CRHA board votes to set minimum rent at $0 for public housing, opens 45-day comment period

The CRHA moved to set the minimum rent for its public housing program to $0 and opened a 45-day public comment period, the board decided at the meeting. The Chair called for a roll call and the motion passed by the commissioners present.

Staff told the board that under current practice tenants can be charged a minimum rent between $0 and $50 and that the housing authority may suspend or exempt families from minimum rent when a financial hardship exists. The presenter, John Sales, said a majority of families are on income-based rent but that 55 households currently pay a minimum rent, which he said amounts to about $23,100 a year.

Sales outlined the financial case for eliminating the minimum rent. He said housing turnover and evictions are costly: the authority incurs about $9,000 on average to turn a vacant unit and in some cases last year spent up to $16,000. He reported 46 unlawful detainers were filed in the past year, 44 for nonpayment of rent; 23 of those filings were fully processed and four evictions involved tenants who had been paying the minimum rent. "I think we should make the decision to go 0 as a minimum rent," Sales said, arguing the change would reduce legal and maintenance costs and let staff focus on larger arrears.

A board member asked whether lowering the minimum rent would affect other rent thresholds; Sales replied it would not, explaining that the minimum rent applies only to households designated as minimum renters and that income-based calculations (for example, 30% of adjusted income) still determine rent for other tenants. Sales added that the housing authority can and does use hardship exemptions to reduce rents to $0 for eligible households.

A motion to set the minimum rent to $0 was made and seconded; the subsequent roll call returned affirmative votes from Commissioner Moss, Commissioner Hicks, Commissioner Rosenblith, Commissioner O'Rourke and Commissioner Payne and the Chair declared the motion passed.

Sales said staff will post the proposed policy change and related materials, start a 45-day public comment period and return the item to the board as an official policy after that process. He emphasized the change will initially apply only to the public housing program; the voucher (HCV) program has larger fiscal implications that staff said are still being evaluated because roughly 154 project-based voucher units are coming online and will use significant voucher capacity. Sales said the voucher impacts will be studied and, if feasible, any extension to HCV would be presented to the board before the end of the fiscal year.

No public commenters took part during the online portion of the meeting and the Chair closed the session and adjourned.