NW Oregon Housing Authority Recommended Occupancy Standard Change Will Require Tweak.

NW Oregon Housing Authority staff have recently recommended changes in the occupancy standards for their Section 8 housing voucher program in order to serve more families with the same amount of money. The staff recommendation in MS Word format is HERE.

NW Oregon's staff recommendation is to assign one bedroom for each two persons regardless of age or sex, the same occupancy standard used by the Housing Authority of Portland.

However, HAP is a HUD approved Moving to Work agency and has special regulatory authority not available to other housing authorities.

As HUD has made clear in a recent notice, unless they are very young, two children of opposite sex can NOT be required to share a bedroom when determining the proper voucher size. The (MS Word) October 23 09-44 Notice says:

i. Subsidy Standards. The PHA may revise subsidy standards that exceed minimum HUD requirements to reduce bedroom size eligibility in accordance with 24 CFR 982.402. Subsidy standards must be consistent with the HQS space requirements in 24 CFR 982.401(d). PHAs are reminded that under 24 CFR 982.401(d)(2)(ii), a dwelling unit must have at least one bedroom or living sleeping area for each two persons. Children of the opposite sex, other than the very young, may not be required to occupy the same bedroom or living/sleeping room.

It appears therefore that NW Oregon HA will have to modify their staff recommended occupancy policy change to insure that children of opposite sex are not assigned a voucher size that would require them to share a bedroom.

Note: It appears that the Housing Authority Board meeting to consider this change is 10 A.M. Thursday Jan. 7th at Gable Park Apartments, 2544 Gable Road, St. Helens.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.