MTW Activities Guide
Making Things Work (MTW)
July 2022-2023
While the official name of the federal demonstration program is "Moving to Work," we are calling our program "Making Things Work" because it better encompasses what we can do in this program. Through MTW, housing authorities are given flexibility to use funding more efficiently, help employment-focused residents find employment and become self-sufficient, and increase housing choices. MTW gives housing authorities waivers from many of the regular rules and lets them use funding in new ways.
EHA will remain an MTW agency for at least 20 years, which is the length of the HUD contract.
Activity: Tiered Rent Study
EHA was admitted to MTW as part of a group of housing authorities that are studying a tiered rent policy for non-elderly, non-disabled ("employment-focused") voucher participants. Starting in late 2022, half of EHA's employment-focused voucher households will be selected to pay tiered rent. The other half of employment-focused households, as well as elderly and disabled households, will continue to have their rent based on the current policy.
Who this affects: Certain households. Learn more here: Tiered Rent Study Infographic
Activity: Asset Verification Over $50,000 (Reexaminations)
The current program requires you to provide documents to verify your assets (bank accounts, investments, etc.) over $5,000, but through this waiver, at your reexamination, you will only be required to verify assets that exceed $50,000.
Who this affects: All EHA households.
Activity: Rent Reasonableness and Third-Party Requirement
Rather than have a third party conduct rent reasonableness for voucher-assisted units owned by EHA, EHA will use MTW flexibility to eliminate this requirement.
Who this affects: EHA staff, as this is an internal process change.
Activity: Reexamination Income Verifications
The hierarchy of documents used to verify income for reexaminations will be modified, which will reduce burden on staff and participants.
Who this affects: EHA staff, as this is an internal process change.
Activity: Priority for Tenant-Based Voucher Assistance
EHA will implement a policy of providing one voucher to assist someone from the tenant-based waiting list for each moving voucher given to a tenant moving out of a PBV unit.
Who this affects: PBV households and households on the voucher waiting list.
