Oregon Housing is Revising Rent Increase Policy. My Suggested Improvements to the Draft.

On Friday the Oregon Housing Stability Council is being asked to weigh in on revisions to the OHCS rent increase policy adopted in April of 2018.  I have posted the relevant pages of the draft policy from the meeting packet HERE. 

The draft policy revisions are designed to "streamline processes, align with the current market, and enhance transparency". My suggestions are primarily intended to "enhance transparency".

In April of 2018 I raised a number of questions (HERE) about the then proposed policy and after reading the proposed policy my new observations and suggestions are below. 

Observation 1: The proposed policy briefing says (pg 71) that 600 requests have been reviewed under the former policy, but there is no data on what was requested and what was approved nor the times that it took to complete the reviews.  This information is vital to inform the decision making process. 

SUGGESTION 1. Retroactively (April 2018 to Nov 2019) and at least annually publish at the county level a summary of requests received, the existing and prospective increase rates requested, and the increase requests approved. 


Observation 2: The policy brief says (pg 91) that owners will be required to repay rents in excess of approved amounts but provides no information on how OHCS will discover excess rents. 

SUGGESTION 2: Clarify the procedure by which excess rents will be discovered, including the timing and the frequency of reviews intended to surface excess rents.

Observation 3: There is no way that I can see that a prospective tenant will know what the current allowable rent is except by contacting every project of interest. In the same geographic area, or even the same neighborhood, allowable rents for prospective tenants may differ significantly from the maximum rent using HUD income guidelines.

SUGGESTION 3:   Publish and regularly update the maximum allowable current rents for all projects (that are subject to the rent increase policy) on the web so that prospective tenants can effectively shop for the best choice/value for their needs. 

Observation 4: The enhanced review says that severe rent burdens will be part of the review criteria  (pg 79) and notes that OHCS already tracks severe rent burden data (pg 80). However, my recollection is that for 100% LIHTC projects tenant income data is not collected after the first anniversary and rent burden data calculated after the first anniversary may not be accurate if tenant income has increased.

SUGGESTION 4A: Clarify that the owner is permitted to obtain current income from existing tenants in preparing their request for an Elevated Review Rent Increase so as to accurately reflect severe rent burdens.

SUGGESTION 4B: Using the existing data source publish at least annually by county OHCS calculations of severe rent burdens for tenants of projects subject to the rent increase review policy. 

Observation 5:  I don't see any planned effort to solicit tenant or public input to the draft policy before possible adoption in January 2020. 

SUGGESTION 5:  Post the proposed policy for at least 14 days on the OHCS website and solicit public and tenant input as well as other stakeholders. 

 Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.