GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The Grand Rapids Housing Commission (GRHC) hopes a recent change by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) helps local renters better deal with increasing costs.
This month, HUD increased the fair market rents (FMRs) for the Grand Rapids-Wyoming metropolitan area by nine percent.
FMRs are set each year by HUD and establish a rent ceiling for HUD-assisted housing programs, including the housing choice voucher program, also known as Section 8.
“That's pretty significant,” said Lindsey Reames, GRHC executive director. “We were also one of only five communities in the country that were considered.”
The changes came after a study conducted by GRHC last fall found the initial FMRs set by HUD for 2023, an 18 percent increase from the year before, were below actual rents in the area.
According to Reames, FMRs have not kept up with Kent County’s rapid growth over the past decade and have not fully accounted for its low housing stock, which makes it difficult for households that receive housing vouchers to compete with other renters in the marketplace.
“We were having to spend more than 100% of those fair market rents to even make our vouchers competitive and then in many cases, our voucher holders weren't able to find units,” said Reames.
Reames noted that it’s become so difficult for those households that less than a third of them actually landed in a house or apartment last year.
“Our households were having a 30% success rate, so what that means [is] if I sent 100 program participants out to look for a unit, only 30 of them went successfully find a unit within six months,” said Reames.
She says GRHC’s success rate between 2016-2018 was around 85 percent.
With the updated FMRs, Reames thinks property owners will more seriously consider voucher recipient’s applications.
They also apply to other HUD-funded programs in Kent County, including HOME Investment Partnership developments, the Emergency Solutions Grant program, and Continuum of Care fund recipients.
“Generally, what we were finding is that our fair market rents were anywhere from $100 to 350 below what the market was getting,” said Reames. “ Now, we are generally within $25, which is a concession that many landlords are willing to make knowing that our [GRHC] portion of the rent that we assist the family with is an automatic pay every month direct deposit to their account.”
