|
Recently, CLPHA submitted comments on the FY26 Fair Market Rents (FMRs) for the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program published in the Federal Register on August 22. CLPHA is aware that many of our members have seen FMRs that are not aligned with the reality of their local rental markets, which are rapidly growing and outpacing data used by HUD to calculate FMRs. As a result, more PHAs are requesting reevaluations and conducting costly rent studies. Notably, HUD’s FY26 FMRs resulted in an average increase of just 1% from FY25 for CLPHA members. The key points outlined in our comments are:
HUD is also soliciting comments on a proposed methodology change for FY27, which uses an alternative utility inflation factor based on a weighted average composite of four fuel and utility components: electricity, natural gas, fuel oil, and water/sewer/trash. HUD proposes using state-level data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration surveys for residential electricity, natural gas, and fuel oil prices, along with national-level data on changes in residential water, sewer, and trash collection costs from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. CLPHA is interested in hearing feedback from members on this proposed methodology change for FY27. For additional questions about these comments, please contact Madeline Morris, [email protected].
|
|
|
|
|
From the San Diego Housing Commission's press release:
Located about two miles from the beach and a mile from a transit center in one of San Diego’s high-opportunity communities, the Rose Creek Village development celebrated its groundbreaking today, commemorating the start of construction that will produce 59 new studio apartments with rents affordable to households with low income.
“Projects this extraordinary only happen when we come together as a community and work together to get this done,” San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said. “I think this is really exciting, and it’s a template for what we ought to be doing more of in our community.”
The City of San Diego awarded a $4 million loan to Rose Creek Village through the City’s Bridge to Home program. Additionally, permits were processed through the City’s Affordable Housing Permit Now program, which Mayor Gloria said averages eight days to review projects like Rose Creek Village, and the development received a density bonus from the City.
“Every community in San Diego deserves to have housing that is affordable for residents to live in,” said City Council President Pro Tem Kent Lee, Chair of the Council’s Land Use and Housing Committee. “We’re going to continue to fight for that to ensure that we continue to place housing next to the great jobs, the great schools, and the good transit that we have in our region.”
San Diego Community Housing Corporation (SDCHC) and National Community Renaissance of California (National CORE) are developing Rose Creek Village in collaboration with the City of San Diego, the County of San Diego, the San Diego Housing Commission (SDHC) and additional partners.
“It takes a lot of work just to get to this point in the development process and a lot more work will be done in the coming months as Rose Creek Village takes shape,” SDHC Senior Vice President of Real Estate Development Colin Miller said. “We know that breaking ground today brings us that much closer to at least 59 more people in our community, including 18 veterans, having a place to call home that they can afford.”
SDHC awarded a $2 million loan to support the development. SDHC’s loan consists of funds SDHC administers, including HOME Investment Partnerships Program funds that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awards to the City of San Diego and the City of San Diego’s Affordable Housing Fund.
SDHC also awarded 47 housing vouchers to help Rose Creek Village residents pay rent. Of those, 18 are Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) vouchers for veterans experiencing homelessness. These vouchers are tied directly to this development, so when a household moves on, the voucher remains to help another household with low income.
“This development will remain affordable for 55 years and it'll be situated in the community designated as a high-resource area by the State of California,” said David Estrella, Director of the County of San Diego's Health and Human Services Agency's Housing and Community Development Services department. “By assisting with the creation of affordable housing and pairing that with much-needed services, we're improving the health of future residents, creating a safe and livable environment for them and cultivating opportunities for these future residents to thrive.”
The County awarded a loan of more than $4 million to Rose Creek Village through the No Place Like Home program.
Veterans residing at Rose Creek Village with VASH vouchers will be identified through the Regional Task Force on Homelessness’ Coordinated Entry System. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) San Diego Healthcare System will provide supportive services for these residents.
“When we look at last year's Point-in-Time Count, we dropped overall the total number of sheltered and unsheltered veterans by 26 percent,” said Dr. Frank Pearson, Director of the VA San Diego Healthcare System. “I want to acknowledge how that's all happened, and it's teamwork. It's this collaboration that we talk about.”
