OHFA 2021 First Quarter Agency at a Glance

OHFA UPDATE - PAGE 4 - FIRST QUARTER OFFICE OF MULTIFAMILY HOUSING Spring is almost here! The sun is coming out more and more every day and the Compliance division of the Office of Multifamily Housing is eagerly anticipating life starting to look more like “normal” later this year. It is our hope that OHFA and our fellow housing finance agencies will be on track to get back out into the field to conduct physical inspections. While we do not have a specific date pinned down for when physical inspections will resume, we do anticipate that it could be late summer or early fall. OHFA staff will provide more information as soon as we have it. Compliance staff will continue to conduct all file audits remotely during this interim period. We appreciate our partners’ patience and flexibility as we navigate the remote file audit process with you. The Annual Owner Certification deadline was extended this year to March 15, 2021 due to technical issues with OHFA’s software in late February. Our staff began processing the AOCs on March 16, 2021. All initial corrections will be given a 30-day correction period, which will be noted in the letter sent by OHFA to owners and management agents upon review of the AOC submission. As always, we appreciate your patience as we work through more than 1,400 submissions our office receives every year. The Compliance division continues to work on improvements and enhancements to the OHFA Inspection software. Please note that we have temporarily disabled our external partners’ ability to download files from the system. This should not impact partner’s ability to upload files. If partners have any issues or concerns about files uploaded and submitted to OHFA, please send a communication to the assigned auditor and they will reach out to you directly. Unfortunately, at this time, we are unable to email files that you have uploaded and submitted to OHFA. Since we’re in the midst of file audit season and appear to be on the cusp of being able to resume physical inspections, owners should remember to ensure that all applicable personnel have access to the OHFA Inspection and DevCo Online systems prior to an OHFA-scheduled file audit or physical inspection. In order to access the OHFA Inspection system, the owner must be registered as a Devco Online User and have access to each of their projects in DevCo. The owner may also grant access to designees of their choice, e.g., property managers, site staff, regional managers, etc., through DevCo Online. When you complete the Management Questionnaire prior to an audit, please be sure to include everyone that you want to have access to the report and/or to be able to upload corrections to findings of non-compliance. If necessary, please attach an additional sheet to the Management Questionnaire to list all contacts. Thank you to our partners for your hard work and collaboration during these challenging times. As 2021 progresses, we look forward to working with you to fulfill our collective mission to provide safe, decent and affordable housing to Ohioans! COMPLIANCE DIVISION UPDATE ATHENA LUNSFORD COMPLIANCE OPERATIONS MANAGER