DevCo Industry Forum

Survey and Intro Requested feedback from industry partners Recorded in Video Feedback Surveyed partners for Questions on DevCo

DevCo Online Application Required with Housing Tax Credit applications Feedback received from many of our development partners Helpful for future improvements to the system

What tips do you have for someone getting started?

What was the most helpful tool for learning about the DevCo Online Application?

How frequently have you used the resources made available, such as the Application Guides, webinars, or mailbox? Follow up question: What other resources would be helpful to you?

What is the most important feature or process that needs to be improved in the online application?

Suggested Improvements Calculation issues Development budget Operating expenses Sources of funds Data entry Census tracts Political districts Project contacts Unnecessary information These and several other suggested improvements will be adopted for 2017.

Questions and Comments What questions do you have right now? What comments would you like to make? If you think of something later… DevCoApplication@ohiohome.org

How does DevCo reporting compare to other state housing agency’s reporting?

How does DevCo reporting compare to other state housing agency’s reporting? “Currently the only other state housing agency we use is Indiana and Kentucky and they’re almost exactly the same as DevCo”

What tips do you have for someone getting started in DevCo?

What tips do you have for someone getting started in DevCo? “Be sure you put everything in order of the date it occurred. Double check to make sure all entries are accurate or it can throw everything off later.”

Q & A: Compliance Registration & Access When requesting access to a new property as a management agent, it would be nice to know who on the owner side is getting the request so we know who to follow up with if access is not granted. When there is a staffing change at my organization and contacts need to be changed in DevCo, is there a way to update the information once and have it transfer throughout the system or do we need to go in to each property and update the info?

What was light bulb moment for you while using DevCo?

What was light bulb moment for you while using DevCo? “I didn’t really have a light bulb moment but loved that overall it was very user friendly and pretty self-explanatory. I guess maybe one light bulb moment was when I realized on the Income and Rent percentages you didn’t have to figure out and put in the actual percentages for each resident, you just need to select the percentage requirements for your property.”

What was the most helpful tool for learning the DevCo system?

What was the most helpful tool for learning the DevCo system? “I had an instructional handout that was very helpful---the DevCo Online Management System Guide”

How frequently do you use the resources for DevCo?

How frequently do you use the resources for DevCo? “In the beginning I definitely used the DevCo Online Management System Guide and the Help Desk. The Help Desk always responded very quickly to our questions, which was great.”

Q&A: Entering Tenant Events Please review again what activities are required to be reported in Devco and what actions require an updated TIC. For instance, when a new household member is added.

What feature have you found most useful?

What feature have you found most useful? “I love that it form fields the resident information so that when you enter a new event for the resident you don’t have to re-enter all that information. I also like that if you missed something it will alert you with red messages.”

What tips do you have for someone doing the XML uploads?

What tips do you have for someone manually entering tenant?

What tips do you have for someone manually entering tenant? “Don’t forget to hit update so that your information is saved When you click on your property always check to see if any errors are listed and correct them then Don’t forget to hit 5 (0’s) when entering the SS # and then the last 4 #’s In the Member section---don’t enter their current income---it is best to leave it blank until you finish entering the income and asset information and click on “calculate” and it will form field that information in---it’s a good checks and balance system to ensure you entered everything correctly---if the total doesn’t match what you came up with you know you either entered something wrong or you calculated wrong.”

Q&A: Rent & Income Limit Issues For properties that combine tax credits with other sources of funding, such as Section 8 or RD's Rental Assistance, which income limits are loaded into DevCo -- the limits applicable under the provisions of HERA (in other words the highest income limit achieved since PIS) or the current income limits? Is it possible for the property's specific rent and income restrictions to be pre-populated in DevCo so that the TIC only allows the use of one of the property's actual set-asides?

Q & A: Utility Allowances Having to pick the UA during the xml import process is very time consuming. And when the property is too big and you have to force the import and then go back and update the UA event by event it's even more time consuming. Now the UAs are keyed and tied to the BINs. If they could be keyed and tied to the units, then the files could be imported in without selecting the UA and DevCo could check and make sure the UA in the event is correct when compared to the UAs entered for the property. When a utility allowance is updated, should we create a new TIC/tenant event in Devco?

What is the most important feature or process that needs improved?

What is the most important feature or process that needs improved? “The program seems to freeze a lot and you have to sign out and sign back in again. It would also be nice if it would automatically fill in the Income and Rent percentages for your property like the Compliance Tool did. It’s sometimes inconvenient that everything has to be done in chronological order---it would be nice to be able to go back and correct an event when necessary without having to delete anything that happened after the event date you want to correct, then making the correction and then having to re –enter everything you had to delete to make the correction. It seems like when you do a transfer it doesn’t always carry all the information over like the UA or the rents.”

Q&A: Setting up a property for Compliance How soon can Devco be set up following an award? Is there any way to speed up this process? Sometimes it seems that properties are ready to begin certifying tenants, but DevCo is not yet ready. Will there be a way to upload the initial property information? That would help tremendously.

Other possible improvements – for Compliance in DevCo It would be nice to have a few more reports - specifically, being able to pull the tenant data with demographics information. You've told us a million times, but we keep forgetting! Would it be possible to make a list of when a new event/Tic is required and when it's not? That way we can keep it for our records and refer back to it. It would be nice if the follow-up letters regarding the tenant data didn't include the items that DevCo causes (e.g. MI date matching the MO date on MO events - appears to be because DevCo is forcing the MO date into the MI field because there is no MI date reported in the xml 2.0 file for move-outs; no rent/subsidy for MO events - same issue, these fields are not in the xml file

DevCo Compliance Resources DevCo Helpdesk: https://devco.ohiohome.org/devcoinquiries/ DevCo Online Login: https://devco.ohiohome.org/AuthorityOnline/Default.aspx DevCo Homepage: http://www.ohiohome.org/compliance/devco.aspx Best resource for current updates on issues in DevCo, approaching deadlines, and easy access to all DevCo guides and troubleshooting materials. Special alerts also posted for major DevCo issues. Other Program Compliance Resources http://www.ohiohome.org/compliance/default.aspx