Agenda

Return

C.2

To:	Contra Costa County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners
From:	Joseph Villarreal, Housing Authority
Date:	September 24, 2019

Contra

Costa

County

Subject:

ADOPT AND APPROVE THE HOUSING CHOICE VOUCHER PAYMENT STANDARDS EFFECTIVE OCTOBER 1, 2019

Action of Board On: 09/24/2019

APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED

OTHER

Clerks Notes:

VOTE OF SUPERVISORS

AYE:

John Gioia, Commissioner
Candace Andersen, Commissioner
Diane Burgis, Commissioner
Karen Mitchoff, Commissioner
Federal D. Glover, Commissioner

ABSENT:

Jannel George-Oden, Commissioner

Contact:

925-957-8028

I hereby certify that this is a true and correct copy of an action taken and entered on the minutes of the Board of Supervisors on the date shown.
ATTESTED: September 24, 2019
,

BY:	, Deputy

RECOMMENDATIONS

ADOPT and APPROVE the Housing Choice Voucher payment standards for the Housing Authority of the County of Contra Costa effective October 1, 2019.

BACKGROUND

Payment standards are used to calculate the housing assistance payment (HAP), or subsidy, that a housing authority (HA) will pay on behalf of families leasing units under the program. Each HA must establish a schedule of payment standard amounts by bedroom size. The range of possible payment standard amounts is based on HUD’s published fair market rent (FMR) schedule for the FMR area within which the HA has jurisdiction. HACCC’s payment standards are based on the FMRs for the Oakland-Fremont, CA Metro area which includes all of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. FMRs are based on the 40^th percentile of rents charged for standard housing in the FMR area. This is the dollar amount below which 40 percent of the standard-quality rental housing units are rented. HAs may set their payment standards amounts from 90% to 110% of the published FMRs without HUD approval. Payment standards can be set higher or lower than this basic range in response to market conditions with HUD approval.

BACKGROUND (CONT'D)

The level at which the payment standards are set directly affects the amount of subsidy a family will receive, and the amount of rent paid by program participants. If the payment standard amount is too low:

Families may need to pay more for rent than they can afford; or
Families may have a hard time finding acceptable units or units in more desirable areas; or
Housing choices will be narrowed and the HA’s efforts to affirmatively further fair housing will be undermined.

If the payment standards amounts are too high, owners may be encouraged to ask for higher than reasonable rents.

As approved by the Board on January 12, 2016, HACCC's payment standards were split into two different amounts. One payment standard was established for all cities located in East County and a second payment standard was established for the rest of the cities in HACCC's jurisdiction. This change was made in an effort to give families greater access to housing opportunities in low poverty neighborhoods throughout the County and to limit concentrations of voucher families in high poverty areas or by geography.

The proposed payment standards are shown below. They are based on the revised FMRs published by HUD on August 3, 2019 and will become effective on October 1, 2019. The results of HUD's study indicated that FMRs for all bedroom-size units have gone up between 3.71% and 5.98%.

While the rental market in Contra Costa is still very tight, our clients have generally been finding units to move into at HACCC's existing payment standard levels. Therefore, staff is proposing to leave payment standards at the same level as last year. Freezing the Payment Standards may also enable HACCC to house more families. The proposed payment standards, if adopted, will still fall within HUD's range of 90% to 110% of the FMR. The East County Payment Standards will fall between 95.47% and 99.18% of HUD's new FMRs. For the rest of the County, the Payment Standards will fall between 103.76% and 106.06% of the FMR.

The proposed payment standards and the new FMRs are as follows:

EAST COUNTY - Antioch, Bay Point, Bethel Island, Brentwood, Byron, Discovery Bay, Knightsen, Oakley

	0-BR	1-BR	2-BR	3-BR	4-BR	5-BR	6-BR	7-BR
PS	$1,435	$1,723	$2,173	$3,017	$3,552	$4,085	$4,617	$5,150
FMR	$1,488	$1,808	$2,239	$3,042	$3,720	$4,278	$4,836	$5,394
% of FMR	96.44%	95.30%	97.05%	99.18%	95.48%	95.49%	95.47%	95.48%

All Other Cities Except Pittsburg and Richmond:

	0-BR	1-BR	2-BR	3-BR	4-BR	5-BR	6-BR	7-BR
PS	$1,549	$1,876	$2,338	$3,217	$3,945	$4,537	$5,129	$5,721
FMR	$1,488	$1,808	$2,239	$3,042	$3,720	$4,278	$4,836	$5,394
% of FMR	104.10%	103.76%	104.42%	105.75%	106.05%	106.05%	106.06%	106.06%

The changes will be effective October 1, 2019. All annual certifications that have already been processed will not have to be re-calculated since the implementation date of the new payment standards will be December 1, 2019. However, all new contracts and tenancies will begin to use the new Payment Standards on or after October 1, 2019

FISCAL IMPACT

Funding for this program is provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Funding for the proposed change is provided for in the Housing Authority of the County of Contra Costa's (HACCC) current budget.

CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION