The Housing Authority’s voucher payment standards are based on HUD’s annually published Small Area Fair Market Rent (SAFMR) for the Ventura County area.
Effective 01/01/2025 Payment Standards
SECTION 8 PAYMENT STANDARDS
The AHA has been mandated by HUD to implement Small Area Fair Market Rents (SAFMRs) by January 1, 2025. SAFMRs are HUD established Fair Market Rents calculated at the ZIP code level rather than for the whole County of Ventura and are used to establish the payment standards for the HCV Program. HUD indicates that SAFMRs more accurately reflect the local market and are intended to provide families with more access to high-opportunity areas.
Under SAFMRs, some zip code areas are higher than the current payment standard. In other areas it is less than the current payment standard. The AHA has employed every effort to keep any decreased SAFMR payment standards as close to the current payment standard as HUD will allow.
In the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program, payment standards are used in the calculation of Housing Assistance Payments (HAPs) that the AHA pays to the owner on behalf of the family leasing the unit.
Payment standards are the maximum monthly assistance that the AHA will pay on behalf of the family and are based on the lower of the family’s voucher size or the size of the unit leased by the family. Additional factors that influence the HAP to the owner include the family’s size and income, utilities the family is responsible for, and the cost of comparable units in the area.
SAFMRs mean payment standards will now be set for each ZIP code as opposed to one payment standard across the entire jurisdiction of the AHA. As a result, the payment standard for units rented through the HCV Program will depend on the ZIP code in which the rental unit is located. Accordingly, the payment standard for each unit may increase, stay the same, or decrease.
If the SAFMR payment standard for your ZIP code is decreasing, please be aware that the AHA has adopted a “hold harmless” policy concerning a decrease in payment standards. This means that as long as the family continues to reside in the currently assisted unit under the current HAP contract, the AHA will use the payment standard that was in effect, prior to the decrease, when determining your family’s assistance.
The new payment standards will take effect at the next reexamination (annual or interim) of the resident’s income occurring on or after January 1, 2025. All the same program requirements about rent increases, notice periods for rent changes, rent reasonableness, etc. continue to apply.
If you enter into a new lease for a unit under the HCV program on or after January 1, 2025, the new SAFMR payment standard for the zip code of that unit will apply.