Picture of HUD Subsidized Households in Oregon , 2012.

I have combined all 2012 Oregon data from newly released HUD Picture of Subsidized Households into a single Excel workbook HERE. (Data I extracted is supposed to use 2010 Census geographies, but I have not verified).

Read the code book HERE to fully understand the values in the data fields, and data limitations. 

Data available at the State, Metro, PHA, County, Place,  Census Tract AND project level. Demographic breakouts are available for vouchers, public housing, and project based households.  Unit counts only available for LIHTC assisted households.

HIGHLY, HIGHLY Recommended.

Some quick OREGON 2012 demographic highlights: 

1. Households headed by women make up 72% of all HUD subsidized households; 32% of HUD subsidized households are headed by women with children.
2. Disabled households make up 45% of all HUD subsidized households. 
3. The elderly make up 29% of all HUD subsidized households. 
4. Minorities make up 24% of all HUD subsidized households.
5. HUD estimates there were 52,000+ HUD subsidized households in Oregon in 2012, including 33,720 housing choice vouchers.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

HUD Publishes "Temporary Compliance" Notice to Simplify PHA Public Housing and Voucher Administration.

Notice is HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

A First: US (2.1M) and Oregon (32K) HUD Voucher Data for All Months, CY 2009, CY 2010, and CY 2011.

I have posted to my SkyDrive an Excel workbook that contains all HUD Voucher Management System data for all months in CY 2009, CY 2010, and CY 2011. VMS data include counts of vouchers , including some program breakouts [VASH, Home Ownership etc], along with $$. Data is aggregated to the housing authority level, so no lower geographic breakout is possible.

This is the only multiple year HUD voucher data for the US that I have seen anywhere on the web.  

The workbook contains an important READ ME tab, and pivot tables for both the US and for Oregon, along with the raw data for Oregon and the US. The READ ME tab shows a listing of all data fields. 

The US data worksheet includes both a state field AND a HUD region field that I added, allowing aggregation to those geographic levels via the pivot tables.

You should be able to download this Excel workbook from my Public Excel SkyDrive HERE (File is too big to view in your browser, so it also can't be embedded in this post). [Let me know if you run into any problems, you WILL require Excel 97 or later to edit, and, in advance, I cannot provide in an earlier Excel format because of formulas used). 

I have uploaded the same file to other webspace HERE in case the SkyDrive upload doesn't work for you.

The HUD site with VMS data and reference material is HERE. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

2nd Portland Metro Affordable Housing/Fair Housing Story Makes Oregonian Front Page Again.

Story, focused on location of housing vouchers, is HERE; link to all four stories in series, and background materials, is HERE.

Snip of front page is to the left and PDF of front page is HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Home Forward Increases Payment Standards in Some Zip Codes; Excludes High Poverty Census Tracts.

In advance of proposed changes (prior post HERE) to encourage landlords in low poverty neighborhoods to rent to voucher tenants, Home Forward has implemented other changes to expand housing choice in the HUD voucher program.  

Their announcement is HERE. 

The announcement indicates that some zip codes will receive higher 1 and 2 bedroom payment standards; however units leased in some census tracts with higher poverty rates in those zip codes will not qualify for the higher payment standards. A map of those census tracts where higher payment standard DO apply is HERE; the announcement also includes a listing of Census Tracts that do not qualify within the otherwise eligible zip codes receiving payment standard increases.

In addition 6 month leases at initial lease up, instead of 12 month leases, will now be permitted. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

State Table Showing Percentage of Areas Where HUD 2 BR FMR is LESS than LIHTC Rent.

I have prepared a table HERE that shows by state

• The number and percentage of areas where the HUD FY 2012 FMR is less than the LIHTC maximum rent for 50% MFI restricted LIHTC units.
• The number and percentage of areas where the HUD FY 2012 FMR is less than 95% of the LIHTC 50% MFI rent maximum. This "street rent" adjustment allows for comparisons in situations where market conditions prevent a LIHTC project from achieving the maximum allowable rent. 

Some observations: 

• If FMR/voucher rents are below LIHTC rents, those LIHTC units may not be available to voucher holders unless they are granted an exception rent or unless they pay 100% of the difference between the FMR and the LIHTC rent.  
• 38% of all areas have 2 BR FMR's that are below the 50% LIHTC rent limit; that percentage drops to 25% when using 95% of the LIHTC 50% rent maximum. (If 60% MFI LIHTC rents were used for comparison 84% of all areas would have LIHTC rents higher than HUD FMR's, that percentage drops to 75% if 95% of the 60% MFI LIHTC rent limit is used).
• Iowa (100%) has the highest percentage of areas where the voucher rent is below the LIHTC 50% MFI rent maximum; that percentage stays the same even when using 95% of the LIHTC 50% MFI rent.
• Minnesota (97%) is another state where there are a large number of areas where the voucher rent is below the LIHTC 50% MFI rent maximum; that 97% drops to 75% when using 95% of the LIHTC 50% MFI rent
• California and NY have FEW areas where FMR's exceed LIHTC rents, and when using 95% of the LIHTC 50% MFI rent their percentage of areas where FMR are below LIHTC rents drops to ZERO for California and 2% in New York.
• Several other rural states appear to have high percentages of areas where FMR's are below LIHTC rents.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog

5,000 in Dallas Scramble for 100 Section 8 Vouchers, Place on Wait List.

