Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program

1
Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program

• A Brief Introduction

2
The History of the Section 8 Housing Program

• 1937 US Housing Act focused on PHAs building,
  owning and managing housing.
• By the 1970s, the public housing stock stood at
  approximately 1.2 million units.
• Mid-1970s, Congress pushes a new housing policy
  channeling housing resources to private owners to
  build and maintain affordable housing.
• It becomes Section 8 of the US Housing Act and
  creates two forms of subsidy
• project-based with 20 year contracts
• tenant based

3
Program Today

• Section 8 is the largest rental subsidy program
  in the country.
• 2.1 million tenant based units authorized
• 900,000 project based but decreasing
• States with the highest number of units
• New York- approximately 300,000
• California- approximately 350,000

4
Program Today

• Whos served in the tenant based program?
• 64 are families with children
• 15 elderly
• 13 persons with disabilities
• Majority live in non-poverty census tracts

5
Eligibility - Who Qualifies

• Income Eligible
• Primarily based on income, adjusted for family
  size
• The income of 75 of the new admissions into the
  program must be under 30 of area median income
• Alameda County
• One person - 17,400
• Two people - 19,850
• Three people - 22,350
• Four people - 24,850
• Five people - 26,850
• Six people - 30,800

6
Partnerships and Controlling DocumentsVoucher,
Lease and Contract
Property Owner
Housing Authority
Tenant
7
Income Eligibility and Rent Calculation

• Income based rent
• rent is calculated at 30 of adjusted income
• minus a HA established utility allowance
• Example-
• Adjusted monthly income 719 X 30 216
• Utility allowance is 46
• 216 - 46 170 tenant monthly rent

8
Section 8 Reform Proposals

• Housing Assistance for Needy Families (HANF)
  Flexible Voucher Programs

9
2004 HANF Program Components

• Participation was optional
• 2004 was to be the transition year
• PHAs would continue to administer Section 8
  program while States prepared to take over
• 100M set aside for state capacity building
• Program Administration
• State housing agencies
• PHAs, or
• other entities (preference to faith based
  entities)
• Administrative Fees capped at 10 of the budget
  authority

10
HANF Program Funding 13.6B

• Number of families served to be the same based
  on renewal funding
• 2.077M vouchers authorized for FFY 2003
• Renewal funding provided for 1.91M vouchers
• 36 million for 5500 incremental vouchers for
  non-elderly disabled persons living in public
  housing units that are designated for the elderly
  (not an increase in units)
• 72 million for Family Self Sufficiency
  Coordinators

11
Program Specificsfew!

• Housing was the only authorized use of s
• Current participants would be grandfathered into
  HANF program
• Majority of vouchers for ELI families
• Modeled on CDBG (entitlement communities)
• Earnings cap to transition families out of
  program
• Annual Adjustment Factor amount unknown

12
2005 Flexible Voucher Program Basic Design

• Return to the dollar-based voucher approach
  dont cap number of families.
• Simplify statutory and regulatory design.
• Give much more flexibility to PHAs.
• Continue the program as tenant-based rental
• Continue homeownership option
• Continue project-based option in a more
  streamlined fashion, e.g. PHA does not have to
  get HUD approval for location.

13

Program Administration

• Program to be administered by the current
  administrators/PHAs.
• HUD to focus on measuring a few, basic
  performance measures --utilization of funds,
  number of families served, financial management
  --not processes.
• In cases where the PHA fails to or is no longer
  willing to administer the program, HUD to select
  another entity to administer the program.

14
Flexible Voucher Funding

• Funding to be proportionate to funding received
  by the PHA in FY 2004
• Subsequent funding to be adjusted by an inflation
  factor

15
2006 Proposal

• No details yet
• Likely to be similar to the 2005 Flexible Voucher
  Program