The report, released by the NYU Furman Center, finds that implementing Small Area FMRs across the 24 metro areas outlined in HUD’s rule would create an increase of over 9% additional units affordable to voucher holders, in the aggregate.
The report finds that small area FMRs greatly increase the number of affordable units in high-rent zip codes while considerably lowering the number of affordable units in low-rent zip codes, making a more balanced number of units affordable across all zip codes (whereas under metropolitan-wide FMRs, two thirds of units in low-rent zip codes are affordable to voucher holders and only 18% of units in high-rent zip codes are affordable).
The timely report follows a recent court ruling reinstating HUD’s January 1, 2018 implementation date for the Small Area FMR requirement.