Story, with video, from Dallas TV station HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Salem and Portland Snag 100 Vouchers Each for Foster Care Focused Family Unification Program, 10%+ Of National Vouchers Awarded.

HUD PR is HERE. 

List of agencies receiving FY 10 funding is HERE.

Oregon total is 200 vouchers, $1,256,268 per year, or 10.4% of the national total of 1,931 vouchers  

Washington state PHA's also received 199 vouchers, so Oregon and Washington PHA's received 20.7% of the total vouchers awarded for this program.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Google Fusion Map of Demonstration Oregon Metro Area Zip Code Level Voucher Rents vs Actual FY 2011 2 BR FMR's.

HUD has recently opened the process for Metro PHA's  to participate in a project to demonstrate the use of small area (zip code level) Fair Market Rents. 

HUD's Federal Register Request for Participation Notice, with a June 6, 2011 deadline, is HERE. The demonstration is ONLY available to Metro PHA's and HUD does NOT plan on using small area FMR's in non metro counties. HUD has published the current zip code level rents that would be used in this demonstration in an Excel file HERE. 

To demonstrate how Google Fusion can help visualize this data, I created the embedded map below [Link to Google Fusion table used to create the map is HERE] which shows a comparison of metro zip code level 2 BR rents vs FY 2011 2 BR Fair Market rents by Oregon Zip Code. [You may need a Google account to access the Google Fusion table].

The map color code used for the demonstration zip code rent vs the FMR rent

• Up to 90% of FMR=Red
• 90% to 100% of FMR=Yellow
• 100 to 120% of FMR=Blue
• 120+ of FMR=Green

If you click on any zip code in the map you will see the FY 2011 2 Bedroom FMR by bedroom size, the Zip Code based 2 Bedroom FMR, and the ratio of the latter to the former.

In addition to helping visualize the voucher data, this Google Fusion work product provides a concrete contemporary example of how boundary maps in Google Fusion can be combined with other topical information, so long as there is a common geo field in the boundary and in the topical data files. [Did I also mention there is no cost for the software to do this?].

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Center for Budget and Policy Priorities Has State Fact Sheets on Assisted Housing and Renters; Oregon Assisted at 54,000+

Combined fact sheets for all states is HERE, including Oregon (page 38) and Washington (page 48). CBPP PR is HERE. 

I noticed that:

1. Assisted unit counts do not include Low Income Housing Tax Credit units (unless those units are assisted by other programs).
2. 59.5% of all assisted rental housing units in Oregon were housing vouchers, while 16.8% were public housing units. This means that even without taking into account other affordable units they may own that Oregon housing authorities administer at least 76% of all Oregon assisted rental housing.

Also from the Oregon Fact Sheet: 

Federal rental assistance programs enable more than 54,044 low-income households in Oregon to rent modest housing at an affordable cost. About 61 percent of these households are headed by people who are elderly or have disabilities; approximately 30 percent are families with children...133,660 low-income renter households pay more than half their monthly cash income for housing costs. On average, these households have incomes of $999 and pay housing costs of $837, leaving only $162 to pay for other necessities. About 39 percent of these cost burdened renters are elderly or people with disabilities, while 25 percent are families with children.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

HUD Publishes Voucher Marketing Opportunity Index Data: Analysis of Data at the Tract and Block Group Level.

Report is HERE, related web page HERE includes link to download data at the Census Tract and Block Group levels.

Purpose of this research: 

The proposed research will produce an index for every Census tract in the United States using multiple criteria measuring the housing, demographic, and economic conditions of each tract. The index will identify each tract’s potential opportunity for Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) holders seeking housing to locate improved housing and neighborhood conditions. The index will be designed for use by Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) to help voucher-holders identify neighborhoods (defined as Census Tracts) that have relatively low poverty rates, an available stock of at-or-below Fair Market Rent housing, economic opportunities for HCV holders, and a relatively low density of subsidized households (with HCV, public housing, or other multifamily assisted housing projects)

[Unfortunately, appears that much of data may be from 2000 Census and from old HCV data also; with new Census 2010 data coming out in next year-18 months it may be fairly simple process to update existing data?].

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Portability of HUD Vouchers, Oregon and SW Washington: Vancouver and Central Oregon Show Biggest % Gain in Locally Used Vouchers.

One of the most useful features of the HUD voucher program is the portability feature. This housing choice feature:

• Allows tenants, under specific circumstances, to take their voucher from one geographic location and use it in another, whether that be within a city or county, within a state, or in another state. 
• Allows families to pursue job opportunities and to adjust to changing family circumstances and needs, instead of being locked into a specific location specific project. 

