Fiscal Year 2005 Proposed Budget

DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES
SECTION 8 FUND

PROGRAM MISSION: To assist low income residents to obtain affordable, decent and safe housing through the provision of rental assistance.

Funding for the five Section 8 programs that Arlington County administers comes from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The principal programs in Section 8 are of two types: tenant based and project based. Housing Choice Vouchers represent tenant-based assistance and can be used in Arlington and anywhere within the United States. They replaced the Section 8 tenant-based Certificate program as of September 30, 2001. Housing Choice Vouchers allow a higher payment standard than the Fair Market Rents that governed the former Certificate program. The payment standards for the Housing Choice Voucher program increased, as allowed by HUD, seven times since December 2000 to allow Section 8 families that are looking for housing to compete in a tight rental market. This means that in December 2000 a two-bedroom subsidy was $863 compared to $1,340 in October 2003. This increase in benefits will assist more families to rent property in Arlington. Project-based assistance includes Moderate Rehabilitation, Substantial Rehabilitation and New Construction and can only be used at designated project sites.

Section 8 also administers the Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA) Program. Referrals for this program come from the Whitman-Walker Clinic of Northern Virginia. Section 8 staff determine initial and ongoing program eligibility for families. The rental assistance provided to these families can only be used in Arlington County. In order to qualify, the family must be very low income and either the head of household or a family member must provide a doctor's statement confirming HIV/AIDS.

In FY 2004, the Section 8 Office began administering the Milestones Program, funded by the HUD Shelter Plus Care Grant, providing rental assistance to nine homeless families.

SIGNIFICANT BUDGET CHANGES: The FY 2005 proposed budget for Section 8 is $13,973,091, a seven percent increase over FY 2004. The proposed budget reflects:

• Personnel expenditures and FTEs increase due to reallocation of an Information Systems Analyst (0.4 FTE, $25,253) from the Arlington Employment Center to reflect work done for the Section 8 Program, and adding a new Human Services Aide (1.0 FTE, $40,719) to provide administrative support necessary to maintain the 100% lease up rate and for the Milestones Program.

• Non-Personnel increases due to increases in rent, telephone charges, and vehicle charges.

• Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) increase due to 100% lease-up and projections based on new Fair Market Rents from HUD, and the new Milestones Program ($108,312).

• Revenue increases for the new five-year Milestones Program first approved as a supplemental appropriation in FY 2004 ($108,312) along with HAP ($783,492) and Administrative Fees ($47,987) reimbursed by HUD.

PERFORMANCE MEASURES:

• Overall lease up rate is the percentage of allowable units from HUD that are leased by program participants.

• The total number of households that can be assisted by all Section 8 Programs is approximately 1,580.