HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge announced on September 23 the awarding of more than 19,000 new Housing Choice Vouchers (HCV) to nearly 2,000 public housing agencies (PHAs) across the country. This award marks the most expansive allocation of rental assistance in 20 years. The new vouchers, funded through the fiscal year (FY) 2022 appropriations bill, will span nearly every community in the country, with some communities receiving their first allocations of new vouchers in decades.
In addition to announcing the new vouchers, HUD outlined steps it is taking to make it easier for households to use vouchers. Over the past 18 months, 355,000 families have received and successfully used their vouchers. Too many others, however, were unable to secure housing, partly because the value of their voucher had not kept up with skyrocketing rent increases. The 2023 Fair Market Rents (FMRs), which HUD published on September 1, will allow the voucher program to keep up with rising rental costs in the private market. FMRs will increase by an average of approximately 10% from FY2022, with significantly greater increases in metropolitan areas with even faster rent growth (Memo, 9/6). Effective October 1, the new FMR levels will make it easier for voucher holders to secure leases in most markets and benefit from the housing affordability and stability that vouchers provide.
The “American Rescue Plan” and FY2022 budget provided nearly 100,000 new HCVs, including the more than 19,000 new vouchers awarded this month. In June, HUD announced $43 million in FY2021 funding for approximately 4,000 new incremental vouchers, or Stability Vouchers, focused on people experiencing unsheltered homelessness. Additionally, HUD has awarded nearly 70,000 new Emergency Housing Vouchers (EHVs) that were provided through the American Rescue Plan. More than 33,000 households are using EHVs to rent homes, and 36,000 households with EHVs are searching for housing. According to HUD, the new HCVs will have similar flexibilities to the EHVs.
Read HUD’s press release at: https://bit.ly/3LLgMiS
Survey a list of the awards at: https://bit.ly/3BOP7ZU