Overview and Goals

LMHA became one of a small group of public housing agencies participating in the Moving to Work Demonstration Program in 1999. Originally authorized under Section 204 of the Omnibus Consolidated Rescissions and Appropriations Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-34), this special designation offers LMHA added discretion to design and test innovative housing policies and programs tailored to our community's needs. MTW designation allows exemptions from certain U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) rules and statutes as necessary to implement activities in the Authority's annual plan. LMHA's MTW activities and policies must achieve at least one of the statutory objectives of the demonstration program:

• Achieve greater cost effectiveness in federal expenditures;
• Incentivize families to become economically self-sufficient; and,
• Increase housing choices for low-income families.

Unlike traditional public housing authorities, LMHA is also permitted to combine operating, capital and housing choice voucher funds into a single agency-wide funding source. LMHA uses the financial and regulatory flexibilities authorized under the MTW designation to improve the delivery of housing and supportive services to low-income residents of Louisville.

LMHA's Long Term Moving to Work Plan

LMHA's vision for the future of our Moving to Work demonstration will continue to focus on our locally defined goals to achieve the three statutory objectives. In implementing these goals, LMHA will focus on the following activities:

• Reposition and redevelop the conventional public housing stock
  The physical stock of LMHA's family developments needs to be completely redeveloped. These sites — large, dense, urban and often isolated — need major renovation or replacement. LMHA's goal is to transform these communities in the coming years, replacing the current public housing developments with mixed income communities, while at the same time providing replacement units so that the overall number of families served will not decrease. In the elderly developments, modernization efforts will proceed with an eye towards appropriate and expanded service provision.

• Increase housing choice through strong rental communities and expanded homeownership opportunities. .
  Homeownership is an important housing choice option for many low-income families, and is an appropriate program given the local market. LMHA's nationally recognized Housing Choice Voucher Homeownership Program is an affordable and secure way for LMHA families to achieve housing self-sufficiency. Together more than 150 public housing residents and HCV program participants have purchased homes through the program. For the many other families for whom homeownership isn't a viable option, LMHA will look at its public housing communities to see what policy and program changes might strengthen those communities and make them better places to live.

• Develop programs and housing stock targeted to families with specific needs not served elsewhere in the community
  MTW allows LMHA to break from HUD established "norms" and therefore maximize the potential of locally available resources to develop programs for people with specific needs. The goal is to meet needs not met by other agencies and to partner with local organizations that have social services programs that need a housing support element. Some of these needs will be transitional; others are for programs that provide more long-term support, particularly for single parents with children where the parent is working or preparing for work by participating in educational programs. Developing comprehensive initiatives in these areas will continue to require regulatory relief.

• Encourage program participant self-sufficiency
  The MTW demonstration program allows LMHA to reinvent the Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) Program to make it relevant to participants here in Louisville. The demonstration also allows LMHA to rethink other policies — like the rent policy — to encourage individuals to seek employment.
  
  
  For more information about LMHA's MTW program, contact MTW Program Coordinator Sarah Laster at (502) 569-4471.