Department of Housing and Urban Development October 3, 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Section 8(c)(1) of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (USHA) requires the Secretary to publish FMRs periodically, but not less than annually, adjusted to be effective on October 1 of each year. This notice publishes the final FY 2015 FMRs for programs operating under Section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (The Act) or directed to use FMRs as calculated under Section 8 of the act. Currently the programs operating under Section 8 of the act are the Housing Choice Voucher, the Moderate Rehabilitation, and the project- based voucher programs. Additionally, based on Section 210 of Division L, Title II of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014, Public Housing Authorities administering Public Housing must use these FMRs in calculating Flat Rents for public housing. Today's notice provides final FY 2015 FMRs for all areas that reflect the estimated 40th and 50th percentile rent levels trended to April 1, 2015. The FY 2015 FMRs are based on 5-year, 2008-2012 standard quality rents collected by the American Community Survey (ACS). These 5-year rents are updated by one- year recent-mover 2012 ACS rents. HUD uses the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rent and utility indexes to further update the data from 2012 to the end of 2013. HUD continues to use ACS data in different ways according to the statistical reliability of rent estimates for areas of different population sizes and counts of rental units. The final FY 2015 FMRs in this notice have no methodology changes. HUD continues to use the Puerto Rico Community Survey (PRCS) data (the PRCS is a part of the ACS program) and the Consumer Price Index data calculated specifically for Puerto Rico, as it first did for the FY 2014 FMRs. HUD also continues to adjust the FMRs for Puerto Rico based on validated information related to utility rates, which have not shown up in the gross rent or CPI data. The trend factor, applied to all FMR areas, is the average annual change in national gross rents between 2007 and 2012. The final FY 2015 FMR areas use the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) metropolitan area definitions as updated through December 1, 2009 and include HUD modifications that were first used in the determination of FY 2006 FMR areas. The February 28, 2013 update to the OMB metropolitan area definitions are not been incorporated in the FY 2015 FMRs process due to the timing of the release and the availability of ACS data. HUD will work toward incorporating these new area definitions into the Proposed FY 2016 FMRs. The Department hopes to provide more implementation details in an anticipated publication in January 2015. The January 2015 notice will also discuss and solicit comments on several topics related to the calculation of FMRs, including the implementation of the February 28, 2013 OMB Metropolitan Area Definitions and possible measures the Department is considering that would reduce the concentration of Section 8 voucher tenants. For example, HUD is evaluating alternatives to the current 50th percentile FMR program whose purpose was to mitigate excessive geographic concentration of voucher tenants. HUD will solicit comments to determine interest in a program that is based on different measures for determining how many and which areas would receive special FMRs to encourage deconcentration, as well as on alternative FMR-based tools for promoting deconcentration such as Small Area FMRs estimated at the ZIP code level. The final FY 2015 notice updates the FMRs for Bennington, Windham, and Windsor counties in Vermont to incorporate the results of surveys received after publication of the proposed FY 2015 FMRs. These surveys result in increases for all three nonmetropolitan counties.

This Notice identifies unutilized, underutilized, excess, and surplus Federal property reviewed by HUD for suitability for use to assist the homeless.