HUD Requests Information on Structuring Direct Rental Assistance Pilot

By: Tushar Gurjal, Senior Policy Manager

On June 23, HUD published a request for information in the Federal Register titled “Request for Information; Direct Rental Assistance.” This notice describes HUD’s interest in direct rental assistance and discusses prior programs to test subsidies directly to tenants. The notice also discusses some of the broad points in how it is thinking about direct rental subsidies and notes several research questions it is interested in exploring. Finally, the notice ends with specific questions for commenters. Comments are due August 30, 2024.

The Department believes that any direct rental assistance program should operate in certain ways. These include the following (the points below are reproduced exactly from the notice):

• “The subsidy should be provided to the renter, and the renter would be required to use the subsidy for housing. The rental subsidy should not exceed the recipient’s total gross rent.
• The subsidy should be provided to low-income households eligible for the HCV program, and the amount of the subsidy should be roughly equivalent to the HCV subsidy.
• Any test of direct rental assistance should be administered in partnership with PHAs to ensure that the program draws HCV-eligible households from the PHA waitlists, but the PHAs would have no direct contractual relationships with landlords renting to direct rental assistance recipients.
• A housing quality requirement of some type should ensure that direct rental assistance recipients occupy decent, safe, and sanitary housing.”

Questions that the Department is interested in researching are the following (the points below are reproduced exactly from the notice):

• “How likely are households offered direct rental assistance to complete all necessary steps to receive the assistance? What is the length of time from an offer of assistance to receipt of assistance?
• What types of burdens—for tenants, landlords, and PHAs—are associated with the administration of direct rental assistance?
• How willing are landlords to rent to tenants receiving direct rental assistance?
• Do renters have access to a broad range of units and neighborhoods using direct rental assistance?
• What is the quality of housing when tenants are using direct rental assistance?
• Do tenants make timely rent payments using direct rental assistance?”

Finally, the Department asks for additional input on certain questions (the points below are reproduced exactly from the notice):

1. “What policies or procedures should be in place to ensure that direct rental assistance payments are used by recipients for rental housing costs?
2. What steps should be taken to ensure that direct rental assistance is not treated as income for the purposes of taxes and other public benefit programs?
3. How would the behaviors or engagement of housing providers, tenants or other stakeholders be expected to respond to direct rental assistance?
4. How should direct rental assistance subsidies be calculated?
5. How could a direct rental assistance program ensure that recipients have decent, safe, and sanitary housing, without creating a burden on landlords that might deter them from accepting tenants with the direct rental assistance subsidy?
6. What aspects of existing rental assistance programs, beyond those noted above, should be preserved in a direct rental assistance pilot or demonstration?”

The full notice can be read here.