BHA Plans Cuts in Rent Subsidies

The Boston Housing Authority plans to cut payments to landlords on behalf of 3,500 poor households and force more than half of those tenants to chip in as much as $200 more each month. The housing authority subsidizes rent for 11,000 households in Greater Boston with US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) money. Tenants pay about 30 to 40 percent of their monthly income and the authority pays the rest, up to 110 percent of the fair market value established by HUD. But HUD sharply decreased its valuations last October -- to $1,266 for a two-bedroom, $1,513 for a three-bedroom, $1,676 for a four-bedroom. Beginning September 1, 2005, the authority will reduce the subsidy by 4 percent for units that cost more than 110 percent of HUD's standard. Of the 3,500 effected units, about 1,800 will still be above the 110 percent mark. Those tenants, who housing authority spokeswoman Lydia Agro said are in larger apartments than necessary, will have to pay an average of $40 more -- but as much as $200 more -- or search for cheaper housing.

The housing authority also does not plan to turn vacated subsidies over to new tenants -- as many as 700 by the end of the year. 

The moves are in response to a $6.1 million cut in funding from HUD, said Agro. ''We're trying to do everything that we can to not kick people off the program," Agro said. HUD spokeswoman Donna White denied that the housing authority's funding was cut, and attributed the agency's fiscal woes to over-budgeting and giving out too many subsidies. Agro flatly disputed that- ''We received $6 million less in this calendar year." US Representative Michael E. Capuano, a Somerville Democrat, said the issue is murky, but he blamed HUD for the subsidy reductions, saying that Section 8 tenants have decreased nationally. ''The number of people served and the amounts of money they are getting is significantly less than it was a couple years ago," Capuano said.

-Adapted from: “BHA plans cuts in rent subsidies”, by Adam Jadhav, The Boston Globe, June 30, 2005.