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---Finding the right utility allowance usually means tracking down the housing authority’s current schedule, opening a PDF, and lining up unit type, bedroom size and fuel type by hand. It’s a small task, but it comes up constantly for property managers, owners, compliance teams and agency staff, and it’s easy to get wrong. So we started building something to make that easier. We’re calling it AllowanceHQ.--
---The idea is simple: we turn the utility allowance schedules we prepare into a short online calculator. You choose the location, unit type, bedroom size and how each utility is supplied, and it adds up the allowance for you. For tax credit properties, it can also show the maximum LIHTC rent at each AMI level once the allowance comes off. If you’d rather see it than read about it, click the video above for a quick walkthrough.
---We started with the City of Concord, NC. We had prepared their utility allowance schedules, so it made sense to test the idea on numbers we knew inside and out. Turning that schedule into a calculator showed us what people really need: pick a few options, get one clear number, and trust that it matches the official schedule. We’ve also prepared schedules for all 95 counties in Tennessee for the Tennessee Housing Development Agency.
You can try it here: https://www.thehedgerowgroup.com/allowancehq
---This is just the beginning. We’d like to bring many more housing authorities into AllowanceHQ. Each agency we work with gets a schedule built on current local data, plus a calculator that staff, landlords and families can use the day it takes effect. And as more agencies join, AllowanceHQ becomes more useful for the owners and managers who work across several jurisdictions.
How you can help
If you can, I’d really appreciate your help:
- If you work with a PHA that might benefit from this, whether that’s the calculator, an updated schedule or both, please pass this email along.
- If you know someone at a housing authority, state housing agency or HUD office who would be the right person to talk to, I’d be very grateful for an introduction. Just reply to this email.
And if you try the calculator and something looks off or could be clearer, I’d like to hear that too.
Thanks for reading,
Walter Mendoza
Managing Partner, Hedgerow Partners, LLC
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