Property Owners

Mutually Beneficial Partnership

Partnering with MPHA is Good Business

MPHA’s Housing Choice Voucher program provides rental opportunities to low-income families by partnering with rental housing property owners in the private market across Minneapolis. For voucher holders, this partnership helps provide access to most types of housing across every neighborhood in Minneapolis. For property owners, this partnership delivers timely and guaranteed rent payments, reduced turnover, access to professional inspectors, additional financial incentives, and a partner in working with tenants. Additionally, property owners who work with MPHA are entered into the MPHA Landlord Excellence Program (more details below).

Landlords interested in renting to MPHA voucher holders should email or call MPHA’s Community Engagement Specialist at owners@mplspha.org or (612) 342-1222. Landlords can post properties for free on housinglink.org.

Passing Inspections

When a voucher holder chooses a home, the unit must be inspected by a housing authority inspector to confirm the unit meets MPHA’s inspections standards. These standards, based on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Housing Quality Standards, ensure families are moving into decent, safe, and sanitary rental units. These inspections take place before a family moves in and annually or biannually after that. Property owners are eligible for MPHA rent payments following the successful completion of an inspection and when a resident(s) moves in.

MPHA will schedule the inspection and notify tenants and landlords of the inspection date and time.

Property Owner Portal

MPHA’s owner portal is a resource for property owners and managers. Property owners can manage contact information, direct deposit details, and submit contract rent increase requests. Additionally, the portal contains a payment ledger, unit details, and inspection reports.

To set up a portal account, you must first receive a registration code, which can only be provided once you have submitted a Request for Tenancy Approval (acquired from a voucher holder interested in renting from you). If you have already set up an owner portal account, or have your registration code, you can access the portal using the link below:

Landlord Excellence Program

The Landlord Excellence Program (LEP) is a tiered system to measure landlords’ performance in meeting MPHA’s Housing Choice Voucher inspection standards. The program will classify landlords into gold, standard, and remediation tiers based primarily on the inspection pass rates and number of abatements.

MPHA regularly performs three types of inspections: initial (done to approve a unit for move-in), annual (done once a year to ensure a unit maintains standards), and interim (at the request of the tenant or the owner for a specific issue). When a unit fails an inspection, landlords have 21-30 days to make repairs before a reinspection is performed. If a unit fails a reinspection, the unit goes into abatement—landlords forfeit funds until stipulated requirements are met. If the unit is not brought up to the standard within the required timeline after the reinspection, MPHA will terminate the contract, and the tenant moves to another unit.

Landlords who consistently meet or exceed MPHA’s standards will receive an enhanced incentive package, while those who fail to meet standards will receive additional education and assistance. To ensure fairness across different sized landlords, the number of units a landlord owns impacts their required inspection pass rate.

Tier requirements are based on the number of units a landlord has with MPHA and are based on their inspections and abatements over the prior year’s review period (July 1 – June 30). Tier movements will only occur at the time of the annual reviews. All new property owners and managers will automatically be assigned to the Standard Tier until the next review period.

Table depicts Landlord Excellence Program's Required Inspection Pass Rates by Size Classification
Table depicts the Landlord Excellence Program's Additional Requirements by Tier
Table depicts Landlord Excellence Program's Incentives by Tier

For more details regarding the Landlord Excellence Program, please visit the Landlord Excellence Program Dashboard.