NMA's Model Admissions and Continued Occupancy Policy (ACOP) provides you with expert guidance in a time-saving, user-friendly format, doing the heavy lifting of policy-making for you and potentially saving your agency hundreds of hours of work.

The model ACOP provides the basis for writing your agency’s ACOP by recommending language for each area in which PHAs have discretion or flexibility to develop their own policies. For each policy, the accompanying instruction guide offers important points to consider and customizable policy choices so that you can choose the best policy to suit your agency’s needs. Also, the model ACOP cites and describes HUD regulations and other requirements in detail, which presents your agency with a solid foundation in policy-making.

NMA's Model Admissions and Continued Occupancy Policy (ACOP)

Subscribing to our revision service ensures that your policy changes with HUD’s regulatory changes. Because the model policy can help your agency attain a thorough and accurate ACOP that covers all the bases, it’s a must-have for managing your public housing program, including policy on: policy on:

• Program and plan overview topics
• Fair housing and equal opportunity
• Eligibility and denial of assistance
• Occupancy standards and unit offers
• Income and rent determinations
• Verification, including UIV
• Waiting list management
• Tenant selection and unit offers
• Leasing and inspections
• Pets
• Community Service
• Transfers
• Terminations
• Grievances and appeals

Click here to view a sample of the Model ACOP.

Click here to view a sample of the ACOP Guide.

Click here to view the title page and Table of Contents.

March 2023: For this first revision of 2023, the Model Admissions and Continued Occupancy Policy (ACOP) has been brought current with all recent HUD requirements and guidance, including the following:

• Changes throughout to account for the over-income provisions of the final rule implementing parts 102, 103, and 104 of the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act (HOTMA), published in the Federal Register February 14, 2023
• Updates to bring the policy in line with VAWA 2022 implementation guidance, set forth in the Federal Register January 4, 2023
• Revisions to flat rent requirements as specified in Notice PIH 2022-33
• Clarifications on the discrimination complaint process as it relates both in general and to complaints under the Equal Access Rule
• A more simplified and up-to-date sample grievance procedure
• Other clarifications and modifications to make sure the content is user-friendly, current, and in compliance with all HUD regulations, guidance, and industry best practices

Additional changes will be provided later in the year to incorporate the remaining HOTMA provisions well ahead of the January 1, 2024, effective date.

2022: For 2022, the Model Admissions and Continued Occupancy Policy (ACOP) has been brought current with all recent HUD requirements and guidance, including the following:

• Changes to policies regarding reasonable accommodations as related to utility allowances per the Utility Allowance Guidebook and other HUD regulations and requirements
• Clarifications regarding family debts to the PHA as outlined in Notice PIH 2018-18
• Minor clarifications on applying the SSA COLA at annual and interim reexaminations per Notice PIH 2018-24
• Additions and clarifications to account for the new version of the Public Housing Occupancy Guidebook, which is currently in development and being released chapter-by-chapter
• Per Notice PIH 2021-29, changes to the timeframes under which a Notice to Vacate would be provided for nonpayment of rent under nationwide emergency orders
• Revisions for the new Carbon Monoxide (CO) detector requirements as specified in Notice PIH 2022-01
• Updates to definitions concerning the Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) program as set forth in the final rule published in the Federal Register on May 17, 2022
• Other clarifications and modifications to make sure the content is user-friendly, current, and in compliance with all HUD regulations, guidance, and industry best-practices