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RESOLUTION URGING OWNERS PARTICIPATING IN THE SECTION 8 HOUSING CHOICE VOUCHER PROGRAM TO NEGOTIATE REDUCTION IN RENTS WITH SECTION 8 PARTICIPANTS TO RELIEVE TENANT RENT BURDEN; AND DIRECTING THE MAYOR OR THE MAYOR�S DESIGNEE TO DISTRIBUTE THIS RESOLUTION TO ALL OWNERS AND PARTICIPANTS IN THE SECTION 8 HOUSING CHOICE VOUCHER PROGRAM

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WHEREAS, Miami-Dade County (�County�) is one of the public housing authorities (�PHA�) in this jurisdiction and the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners (�Board�) serves as the PHA�s board of commissioners; and
WHEREAS, the County has entered into a Section 8 Consolidated Annual Contribution Contract (�ACC�) with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (�HUD�) to administer the County�s Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program (�Section 8 Program�); and
WHEREAS, the County, as a PHA, has the primary responsibility for administering the Section 8 Program subject to the laws, rules and regulations implemented by HUD and the ACC; and
WHEREAS, the purpose of the Section 8 Program is to provide subsidized rental housing assistance to eligible low-income families, the elderly and disabled (�Section 8 Participants�), who rent dwelling units from private owners (�Section 8 Owners�); and

WHEREAS, the County is required to enter into a housing assistance payment contract (hereinafter the �HAP�) with each Section 8 Owner before any rental payments are issued by the County to the Section 8 Owner; and
WHEREAS, prior to entering into each HAP, the County must ensure that (1) the Section 8 Owner�s dwelling unit meets and passes HUD�s housing quality standards; (2) a rent determination is made by the County; and (3) a lease is executed between the Section 8 Participant and the Section 8 Owner detailing the tenant portion of the contract rent; and
WHEREAS, the County�s rent determinations are based on the fair market rents (�FMR�) published by HUD for each market area in the United States as well as by the payment standard schedule adopted by the County; and
WHEREAS, the County�s payment standard amounts are based on unit size, which must be at a level between 90 percent 110 percent of HUD�s published FMR, unless approved by HUD to be below 90 percent or higher than 110 percent; and
WHEREAS, in recent years the County�s payment standard schedule ranged from 97 to 110 percent of HUD�s published FMR; and
WHEREAS, based on proposed federal budgets for fiscal year 2012, the County currently faces a potential reduction in funding to the Section 8 Program up to $12 million; and
WHEREAS, beginning November 2011, the County, through its housing department, Miami-Dade Public Housing and Community Development (�PHCD�) lowered the voucher payment standard to 90 percent of the FMRs published by HUD effective October 1, 2011; and
WHEREAS, this reduction to the payment standard will allow PHCD to serve the same number of residents rather than terminate assistance to as many as 2,000 Section 8 Participants; and
WHEREAS, although the County will be able to serve the same amount of Section 8 Participants, the reduction in the payment standard will have a significant impact upon Section 8 Participants� ability to pay their portion of the contract rent; and
WHEREAS, this increased rent burden may force many Section 8 Participants, who cannot afford the higher rental payment, to move and search for another dwelling unit with a lower rent; and
WHEREAS, the burden of this reduction in the payment standard is a condition outside the control of the Section 8 Participants; and
WHEREAS, Section 8 Owners have benefitted in previous years with a payment standard that exceeded the FMRs by as much as 10 percent,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA, that:
Section 1. The matters contained in the foregoing recitals are incorporated in this resolution by reference.
Section 2. The Board urges each Section 8 Owner to negotiate with their Section 8 Participant to lower the rents of their subsidized dwelling unit(s) to ensure that the tenant portion of the contract rent remains affordable for the Section 8 Participant.
Section 3. The Board directs the Mayor or the Mayor�s designee to distribute copies of this resolution to Section 8 Participants and Section 8 Owners and to post said resolution on the PHCD�s website.