.516b would be revised to clarify that PHAs must inspect or cause to be inspected units at least annually and at other times as necessary in accordance with the NSPIRE standards established under 5.703. HUD would continue to conduct the inspections in accordance with the NSPIRE standards for mod rehab projects that are managed by the PHA as provided under 882.516d. In addition, the proposed rule would change the title of 882.516c from Units not decent, safe, and sanitary to Units with health and safety hazards and add a title to 882.516e for clarity.
D. Other Rulemakings HUD notes that there is some overlap in the proposed changes with HUDs Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act of 2016:
Implementation of Sections 102, 103, and 104 proposed rule 84 FR 48820.
HUD further notes that HUD intends to publish a proposed rule concerning the implementation of requirements to install carbon monoxide detectors in HUD-assisted and -Insured Housing, which would also overlap with this proposed rule. At the final rule stage, HUD will make any changes necessary to address any conflicts between these rules.
III. NSPIRE Improvements Beyond This Rule In addition to the regulatory changes being proposed by this rule, HUD is making other improvements to its physical inspection program. HUD is committed to extending the same principles reflected in this rule to other aspects of the NSPIRE effort. HUD has continued to move forward with the top-to-bottom review of its inspection process directed by the Secretary to ensure taxpayer-supported housing is healthy, safe, and habitable for the millions of families HUD serves. The regulation will signal to the public HUDs clear intent to change its business approach. HUD is proactively aligning Public Housing, HCV, and other programs, through establishing an approach to revise and publish inspection standards, testing and validating a new inspection scoring model, and continuously engaging with the public in HUDs improvement efforts.
To ensure stakeholders can provide input on all aspects of NSPIRE, HUD
launched listening sessions about making improving HUDs inspections
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better. That approach of early and often feedback has continued. For example, in the development of the physical inspection standards, HUD published drafts on the NSPIRE website for public input.14 For reference, these are the standards which will apply to all inspections see 5.705a and will be published formally for public comment prior to implementation see 5.709.
HUD has received hundreds of suggestions on the draft NSPIRE
standards and has closely reviewed all the comments. The majority were successfully incorporated into revisions.
HUDs analysis, supported by stakeholder feedback, has identified that the current Uniform Physical Condition Standards UPCS and Housing Quality Standards HQS specifications do not always clearly identify or explain the particular harm or hazard that HUD is trying to avoid. To address this concern, HUD applied best practices from risk analysis frameworks that feature predominantly in the public health discipline to help all stakeholders understand the why or the rationale for each deficiency. A
rationale is a plainly written riskbased assessment that describes the harm or negative result that could occur if that issue were to be present at a property. It justifies why that issue is critical to housing quality. By taking this approach, HUD can ground each standard in a clear and defensible explanation based in sound science.
Given the approach described above and because it is important to ensure the standards remain up to dateHUD is working to establish an infrastructure of partnerships to provide continuous technical input and scientific guidance for standards development. HUD started this effort by collaborating with partners across the public and private sectors including other Federal agenciesand academic and non-profit organizations.
HUD anticipates that the continued expansion of these relationships will help to provide the input into the threeyear updates to which HUD commits in this rule.
Along with the efforts already described, HUD has launched two demonstrations: 1 The Demonstration to Assess the National Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real Estate 84
FR 43536 and 2 the Demonstration to Test Proposed New Method of Assessing the Physical Conditions of VoucherAssisted Housing 81 FR 26759. These 14 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. 2019. National Standards for Physical Inspection of Real Estate NSPIRE
Standards. Retrieved from: https www.hud.gov/
program_offices/public_indian_housing/reac/
nspire/standards.

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demonstrations are among the first steps in implementing an aligned inspection protocol for public housing, multifamily housing, and voucher programs. More information about those demonstrations can be found on the NSPIRE 15 and ISDV 16 websites.
Strategically, the demonstration programs give HUD and properties an opportunity to stress test processes in a real-world setting to ensure they are stable and ready to scale out to the full population of Property Owner Agent POA. In addition to being reasonable, HUD wants to ensure that its inspection standards are performable across a wide variety of inspectors. The demonstrations allow HUD the ability to make sure its administrative processes that support physical inspections are efficient and responsive. HUD is also leveraging technology to eliminate manual processes and to realize the benefits of having aligned programs.
The information coming out of both demonstrations also informs the development and refinement of property scoring approaches. HUD has worked diligently to identify the most appropriate scoring models to improve the accuracy, objectivity, and consistency of assessment across different property configurations. Along with modifications to the current model, HUD is currently exploring alternative scoring models based instead on datadriven methodologies, including those based on probabilistic approaches.
Finally, aligning HUDs oversight to property risk will benefit both HUD and the POAs. For example, HUD has proposed in this rule that a risk model inform the extension of the frequency of inspections up to 5 years in some programs. Taking a risk-based oversight approach allows high-performing properties to continue to do those things that make them successful while ensuring struggling properties are able to get the attention needed. While HUD
will maintain a pass/fail result for HCV and PBV inspections as required by statute, moving to NSPIRE with consistent inspection standards allows large volumes of inspection and housing quality data to be compared across programs for the first time. HUD
believes that better data will lead to the 15 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. 2019. The Demonstration to Assess the National Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real. Estate Retrieved from: https
www.hud.gov/program_offices/public_indian_
housing/reac/nspire/demonstration.
16 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. 2019. The Demonstration to Test Proposed New Method of Assessing the Physical Conditions of Voucher-Assisted Housing. Retrieved from: https www.hud.gov/sites/dfiles/PIH/
documents/upcsvdemoparticpation.pdf.

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