In late January 2023, the White House published a Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights. The blueprint was prepared by the Domestic Council and National Economic Council and contains five principles that are intended to support development of policies and practices that protect renters and promote rental affordability.
The first principle described in the blueprint is to provide the 44 million renters with access to safe rental housing that meet habitability standards that are free of health and safety hazards. It recognizes that housing is essential to a broad set of outcomes that include impacts on health and child development. SP Group has been in the forefront of efforts by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to address housing quality from the perspective of tenants.
SP Group has been supporting HUD’s NSPIRE Demonstration program since 2021 by conducting thousands of property inspections for public housing and multifamily properties across the nation using the all-new NSPIRE protocols and standards. Our work helped HUD in testing the standards in the field, refining inspection protocols, and establishing business processes and supporting technology to bridge the gap between program concepts and program implementation for NSPIRE. During this contract, SP Group worked with numerous stakeholders to transform the inspection process from its historical focus on the appearance of housing to one focusing on the quality of life, and health and safety of residents.
Based on its success with HUD’s NSPIRE Demonstration, USDA’s Rural Development (RD) called upon SP Group to assist in the design of its next generation of inspection protocols. The challenges facing USDA are similar in many ways to those that faced HUD as it implemented the NSPIRE Demonstration program, but there are distinct differences that SP Group identified and made recommendations for addressing at the policy level and at the practical level.
SP Group is pleased to have contributed to these two significant program initiatives, and looks forward to a continuing relationship with these agencies to pursue and achieve their mission.