Housing Quality Standards
For the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program (Section 8 —HUD)
Before the Public Housing Authority (PHA) can make payments to an owner/landlord, on behalf of a family, the unit must meet HUD's minimum Housing Quality Standards (HQS). These standards have been implemented by HUD nationwide to ensure that all assisted units meet minimum health and safety standards. The PHA will inspect the unit for HQS initially and then at least annually.
In order to ensure that the unit meets the Housing Quality Standards, review the requirements below and correct any HQS violations prior to the inspection. At the time of the inspection the unit should be ready to move in. This will prevent delays in the housing assistance payments.
Required Repairs
If the unit fails the initial or annual inspection, notification of the failed items will be mailed to the owner/landlord. Housing assistance payments can not be made until the unit passes the initial inspection. Repairs for an annual inspection must be made within 30-days or 24-hours for life threatening emergencies. If repairs are not made for the annual inspections by the stated deadline, housing assistance payments will stop.
Most Common Housing Quality Standards Failed Items
- Non-functional smoke detectors
- Missing or cracked electrical outlet cover plates
- Railings not present where required
- Peeling exterior and interior paint and/or lead paint present in the unit
- Tripping hazards caused by improperly installed floor coverings (carpets/vinyl)
- Cracked or broken window panes
- Inoperable burner on stoves or inoperable range hoods
- Missing burner control knobs (for stove/oven)
Housing Quality Standards Checklist
The following is a list of items inspected to meet the Housing Quality Standards.
Bathroom
- The bathroom must be located in a separate room and have a flush toilet.
- The unit must have a fixed basin with a sink trap and hot and cold running water.
- The unit must have a shower or bathtub with hot and cold running water.
- The toilet facilities must utilize an approvable public or private disposal system, which may include a locally approved septic system.
Kitchen
- The unit must have a cooking stove or range and refrigerator of appropriate size for the unit (i.e. family) all in proper operating condition.
- Stoves, ovens, and ranges must have all control knobs and handles.
- Gas stove burners must light by pilot jets without the use of incendiary devices (i.e. matches, lighter, etc).
- The unit must have a kitchen sink in proper operating condition with a sink trap and hot and cold running water which drains into an approvable public or private wastewater system.
- The unit must provide space for the storage, preparation and serving of food.
- There must be facilities and services for the sanitary disposal of food waste and refuse, including temporary storage facilities where necessary (i.e. garbage containers).
Space and Security
- The unit must have a minimum of a living room, kitchen area and a bathroom.
- The unit must contain at least one sleeping or living / sleeping room for every two (2) people.
- The units' windows (which are accessible from the outside; such as basement, first-floor, and fire escape windows), must be lockable (i.e. window units to have sash pins or sash locks and combination windows and latches).
- Vertically opening windows must stay up and open without the use of props. Windows designed to open, should be operable.
- Bedroom windows must be able to open and close freely.
- The units' exterior doors (i.e. those that allow access to or from the unit) must be lockable, and compliant with current Connecticut Property Code requirements regarding security devices for residential tenancies.
Thermal Environment (Heating & Cooling System)
- The unit must contain a safe heating system (and safe cooling system, where present) which is in proper operating condition and can provide adequate heat (and cooling, if applicable), either directly or indirectly, to each room used for living in order to assure a healthy living environment appropriate to the climate.
- In the absence of a cooling system secure screens must be present on all outside windows.
- The unit must not contain any un-vented room heaters, which burn gas, oil or kerosene. A working radiator would be acceptable.
Illumination and Electricity
- There must be at least one window in the living room and in each sleeping room.
- The kitchen area and the bathroom must have a permanent ceiling or wall type light fixture in working condition.
- The kitchen area must also have at least one (1) electrical outlet in operating condition.
- The living room and each bedroom must have a least two (2) electrical outlets in operating condition. Permanently installed overhead or wall-mounted light fixtures may count as one (1) of the required electrical outlets.
- All other rooms used for living require a means of natural or artificial illumination such as a light fixture, a wall outlet to serve a lamp, a window in the room, or adequate light from an adjacent room.
- Each electrical outlet must be permanently installed in the baseboard, wall, or floor.
- Table or floor lamps or ceiling lamps plugged into a socket, or an extension cord which is plugged into another plug cannot be counted as an outlet for HQS purposes.
- Electrical hazards of any kind, either inside or outside the unit would receive a fail rating.
Structures and Materials
- Interior ceilings, walls and floors must not have any serious defects such as severe bulging or leaning, large holes, loose surface materials, severe buckling, missing parts or other serious damage.
- The floors must also not have any major movement under walking stress, or tripping hazards presented by the permanent floor coverings. Carpets must be tacked down.
- The roof must be structurally sound and weather tight.
- The exterior wall structure and surfaces must not have any serious defects such as serious leaning, buckling, sagging, large holes, unfastened and falling components, or defects that would result in air infiltration or vermin infestation.
- The condition and equipment of interior and exterior stairways, halls, porches, walkways, etc. must not present a danger of tripping and falling. Examples include, but are not limited to, broken or missing steps and loose boards.
- Elevators must be working, safe, and compliant with locally enforced codes.
- Manufactured homes must be securely anchored by tie-down devices, which distribute and transfer the loads imposed by the unit to appropriate ground anchors so as to resist wind over-turning and sliding.
