Apartment Trends Magazine January 2018 | Page 44

APARTMENT ADVOCATE NATIONAL APARTMENT ASSOCIATION / NATIONAL MULTIFAMILY HOUSING COUNCIL Small Area Fair Market Rents to Take Effect Due to Injunction A Federal judge has ordered HUD to implement the Small Area HUD published a request for public comments on the previously been suspended for two years on Tuesday, January SAFMRs for the 23 jurisdictions can be found here: Fair Market Rents (SAFMRs) in jurisdictions that had 1. The injunction was issued as a result of a lawsuit by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and two voucher holders (Open Communities Alliance, et al. v. Ben S. Carson, Sr.). The judge in the case argued that HUD did not show specific reasons as to why the rule’s implementation was delayed, and thus violated the rules within the final SAFMR regulation as to why a SAFMR could be suspended in a given jurisdiction. 42 | TRENDS • JANUARY 2018 two-year suspension in mid-December; comments are due January 11. https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/fmr/smallarea/index.html#2018. As a reminder, SAFMRs are set at the zip code level, so members who operate in some zip codes will see increases in the voucher amount, while others will see decreases. NAA and NMHC have long held that a zip code does not constitute a real estate market, and HUD should explore alternative geographies. www.aamdhq.org