Citing administrative burdens of public housing authorities (PHAs), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has proposed reforms to the agency’s rental assistance programs.
PHAs and landlords participating in HUD’s rental assistance programs must currently navigate a complex set of rules to properly calculate a household’s rent contribution, HUD said in a press release announcing the reforms. Owners and PHAs, many with limited staff, must spend many hours calculating the correct payments for their tenants, who may themselves be confused by byzantine rent rules for tenant income calculations.
“The system we currently use to calculate a family’s rental assistance is broken and holds back the very people we're supposed to be helping,” HUD Secretary Ben Carson said in the release. “HUD-assisted households are now required to surrender a long list of personal information, and any new income they earn is ‘taxed’ every year in the form of a rent increase. Today, we begin a necessary conversation about how we can provide meaningful, dignified assistance to those we serve without hurting them at the same time.”
An analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities cited in a Washington Post report found that the minimum monthly rent for the poorest households would triple, from $50 to $150, affecting about 712,000 households nationwide. The rental reforms would have to be passed by Congress to take effect.
HUD helps 4.7 million families to access affordable, quality housing and pay their rents, more than half of which are currently headed by senior citizens or persons living with a disability. HUD said its rent reforms proposals would not affect qualifying households comprised of elderly persons or persons with disabilities.
HUD is proposing a simplified structure of core rents that offers a more transparent and predictable rent calculation that streamlines program administration for PHAs and owners and is easier for both landlords and tenants to understand, the press release stated. Under the proposal, PHAs and owners would only be required to verify income every three years rather than annually.
“This would substantially ease the administrative burden on PHAs, owners, and residents and would effectively encourage increased earned income without adversely impacting a household’s rent for up to three years,” HUD said in the release.
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