The Housing Opportunity through Modernization Act of 2016 (HOTMA)

On July 29, 2016, HOTMA was signed into law. HOTMA makes numerous amendments to Sections 3, 8, and 16 of the United States Housing Act of 1937(1937 Act), including significant changes to income calculation, net family assets, and income reviews.

HUD finalized HOTMA rulemaking in 2023 to put Sections 102, 103, and 104 into effect through revisions to HUD’s regulations found in 24 CFR Part 5 and 24 CFR Part 891.

• Section 102 addresses income reviews, including the frequency of income reviews and revises the definitions of income and assets.
• Section 103 is not applicable to multifamily housing programs.
• Section 104 sets asset limits for both Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance and Section 202/8 programs.

The Office of Multifamily Housing Programs published a Housing Notice (Notice H 2024–09) on September 20, 2024, extending the compliance date stated in section 6.2 of Notice H 2023–10, which requires owners to be in full compliance with the HOTMA final rule and HUD’s updated income and asset documentation requirements for income certifications from January 1, 2025, to July 1, 2025. To see this notice, please click here.

MFH Owners wishing to adopt HOTMA prior to July 1, 2025, may calculate family incomes and tenant rents manually, then enter the resulting information into TRACS version 202D (the current version of TRACS) using the rent override function. For additional information on the rent override function, see the following one-pager: https://www.hud.gov/sites/dfiles/Housing/documents/Rent_Override.pdf.

HOTMA Policy Updates (as of March 1, 2024)

1. The Office of Multifamily Housing Programs published a Housing Notice (Notice H 2024-04) extending the HOTMA compliance date in Section 6.2 of Notice H 2023-10 for owners to update their Tenant Selection Plan (TSP) and Enterprise Income Verification (EIV) Policies and Procedures (P&P) from March 31, 2024, to May 31, 2024. To see this notice, please click here.

2. An owner who implements HOTMA prior to the release of TRACS version 203A must utilize the “rent override” function in TRACS if a family’s HOTMA-calculated tenant rent differs from their pre-HOTMA calculated tenant rent. Additionally, owners who implement HOTMA prior to the release of TRACS version 203A must annotate tenant files according to the change that was implemented. For full information regarding the implementation of HOTMA before TRACS 203A releases, please click here.

3. The final rule is effective on January 1, 2024. Please review, with Notice H 2024-04 in mind, Section 6.2 in the implementation notice for more information about when owners are required to become fully compliant with HOTMA.