In a new initiative, Atlanta Housing (AH) is offering 2,000 subsidized rent vouchers to landlords to expand the city’s affordable housing supply.
Today AH will began soliciting landlords of planned and existing complexes across the city to participate in the project-based voucher program. By designating a portion of their apartments for low-income renters who rely on federal rent subsidies, they’ll receive a steady income stream, the public housing authority told Atlanta Civic Circle.
The agency will issue an online notice to property owners and developers that it’s offering public funding through the new project-based rent vouchers “to support the delivery of new affordable units within the city of Atlanta,” AH spokesperson Jeff Dickerson said in an email.
Unlike standard Section 8 Housing Choice vouchers, which AH awards directly to low-income renters to cover rent wherever landlords will accept them, the project-based vouchers are tied to specific properties. Property owners approved for the new vouchers must execute a 20-year Housing Assistance Payment contract with the housing authority to guarantee that they’re creating housing that’s long-term affordable.
One attractive feature of the project-based vouchers for landlords is the higher income ceiling for tenants. Many landlords refuse to rent to tenants who rely on government help, partly because of a perceived stigma in inviting low-income people to live alongside tenants paying market rates.
To qualify for one of the subsidized units, tenant households must earn less than 80% of the area median income (about $77,000 for a family of four). By contrast, Housing Choice—or Section 8—vouchers are typically for people making below 50% of area median income. Both programs are funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development through local housing authorities like AH.
Like Housing Choice vouchers, the project-based vouchers will cover most of the rent…
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