Can Section 8 ever decrease rents? Will they?

[David J.]

I have looked everywhere and cannot find the answer.

Suppose the contracted rent is $1000 and at the time it is considered fair market rent. 

Now suppose 1 year later the rental market tanks and fair market rents are $500

Can (or will) the housing authority adjust rental payments accordingly?

or does it stay locked in at $1000 as long as the tenant doesn't move out?

[Ned Carey]

@David J. Yes they absolutely can lower rents. The Baltimore City Section 8 program planed to roll out and entirely  new way of evaluating rents which would have seen lots of inner city rents go down and better areas go up. That got shelved, I suspect because enough landlords complained they realized they would be creating a serous problem for themselves. 

They are not likely to make an adjustment themselves but it could be triggered by you asking for an increase and they decide to actually lower the rent instead. 

A much more realistic concern is, will they lower rents when a new tenant is placed. This can and does happen. It has started to become somewhat common in Baltimore.  

The Baltimore program is under financial pressure because so many people want to be on section 8. There are not enough vouchers to go around.  Each section 8 office is run by the local municipality, I presume that means county by county. Different programs will likely very different in this regard.