meanie_ants t1_j8tx4ar wrote on February 16, 2023 at 10:36 PM

Reply to comment by Ok_Culture_3621 in WaPo: DC overpays landlords millions to house the city’s poorest by ahtigers10

I work in housing and voucher programs, in compliance. Not in DC proper though.

The FMR isn’t necessarily the required rate or a limit. Some program structures do a comparable unit analysis to determine if the rent is reasonable. And sometimes a certain percentage above the FMR is authorized, as you said. It depends on what kind of voucher and how it is funded.

Also want to add that the comment in this particular article about concerns of vouchers leading to increased rent pressure is insulting in how offbase it is.

giscard78 t1_j8udqri wrote on February 17, 2023 at 12:31 AM

DCHA is at 187%. I can’t remember exactly how it got there but I think it groups SAFMRs (ZIP codes) into neighborhoods, and “does analysis” to arrive at some number. DC is probably one of the most data rich (and should be data driven) cities in America, I shudder at the thought of DCHA’s analysis.

If you don’t mind me asking, when you say compliance, is that both tenant, landlord, PHA, or all of the above compliance?

meanie_ants t1_j8vm6y9 wrote on February 17, 2023 at 7:02 AM

I don't work for a PHA but I work with them on certain project types. It's all tied together, really, so aside from regulations that apply specifically to a PHA's program, it's all kind of in the same basket because what a tenant has to do is connected/related to what a landlord has to do - they're just steps in the overall process.

I visit 24 CFR (the regulations relating to anything HUD, which includes PHAs) to reference something probably about once a week on average. Since my organization serves tenants, it's usually related to what we must do as a recipient of funding from various streams or to what a tenant must do as a participant in one of those federally funded programs. Some of our clients are tenants in project-based voucher programs.

On the SAFMR and grouping/analysis, I believe HOC in Montgomery County does something similar in doing their rent reasonableness analyses, but it might be on a more granular basis.