Our services
NSPIRE
Inspection preparation, repairs, shadowing and portal data entry for project-based sites and Housing Choice Voucher programs — including the Affirmative Requirements that start scoring on October 1, 2026.
The standard changed
NSPIRE has begun. That is not a reason to worry.
HUD introduced and implemented the NSPIRE program in 2023, replacing REAC and HQS, to streamline industry standards with a focus on in-unit repairs. The scoring model and the treatment of life-threatening deficiencies changed along with it.
Castor conducts NSPIRE inspections ahead of the inspection date, carries out repairs both before and after, provides shadowing services on the day, and handles data entry in the NSPIRE portal.
We work with project-based sites for both public and private agencies. Castor has begun working on Housing Choice Voucher NSPIRE inspections, with a detailed reporting procedure built for PHAs.
Affirmative requirements
What has to be there, not just working.
Most of NSPIRE asks whether something is damaged. The affirmative requirements ask whether it exists at all. A unit missing a required feature fails on absence — there is nothing to repair.
Six categories stop being free.
HUD deferred scoring on a set of affirmative requirements, most recently to October 1, 2026, because owners were having difficulty complying. Until then these are recorded but do not cost points:
- Fire-labeled doors
- Electrical — GFCI and AFCI protection
- Guardrails
- HVAC
- Interior lighting
- Minimum electrical and lighting
The correction obligation never paused. Deficiencies in these categories still have to be corrected on the timeframe their severity demands — life-threatening, severe, moderate or low. Only the scoring consequence was postponed, and that postponement is nearly over.
Source: HUD Notice PIH 2025-27 / H 2025-05, applying to public housing and HUD multifamily. Confirm against the current notice before relying on any date.
Unit
| Requirement | What has to be true |
|---|---|
| Bathtub or shower | Present and usable in privacy |
| Toilet | Present and usable in privacy |
| Kitchen sink | Present in the primary kitchen |
| Hot and cold running water | Both running from sinks |
| Primary cooking appliance | Present |
| Refrigerator | Present |
| Food preparation area | Present |
| Food storage space | Present |
| Permanently installed heating source | Working. Inspected between October 1 and March 31, the interior must reach 68°F |
| Unvented space heaters | Prohibited where burning gas, oil or kerosene |
| Smoke alarms | Installed everywhere required |
| Carbon monoxide alarms | Installed in the required locations |
| GFCI protection | Any outlet within six feet of a water source |
| Interior lighting | At least one permanently installed fixture in the kitchen and in the bathroom |
| Minimum electrical | Two working outlets in each habitable room, or one outlet plus one permanently installed fixture |
| Guardrails | Present wherever required |
Inside — common and building areas
| Requirement | What has to be true |
|---|---|
| Smoke alarms | Installed everywhere required |
| Carbon monoxide alarms | Installed in the required locations |
| Permanently installed heating source | Working where the area requires one |
| GFCI protection | Any outlet within six feet of a water source |
| Interior lighting | Present where required |
| Guardrails | Present wherever required |
| Fire-labeled doors | In place and intact in fire-rated assemblies |
Outside
| Requirement | What has to be true |
|---|---|
| GFCI protection | Any outlet within six feet of a water source |
| Guardrails | Present wherever required |
Why this list is different from the rest of an inspection. You cannot maintain your way out of a missing feature. If a habitable room has one outlet and no permanent fixture, no amount of upkeep fixes it — somebody has to install something. That makes the affirmative requirements a capital and scheduling problem, not a maintenance one, and it is why the run-up to October 1 matters.
Reference
NSPIRE documents.
The HUD source material we work from, kept here so you are not hunting for it the week before an inspection.
Have a site that needs attention?
Tell us the property and the problem. We will tell you what it takes to fix it.