1283. Individual Rent Adjustment for Certain Government-Subsidized Tenancies
(A) Purpose. The purpose of this regulation is to allow qualifying landlords of rental
units under the Section 8 Voucher Program (which includes the Housing Choice
Vouchers, Project-based vouchers, and the Veterans Affairs Supportive Program
[“VASH”]) and the Shelter Plus Care Program to raise the rent ceiling of such units to the
maximum rent permitted by the government agency which administers each program.
Under both the Section 8 Voucher and the Shelter Plus Care programs, tenant
households select and rent units that meet program housing quality standards. Once
the administering government agency (the public housing authority or “PHA” for the
Section 8 Voucher Program and the “recipient” for the Shelter Plus Care program)
approves a tenant household’s unit and tenancy, the PHA or recipient contracts with the
owner to make rent subsidy payments on behalf of the family. Across all three
programs, the PHA or recipient may not approve a tenancy unless the rent is
reasonable. The “contract rent” is the total rent paid to the landlord which is the sum of
the tenant household’s portion and the PHA or recipient’s portion.
Subsidies in these programs are based on a local “payment standard” that
reflects the cost to rent a unit in the local housing market. If the rent is equal or less
than the payment standard, the tenant household pays 30 percent of its monthly income
for rent; the subsidy from the PHA or recipient adjusts to make up the difference to the
contract rent. Therefore, the contract rent can increase and not affect the tenant
household’s portion of rent, so long as the contract rent remains below the payment
standard.