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Due to rental prices increasing, the Lycoming Housing Authority revised their payment standards for subsidized housing to reflect the greater need of participants in the program.
"Typically, we look at payment standards once per year, but in the environment we're in right now, I thought maybe it was time to take a look at them again. HUD (Department of Housing and Urban Development) has allotted $30 billion to the Housing Choice Voucher Program, and, in a new release, the reason for that they cited was the fact that renal prices have gone up nationwide," MeriLyn Severson, executive director, told the authority's board at a recent meeting.
The amount allotted reflects a 10.5% increase nationwide over last year's funding, Severson said, and was done to "help housing authorities address that need in their communities and for their voucher holders who are having a difficult time leasing."
Payment standards are the maximum amount payable for rent and utilities that the program allows for assisting people to find a rental unit in the community.
"We took a look at our payment standards and thought maybe there is something we can do. We are also experiencing an increase in rental costs -- 30% of our landlords that are already on the program have requested increases due to the rising cost of utilities," she said.
"We have also experienced a 7% increase at the Housing Authority, which is a $207,000 increase, so we are going to have to start issuing vouchers and are issuing vouchers right now to additional families," she said. "We want to give those new families the ability, the most buying power they possibly can have under the program guidelines to find a home out in our community."
In the last quarter of 2022, nine out of 18 families were able to find an apartment within the budget that the housing authority gave them, Severson reported.
"While there are many and varied reasons why a family isn't successful in leasing, affordability under the program guidelines is a primary factor for many which we can improve with the increased standards," she said.
"The proposed standards are a 5 to 10% increase, depending on bedroom size, and we want to bump them up to 110% of the fair market rents, which is allowable under HUD's guidelines. I think that's going to help our families find a unit out in the community," she added.
Current payment standards and percentage of Fair Market Rents (FMR) are as follows: efficiency, $726, 100%; one-bedroom, $799, 100%; two-bedroom, $1016, 105%; three-bedroom, $1,308, 105%; four-bedroom, $1,339, 100%; and five-bedroom, $1,539, 100%.
Proposed payments and percentage of the FMR are as follows: efficiency, $799, 110%; one-bedroom, $879, 110%; two-bedroom, $1,065, 110%; three-bedroom, $1,371, 110%; four-bedroom, $1,473, 110 %; and $1,683, 110%.
In other business, the board approved an updated procurement policy and awarded a contract to Boggs Hi-Tech Solutions for authority-wide camera maintenance at a rate of $16,200 annually.