Buncombe County advisory committee votes to recommend AHSP clarification to accept housing authority rent standards for project-based vouchers

Jonathan, a Buncombe County staff member, summarized proposed administrative revisions to the county—s Affordable Housing Service Program guidelines and told the committee the principal clarification concerns rent standards for project-based vouchers. "The language that staff have recommended is just a clarification that those rent standards established by the housing authority would be acceptable within the affordable housing service program," he said.

Jonathan explained how project-based vouchers (PBVs) work: they are tied to units rather than the tenant, and a housing authority is permitted under its regulations to set PBV rent levels up to 120 percent of the fair market rent (FMR). He told the committee that many projects rely on those increased PBV rent amounts in their revenue models, and staff therefore recommended AHSP recognize the housing authority—s established rent standards when evaluating projects.

The staff presentation also clarified how county funds must be represented in project budgets. Jonathan said the county would require proposed project budgets to reflect acquisition costs even if the county will not pay for acquisition directly. "The limitation on using county funds for acquisition cost would be to curb the potential for a project to make an acquisition and then not be able to complete that project," he said, describing the county—s intent to reduce financial exposure for speculative early-stage costs.

After brief discussion and questions from committee members about due diligence and soft costs, a committee member moved to recommend approval of the AHSP revisions to the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners; a committee member identified in the transcript as Megan seconded the motion. The committee approved the recommendation by voice vote; the transcript records the outcome as "Motion is approved," but does not include a roll-call tally or numerical vote counts.

The revisions as described (1) permit AHSP applicants to use housing authority-established PBV rent standards in AHSP underwriting and (2) restate that county funds should not be used for acquisition but must be shown in the total project budget for context. The committee referred the recommended AHSP guideline revisions to the full board for consideration.