U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

CGI Improves HUD’s Performance Levels Through Contract Administration Outsourcing

“CGI took the complicated HUD regulations and turned them into an efficient program that really works. Ohio landlords can talk to a live person now because CGI is committed to customer service and meeting their needs.”

Suzanne Cochran, General Manager of Contract Administration, Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) oversees thousands of Section 8 and multifamily properties throughout the country. Section 8 is a HUD program that provides affordable housing to low-income individuals and families. HUD sought proposals to combat expected difficulties managing its properties, mainly due to understaffing. Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA), in partnership with CGI, was awarded a contract to provide contract administration outsourcing for all HUD Section 8 properties in the State of Ohio. Since CGI took over day-to-day operations in 2000, Ohio’s performance results have been in substantial compliance with HUD’s contract, allowing HUD to decrease its monitoring of operations.

The Challenge
In Ohio, HUD subsidizes more than 1,000 Section 8 contracts for more than 65,000 family units, an important service for low socioeconomic families in need of quality housing options.

Without constant portfolio management as a result of a predicted worker shortage, HUD was concerned its owners and tenants would not receive the level of service and assistance HUD deemed necessary. The potential for misuse of government funds was also of high concern.

HUD sought proposals to outsource HUD’s contract administration responsibilities to qualified public housing agencies across the country. Outsourcing allows HUD to implement performance-based strategies to improve results.

The Strategy
The Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority partnered with CGI to submit a proposal to HUD, creating the most comprehensive and cost-efficient solution. HUD ranked this proposal as one of the best submitted nationally.

HUD engaged CGI in May 2000 to establish and manage the performance-based contract administration initiative in the State of Ohio, currently the second largest contract administration in the U.S. With eight top performing housing authorities in Ohio, CGI formed a contract administration consortium, which operates under the name of the Assisted Housing Services Corporation (AHSC), a non-profit subsidiary of CMHA.

Within 120 days of receiving the award, AHSC was calculating Section 8 rental subsidies, administering project-based Section 8 Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) contracts and enforcing owner obligations to provide decent housing for eligible families. CGI also created a contact center to address client questions or complaints and deliver superior customer service.

CGI developed the Contract Administration Tracking System (CATS), a proprietary management software application, to generate the large volume of reports needed for benchmarking and invoicing. With CATS CGI can view the operations and performance of each multifamily property under its management in Ohio, enhancing productivity and benchmarking efforts. This system received high commendations from HUD’s top management.

The Results
HUD’s recent annual compliance review for Ohio properties rated AHSC’s efforts as substantially compliant. HUD labeled AHSC as a top performing contract administrator in the nation within its first year of operations.

“It just amazes me how well the structure, organization and processes were planned before we started,” said Suzanne Cochran, general manager of Contract Administration of Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority. “CGI took the complicated HUD regulations and turned them into an efficient program that really works. Ohio landlords can talk to a live person now because CGI is committed to customer service and meeting their needs.”

Ohio families living in Section 8 properties have improved housing options, and landlords have better management and service for their individual contracts. HUD avoided the repercussions of understaffing and improved the contract administration at its sites by implementing a performance-based management structure and outsourcing its contract administration. CGI’s extensive government consulting experience gave it the necessary tools to solve Ohio’s contract administration problems.