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The federal Housing Choice Voucher<\/a> (HCV) program is a powerful tool to help low-income families find apartments they can afford, but the program isn\u2019t reaching its potential because far too few landlords participate in it.<\/p>\n Landlords who refuse to participate cite several reasons, including what they regard as undue regulatory burdens and concerns about tenant \u201cquality.\u201d<\/p>\n Fortunately, lawmakers of both parties are proposing legislation that would relieve pain points for landlords while providing new incentives for them to participate. The challenge at hand is ripe for bipartisan action.<\/p>\n The HCV program currently provides rental assistance to 2.3 million households. Due to federal funding limitations; however, only one in four eligible households receives a voucher and the waiting lists to get one are often very long<\/a>. Even with a voucher, a low-income family can find it extremely hard to locate an affordable apartment because so few landlords participate in the program.<\/p>\n In fact, a 2018 Urban Institute study<\/a> found more than 70% of landlords in Fort Worth and Los Angeles did not accept vouchers. Even more strikingly, over 80% of landlords in low-poverty areas in Fort Worth, Los Angeles and Philadelphia did not accept them. The latter figure is particularly disturbing because vouchers are supposed to enable low-income families to move to low-poverty, higher-opportunity neighborhoods.<\/p>\n Why don\u2019t landlords participate? The Department of Housing and Urban Development<\/strong> (HUD) surveyed<\/a> them and heard complaints about:<\/p>\n To its credit, HUD recently took steps to entice more landlords to rent to voucher holders. For instance, the Department raised its estimates of Fair Market Rents<\/a>, which increases the maximum value of a voucher in a geographic area and, thus, the revenue that landlords receive from voucher holders after renting to them.<\/p>\n Also, HUD has expanded Small Area Fair Market Rents<\/a>, which sets voucher amounts at a neighborhood level rather than a metropolitan area level. That increases the value of vouchers in high-rent relative to low-rent neighborhoods, enabling voucher holders to live in more expensive, higher-opportunity neighborhoods if they choose to.<\/p>\n Congress has helped, as well. In 2016, lawmakers directed<\/a> HUD to add 100 PHAs to its Moving to Work (MTW) Demonstration program \u2013 which enables<\/a> PHAs to design and test innovative strategies to help residents with housing and other needs, and which exempts PHAs from many public housing and voucher rules. Currently, according to HUD, 126 PHAs participate in the MTW program.<\/p>\nSome landlords don’t accept vouchers<\/h2>\n
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HUD enticing landlords<\/h2>\n