Section 8 FMR question

[John Harrison]

I have a section 8 tenant. The FMR for my neighborhood is approximately $1000 which it turns out is uniform with the other houses around my unit. I am just saying $1000 to round it out and make it simple. The housing authority subtracts approximately $200 dollars from the $1000 and its called it a utility allowance. This drops the rent to $200 less then other comparable units in the neighborhood. I complained and the Housing Authority said that the utility allowance is statutory. I think statutory mean HUD take this allowance from all the landlord's in the United States. What I don't understand is why a lot of places in the United States some section 8 landlords recieve comprable and even I am reading a bit higher rents then surrounding non section 8 rents if they take this fee from everybody. Or are they lying to me about this fee being subtracted from all section 8 landlord's, or are they suppose to set the FMR as gross $200 higher. I cant figure it out please help me if you can!

[David Krulac]

@John Harrison

In my area the HUD FM rent is established as the same for a 3 county area. Generalizing, one county has a median size city, one county is largely suburban and one county is mostly rural & small towns. Same rent allowance is all three counties. I some parts of the 3 county area the HUD rent is maybe above market rent, some areas are just right and some are lower than market.

3 bedroom HUD rent here is around $1,000, but 2 bedroom rent is less than $850. We have many properties that exceed those rent levels and not just by a small amount. Just rented a 2 bedroom that is $950 PLUS utilities, obviously not Section 8. We've rented houses for as much as $2,050, again obviously not Section 8.

I'm sure that there are neighborhoods in your town where the HUD FMRs can work, but not in every neighborhood. Their FMR is the MEDIAN rent, so 50% of the rents in the area are HIGHER than the HUD FMR. About 90% of our rentals are rented at more than the HUD FMR, obviously not to Section * tenants.

@Marcia Maynard

Here it is against regulations for the Section 8 tenant to pay more than the HUD FMR. Besides that reg, the Section 8 tenants are not allowed to pay more than 40%, I think, of their income toward rent. The idea of both of those regs is that the rent must be affordable to the tenants budget and Section 8 will not allow their tenants to get into a situation where their finances are strapped by over paying rent.