Community Builders
City West: Utility Allowance Calculation

Client:
The Community Builders, Inc.
1014 Vine Street, Suite 1850
Cincinnati, Ohio 45202
Attn. C. Louis Mitsch, Vice President and Director
(513) 977-4006

Project Assignment:
Prepare Utility Allowance Calculations for each building type and location within the housing development.  The development consists of 3 public housing developments consisting of 769 units in 58 townhouse style buildings and one high-rise senior housing building. Work included preparation of: Utility Allowance Calculations of reasonable electric and gas usage.

Assignment Details:
The overall goal was to calculate the reasonable usage of utilities for each dwelling type for reimbursement to the tenant. 

CHS began the process by meeting with executive staff to understand the tenant responsibility to the utility providers and review the layout of the buildings.

CHS conducted thorough development and unit assessments which included:

• Determine buildings types, locations, layouts and building materials.
• Gather drawings specifying building dimensions, window and door quantities, dimensions, locations and specifications.
• Inspection of each type of dwelling at each of the developments.
• Inspection of furnaces, water heaters and AC units in each building type.

Utility Providers:  CHS contacted the development utility providers to determine the current contracted consumption costs to be used for the allowance calculations.

Data Analysis:  Each unit type data is used to calculate the BTU losses.  Total BTU losses of each dwelling type are used to calculate the reasonable cost of utilities using the Engineering-Based Methodology as approved by HUD.   

Executive Summary:  CHS prepared a Utility Allowance Summary and rate schedule for each dwelling size, type, and location within the building.  The rates provided will be the allowances reimbursed to each tenant monthly to assist with utility costs.

Tasks

• Physical Needs Assessment
• Section 504 Assessment & Transition Plan
• Section 202 Viability Analysis
• Market Study

Timeline

• Start – September 2006
• Complete – January 2007

Interesting Facts

• 58 Townhouse and one high-rise Building Assessed, 769 Dwellings
•  Scattered Sites