Rose Creek Village will remain affordable for 55 years for households with incomes up to 60 percent of San Diego’s Area Median Income (AMI), currently $69,480 per year for a one-person household. There will be one unrestricted manager’s unit in addition to the 59 affordable apartments.
“We believe it’s the right project here—at the right time, in the right place. It addresses the housing, the infrastructure, and the revitalization needs of Garnet (Avenue) and does so in a way that at least the developers and many of the community people living here today believe is in character and is in scale with the surrounding neighborhood,” said John Seymour, National CORE’s Vice President of Acquisitions and Forward Planning for San Diego.
“We felt strongly that this was a community that needed housing,” said John Wurster, SDCHC’s Senior Vice President of Development. “I think when this is built, not just the people in this room who are real believers and easy to convince, but the public is going to see what a community good and benefit that this project is going to be.”
The Hope Through Housing Foundation, a nonprofit affiliate of National CORE, will be the property’s lead service provider, offering a variety of services to residents, such as financial literacy, computer training, home-buyer education, GED classes, resume building classes, ESL, nutrition class, exercise class, health information/awareness, art class, parenting class, on-site food cultivation and preparation classes, and smoking cessation classes.
“I have no doubt Rose Creek will change lives,” said AJ Galka, Assistant Vice President of Operations and Supportive Housing for the Hope Through Housing Foundation. “It's going to give people more than just a roof. It will give them roots, established roots, and from those roots, incredible things will grow.”
Rose Creek Village is being constructed west of Interstate 5 and north of Mission Bay, in San Diego’s Pacific Beach neighborhood. Three San Diego Metropolitan Transit System bus stops are within a mile of the property, and it is approximately one mile from the Balboa Avenue Transit Station where trolley service is available on the Blue Line.
The site is adjacent to the Rose Creek walking and biking trail. It is also within walking distance of grocery stores, schools, restaurants and parks. The property will be entirely powered by electricity, and will use rooftop and façade solar panels.
After two years as a pilot program, PHLHousing+ has reported significant positive impacts on the housing security of participating families. PHLHousing+ is a direct-to-tenant, cash rental assistance program in Philadelphia running from fall 2022 to June 2026. The program provides monthly cash payments to 301 low-income families with children over nearly four years.
Much like the in-kind subsidy provided by the national Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program, administered locally by the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA), PHLHousing+ payments eliminate housing cost burdens by ensuring that renters pay no more than 30% of their income on housing. PHLHousing+ is administered by the Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation (PHDC), a quasi-public nonprofit agency operating under the umbrella of the City of Philadelphia’s Department of Planning and Development.
The PHLHousing+ evaluation is a randomized control trial with three assignment groups: (1) 301 “cash households” who receive the rental subsidy in the form of monthly cash payments; (2) 170 “voucher households” who are offered a tenant-based housing voucher; and (3) 725 “control households” who receive no rental subsidy and remained on PHA waitlists.
Key insights from these early findings include:
- 100% of households that were offered the cash rental subsidy were able to use it.
- Cash assistance led to a 63-75% reduction in forced moves relative to households that received no assistance once households had been receiving cash for at least a year.
- PHLHousing+ significantly reduced the chances of a household experiencing homelessness, with only 3.0 per 100 cash households reporting any form of homelessness two years into the program, compared to 6.9 per 100 control households.
- PHLHousing+ also improved the reported housing quality of households, with a 22% reduction in serious housing quality concerns two years into the program, relative to those who received no assistance.
- Despite Philadelphia having a much higher housing voucher use rate than the national average, 25% of households offered a voucher were still not able to lease a unit and therefore could not use the benefit.
- The HCV program led to significant reductions in households’ exposure to forced moves relative to the control group in the second year of the evaluation.
- The HCV program significantly increased housing quality, with a 31% reduction in reported serious housing quality concerns two years into the program relative to the control group.
These positive impacts are comparable to those reported by households that receive rental assistance through the HCV program. Both forms of rental assistance are crucial for ensuring low-income families have safe, stable, and affordable housing.