Overview of Housing Quality Standards
Inspections
PHA's Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program assists low income
families in leasing decent, safe, and sanitary housing at an
affordable cost in Philadelphia's private rental market. The
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), developed
Housing Quality Standards (HQS) that establish the minimum
requirements housing must meet before rental assistance is provided
under the HCV Program.
The Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) is responsible for
ensuring that each unit occupied by a HCV Program Participant meets
HQS prior to initial occupancy and at least once every 24 months (2
years).
The HQS Inspection Resource Guide and checklist is designed to
increase Owner's understanding of how the HQS Inspection process
works, your responsibilities as a participating HCV owner, and how
to maintain your unit while under Contract with PHA.
Click
here to view the HQS Inspection Resource
Guide.
The PHA HQS Inspection Checklist included in the Guide has been
created to assist HCV Owners with conducting pre-inspections prior
to the scheduled PHA HQS inspection. The items listed in the
document does not contain all possible failures, however, it does
cover items that fail frequently. It is the owner, landlord,
or property manager's responsibility to ensure that HQS repairs
have been completed sufficiently and timely. Repairs determined to
be insufficient, incomplete, or repairs completed with improper
material will be issued a failed rating.
The HQS Inspection Resource Guide is intended to be used
together with PHA's Standard Operating Procedures for the Lead Safe
Housing Rule and Lead Disclosure Rule, referenced throughout the
Guide.
Click
here to view PHA's Standard
Operating Procedures for the Lead Safe Housing Rule and Lead
Disclosure Rule.
Owners of units participating in both the tenant-based housing
assistance (HCV) and project-based voucher assistance programs must
provide a completed lead disclosure form and the Protect Your
Family from Lead in Your Home pamphlet to every household upon
leasing a unit. Owners can retrieve a printable copy of the
"Protect Your Family" pamphlet from the PHA website http://www.pha.phila.gov/lead-information/lead-prevention-resources.
Please also visit our Landlord Data Center at
partnerportal.pha.phila.gov/partnerportal, where you can access
all HQS inspection data for your HCV program units. The portal
provides the following Inspection features for owners and property
managers:
• Request re-inspections
• View Abatements
• View Inspection Results including failure reports
• View upcoming inspection dates
Owners may also contact PHA's HCV Inspections Department at
215-684-3860 or via email at hcvinspection@pha.phila.gov, with any
questions.