Last month, HUD published its FY23 Fair Market Rents (FMRs) used to determine payment standard amounts for the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program, noting that for the first time HUD will supplement public data with data from private sources to ensure the accuracy of the FY23 FMRs. CLPHA has long advocated for the use of private data sources in HUD’s methodology for calculating FMRs as this data is useful in capturing the rental landscape in high-cost areas and/or in markets experiencing rapidly rising costs, and we expressed this in recent comments to HUD.
New analysis from the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities (CBPP) notes that these updated FMRs can also reduce homelessness and increase housing choice. HUD FMRs have historically been lower than rapidly increasing market rents, and CBPP notes that FMRs that reflect market conditions enlarge the pool of available rental homes for voucher holders and also allow them greater choice of neighborhoods. Furthermore, CBPP outlines how the expansion of rental housing opportunities can decrease the amount of time and administrative work, such as searching and applying for available units, that renters must undertake to find housing, work that is especially onerous for renters experiencing housing instability or homelessness. When voucher holders can find housing more quickly, the risk of having to return the voucher to the housing authority and subsequently face homelessness is reduced.
CBPP adds that state and local housing agencies must take steps to ensure that the benefits of these new FMRs are maximized and advises agencies to:
- Implement new FMRs promptly
- Set payment standards that reflect neighborhood-level rents
- Use added flexibility to raise payment standards further if needed
- Implement other policies to make vouchers easier to use and expand housing choice