Section 8 Renewal Guide Page Change

There has been a revision of the clarification concerning the effective date of the recent new Section 8 Renewal Policy Guide.

On May 18, 2012, HUD issued page changes to the Section 8 Renewal Policy Guide. Two of those changes have an impact on budget-based rent adjustment requests in Option Four. The first requires the use of current debt service in an Owner’s budget-based rent increase request, and the other permits a budget-based rent increase at the annual anniversary date only if the proposed rents do not exceed comparable market rents.

On June 12, 2012, the Department issued additional guidance related to the effective date of the page changes. Those effective dates have now been further clarified as noted below.

The effective date for both of the page changes described above is 150 days after May 18, 2012 (which is October 15, 2012). Any budget-based rent increase request postmarked prior to October 15, 2012 can be processed under the previous guidance. All budget-based rent increases postmarked October 15, 2012 or later must abide by the new guidance. This requirement applies to all Option Four contracts, including multi-year contracts signed prior to May 18, 2012.

The effective dates for the other changes remain the same. If you do not receive the RHIIP Listserv Updates, please go to HUD’s Mailing List to subscribe. These “free-in-your-email” short bulletins from HUD are a great way to be informed very quickly when changes occur.