Below please find an update from HUD’s Office of Asset Management and Portfolio Oversight regarding the National Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real Estate (NSPIRE). This NSPIRE update provides members with the opportunity to review and comment on the most recent NSPIRE inspection standards. HUD intends to use these standards as it restarts demonstration inspections under NSPIRE and anticipates this will be the last informal release of the NSPIRE standards prior to their publication as a Federal Register notice. For more information on how to provide comments, please see the announcement below.

Additionally, HUD will be hosting several new webinars on resident financial capability and pest control. The financial capabilities and financial strategies webinars are designed to help identify predatory practices impacting elders and people with disabilities and ways to engage HUD-assisted residents in financial empowerment. The integrated pest management strategy webinar will focus on controlling or eliminating infestations  with minimum impact of residents’ health or well-being. To register for the webinars, please see the announcement below.

REAC NSPIRE Updates

Thank you for your feedback thus far on HUD’s proposed new physical inspection model – the National Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real Estate (NSPIRE). We would like to notify you of another opportunity to help us refine NSPIRE’s inspection standards by reviewing and commenting on the most recent version of the NSPIRE inspection standards, which are now available on HUD’s NSPIRE website. You can find the most recent version of the NPSIRE standards here.

This version incorporates input from a large pool of diverse stakeholders, including property owners and agents, public housing agencies, residents, maintenance personnel, scientists, and industry groups. HUD intends to use these standards as it restarts demonstration inspections under NSPIRE. HUD anticipates this will be the last informal release of the NSPIRE standards prior to their publication as a Federal Register notice. Publication in the Federal Register will allow you, and the public, the formal opportunity to submit comments on the standards. These standards will be used when we begin inspections under the NSPIRE demonstration. Currently, nearly 4,000 Multifamily properties have volunteered to be part of the demonstration.

While we seek feedback on all aspects of the standards, we would like to ask you to focus on the following:

• Is HUD inspecting the right things that are most critical to housing quality?
• Are there items that should be added to or deleted from the list of inspectable items?
• Do the health and safety determinations and correction timeframes make sense?
• Are the reasons or rationales for inspecting these items logical and easily understood?

Should you wish to review and comment on the most recent version of the standards, please follow the instructions on the NSPIRE website. As valued partners, we look forward to receiving your comments and working to improve the physical inspection process. If you would like more information on NSPIRE, please visit HUD’s NSPIRE website. If you have questions about the standards or the demonstration, please email .

Upcoming Webinars

Financial Capability Month

To recognize Financial Capability Month, join us on Tuesdays in April. HUD’s Strong Families Initiative will feature a panel of experts. No pre-registration necessary!

April 13: Engaging with Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Centers for Tax Prep / Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Add to your calendar!

April 20: Predatory Practices Impacting Elders and People with Disabilities. Add to your calendar!

April 27: Engaging HUD-Assisted Residents in Financial Empowerment. Add to your calendar!

Pest Control, May 6, 2021 2:00-3:00 PM/ET 

Integrated pest management (IPM) strategies can help control or eliminate infestations with minimum impact on residents’ health and well-being, and a better understanding of these pests can help guide decisions about how to combat them. Learn more & register.

This presentation will provide an overview of cockroach management, including:

• How to reduce cockroach infestations, effectively, using IPM
• The benefit of IPM for reducing cockroach allergens and insecticide residues

• Recent research on monitoring and managing mice infestations, techniques that produce results in low-income, multifamily housing communities