Davenport Housing Commission keeps voucher payment standard at 110% as market tightens; plans wait-list reopening and software upgrade

At its Oct. 20 meeting, the Davenport Housing Commission heard staff recommend maintaining the programs payment standard at 110% of HUD fair market rents amid rising rents and landlord requests for higher rents.

Malia, a housing staff member, said the commission had discussed lowering the payment standard to 105% or 100% but that recent rent increases and landlord demands have made that impractical. "So that's just my recommendation, and that's why I did not move forward with providing additional information because in the last couple of weeks we've had people, that have been looking for housing that are currently on the program say, I can't find housing at the fair market rate that we're at right now," Malia said. She added that the authority cannot approve payment standards above 110% without HUD approval and that HUD guidance has been delayed by a federal furlough.

The recommendation to keep the 110% standard means staff expects to pull fewer households from the wait list under current funding, but Malia said the agency will continue issuing vouchers from the list. "We don't want people to be rent burdened," she said.

Commissioners who spoke supported maintaining the status quo. One commissioner said, "It's great. That's where I wanted it to stay in the first place." Another commissioner described the local rental market as "getting really dire" and said the office was receiving fewer landlord inquiries about participating in the voucher program.

Staff also reported on a recent purge of the wait list and plans to reopen it in the spring. Malia said the agency purged a wait list of 352 households and sent update notices; only 48 households had responded as of the Oct. 20 meeting. She said respondents who did not reply by 5:00 p.m. Oct. 31 will be marked inactive and that HUD advises a wait list of no fewer than 250 names. "With it only being 48, that's extremely low. We cannot maintain a wait list that low," she said. Malia said staff hopes to open the list annually or every other year and is considering adding a homeless preference in the administrative plan, a change she said was raised earlier by Ashley Beliz from Humility.

On staffing and operations, staff announced the hire of a new administrative assistant, Leslie Hernandez, who began six days before the meeting. Malia said Hernandez "is bilingual and comes with a lot of experience of working with low income families, children and households." Hernandez previously worked as a registrar at West High School in the Davenport School District.

Staff presented a potential technology change to modernize case management. Malia said current software (PHA Pro through MRI) is outdated and lacks mobile features and that the department is exploring alternatives such as Yardi and Neighborly. She said the lowest-cost proposal under consideration starts at about $52,000, while the current budget includes $30,000. "In lieu of not having the ability to hire someone else, I think it will help staff maintain the caseloads that they have," she said, noting current housing coordinators have caseloads above 300 and the inspector has about 50 cases.

Malia said she plans to propose additional funding for software during upcoming budget discussions for fiscal year 2027 and that staff will continue to evaluate implementation costs and features.

The commission did not take a formal roll-call vote on changing the payment standard at the meeting; staff advised that no change requires no formal action. Several routine agenda items were approved by voice vote earlier in the meeting (see "Votes at a glance"), and the meeting was adjourned.

What happens next: staff will continue to accept wait-list update forms through Oct. 31, prepare a recommendation and administrative-plan language if they decide to add a homeless preference, and bring a software funding proposal to the upcoming budget process.