(A January 2011 HUD Notice 2011-2 HA provides more background on tenant moves and portability)

For the first time ever, there is recent (Sept 2010) public data available at the PHA level that shows how much, and what kind of "porting" is occurring. With that data it is now possible to calculate whether a PHA is losing or gaining vouchers in local use because of net activity from port INS or port OUTS. 

As indicated at bottom of table I prepared HERE the port definitions are:

• PORT OUTS: Total number of vouchers for which the PHA is being billed by and is remitting HAP costs to another PHA under the portability option.  These vouchers are part of the PHA’s inventory 
• PORT INS: Are vouchers from another PHA and are part of the OTHER PHA's inventory                 

Some observations

1. Most Oregon PHA's are losing more vouchers in local use because more voucher tenants are porting out than those that are coming into the local area through porting in.(Only 5 of Oregon PHA's report that they are gaining more vouchers in local use from net porting activity, while 16 Oregon PHA's are losing vouchers in local use because port outs exceed ports in).
2. It is impossible to know with the data available whether porting activity is between other PHA's in Oregon or to or from out of state PHA's. 
3. Vancouver comes out as a BIG benefactor from portability. In Vancouver/Clark County, locally used vouchers increase by 19.6% because of portability. The reported data shows Vancouver PHA lost 45 ports to other PHA's but they gained 423 port ins, for a net increase of vouchers in local use of 378. (Again, with the data available, it is impossible to know whether these ports came from Oregon PHA's, Washington state PHA's, or other PHA's around the country). 
4. Within Oregon, the Central Oregon PHA had the highest net port in percentage of all Oregon PHA's at 8.7%. While the reported data shows Central Oregon lost 11 ports to other PHA's, they gained 109 port ins, for a net increase of vouchers in local use of 98.  
5. Mid Columbia PHA lost the greatest percentage of vouchers in local use in Oregon (6.8%) because they lost 37 voucher holders through port outs while they had NO reported gains from port ins. 
6. Oregon's largest PHA, Portland, had 184 port outs and 313 ports in, so they netted an increase of 129 vouchers in local use (1.7%).
7. Surprisingly, the reported data shows that Washington County PHA lost more voucher holders through port outs (102) than they gained through port ins (6). This mean that the number of Washington County vouchers in local use declined by 96 units (3.7%) because of the net porting activity. Other than possibly Columbia County (that county data is buried within multi county NW Oregon PHA data) Washington County was the ONLY county in the 6 county (Clackamas, Columbia, Multnomah, Washington, Yamhill, and Clark) Portland bi state metro area to see a reduction in local voucher use because of portability.

Caveats

• It is possible that reporting errors could be distorting porting activity, or that informal porting arrangements are not being reflected in the reported porting activity. 
• The table reflects a point in time analysis, it is possible that activity in other months might show different levels and kinds of port activity. 

If anyone has any additional insights please add a comment to this post (it's easy) or drop me a note.  

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

HAP Approves New Payment Standards for Downtown Portland.

From HAP, HERE:

Effective mid-July 2010, the new payment standards are $516 for single room occupancy, $689 for studio, and $799 for one bedroom units. HAP estimates that this increase in the payment standard will have a positive impact on more than 250 Section 8 households currently struggling with the cost of living downtown.

Portland metro area proposed FY 2011 Fair Market Rents (effective Oct 1) are $675 for a studio and $783 for 1 BR. (see prior post HERE).

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Oregon PHA's Get Another $418k in Voucher Funding.

HUD PR is HERE.

Table with $$ by PHA is pasted below:

HOUSING AUTHORITY OF PORTLAND	$93,836
HOUSING AUTHORITY OF LINCOLN COUNTY	$26,515
HOUSING AUTHORITY OF JACKSON COUNTY	$195,986
KLAMATH HOUSING AUTHORITY	$8,276
LINN-BENTON HOUSING AUTHORITY	$48,224
COOS-CURRY HOUSING AUTHORITY	$19,911
NORTHWEST OREGON HOUSING AGENCY	$17,117
CENTRAL OREGON REGIONAL HOUSING AUTHORITY	$8,417

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

HAP FY 2011 Draft Moving to Work Plan Posted; Opportunities to Hear Presentation to Board and Then Later to Comment.

The Housing Authority of Portland has posted a draft of their FY 2011 Moving to Work Plan HERE. This document lays out any planned changes in the administration and delivery of HUD funded public housing and Section 8 vouchers within Multnomah County in the coming fiscal year. I highly recommend reading this important plan.

Public Hearing Offers Opportunity to Comment
HAP has also scheduled a public hearing on the plan for Tuesday, January 19, 2010 @ 6:15 pm at the Multnomah County Building, 501 SE Hawthorne.

Work session THIS Wednesday Will Brief the HAP Board.
The MTW draft is also scheduled to be discussed at the HAP Board meeting work session on January 6th. That meeting is 4-5:30 PM at the HAP Office, in the Columbia Room on the 6th floor. (Doesn't appear that this meeting offers an opportunity for formal public comment).

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

HUD IG: HUD/PHA's Did Not (Fully) See Dead People.

IG audit is HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.