SAC Mission

The Special Applications Center supports the nation?s public housing authorities in their desire to provide a better housing stock for their residents by means of technical assistance and obtaining approval of their plans.

Roles and Responsibilities

The Special Applications Center reviews, processes, and approves non-funded, non-competitive applications related to Demolition/Disposition, Eminent Domain, Homeownership, and Conversion.

The Special Applications Center also provides technical assistance and training to Public Housing Hub Offices and Program Centers, as well as to Public Housing Authorities (PHAs), residents, and industry groups, with regard to the completion of these non-funded, non-competitive applications and the monitoring of activities related to these applications.

History

The Special Applications Center was established to centralize and standardize the review and approval of non-funded, noncompetitive applications. The SAC helps to eliminate duplication of effort across offices and allows a specialized, dedicated staff to concentrate on the review and approval of these applications using consistent and predictable procedures and requirements. Technical assistance provided by the Center facilitates the preparation of complete and approvable applications by Public Housing Authorities (PHAs), further expediting the process.

In addition to improving the application process, this centralized responsibility for application review and approval is intended to alleviate the burden previously imposed on HUD field offices by removing the need for those offices to be knowledgeable on a wide variety of application types, allowing them to concentrate on other services provided to HUD business partners and public housing residents.

Prior to establishment of the Special Applications Center, responsibility for review and approval of these applications was distributed between HUD Headquarters and various HUD Field Offices that acted as processing centers. In some instances, review and approval of these applications was so time consuming that the various offices were unable to devote the time and effort required to perform a complete and thorough review. Furthermore, the distributed responsibility for review and approval of these applications did not foster standard and consistent procedures and requirements regarding either the format or content of the applications.