Property Inspection

There are 4 different types of inspections conducted by our housing inspectors:

Initial Inspections: The Public Housing Agency conducts initial inspections in response to a request from the family to approve a unit for participation in the Housing Choice Voucher program.

Annual/Biennial Inspections: UD requires the PHA to inspect each unit under lease at least annually or biennially (or triennially for small rural PHAs as defined in 24 CFR 982.305(b)(2)), depending on PHA policy, to confirm that the unit still meets NSPIRE standards.

Special Inspections: A special inspection may be requested by the owner, the family, or a third party as a result of problems identified with a unit between annual inspections.

Quality Control Inspections: HUD requires that a sample of units be inspected by a supervisor or other qualified individual to evaluate the work of the inspector(s) and to ensure that inspections are performed in compliance with the NSPIRE standards.

Property Inspections

The Salem Housing Authority conducts mandatory property inspections to ensure that property management and landlords strictly adhere to HUD's inspection standards. This is essential to guarantee that your home is decent, safe, sanitary and meets HUD’s requirements.

This requirement is mandatory for all individuals participating in the following programs:

  • Public Housing

  • Multifamily Housing

  • Housing choice voucher (Section 8)

Important Inspection Updates:

Starting off a little earlier, December 29th, 2024, is the Public and Federally Assisted Housing Fire Safety Act of 2022. With this new regulation passed by Congress, smoke detectors must either be hardwired or powered by a 10-year sealed battery. This is aimed at improving home safety and reducing tampering, keeping your units as safe as possible.

Salem Housing Authority is required to follow the National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code (NFPA 72).  There are specifications about the placement of smoke detectors, including that they are placed in each sleeping room. This combination of requirements ensures that your tenants and property can be safely alerted in case of a fire and that tampering will be less of an issue going forward.

Combination smoke alarms and carbon monoxide testers are still permitted if they are either hardwired or have a sealed battery. Sealed battery smoke detectors can be purchased for around $20, but you may also be able to reach out to your local fire department to see if they might have resources to provide a smoke alarm if needed: City of Salem Smoke Alarm Program.

NSPIRE & Affirmative Habitability Requirements

Effective October 1, 2025, Salem Housing Authority (SHA) is required to adopt new inspection standards under NSPIRE, the National Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real Estate, as enforced by HUD. This will replace the previous Housing Quality Standards (HQS) currently used.

NSPIRE aligns inspection standards across all HUD-assisted properties and prioritizes health, safety, and functionality. These standards will be reviewed and updated every three years; detailed information for NSPIRE can be found on HUD.gov by searching NSPIRE. This notice is to inform you of the upcoming changes and will highlight standards that SHA felt would have the most impact on current units. Please note that this is not an all-inclusive list of all changes. Please see the following links for more information provided directly from HUD.

  • Along with NSPIRE, new regulation under 24 CFR 5.703 defines affirmative habitability requirements. These are basic requirements for an assisted unit and property that must be met for participation are listed in the attachment. SHA will inspect for the items below but may not fail these items until NSPIRE is implemented, 10/1/2025.

  • Inspections will remain pass/fail as they were with HQS but now have 4 health and safety determinations with varying repair times:

    Life-Threatening – Repairs must be completed within 24 hours. A list of the 46 items can be found in the NSPIRE – Life-Threatening Fails section on page 9. Communication between the landlords and the inspection team will be crucial for these inspections.

    Severe & Moderate – Repairs must be completed within 30 days, and inspections must be scheduled for approximately 28 days from reinspection in order to stay in compliance with HUD. Reinspection notices will be sent by mail as they were with HQS.

    Low – N/A is similar to passing with a comment.

  • To get the complete NSPIRE information go to https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/public_indian_housing/reac/nspire/