This post was originally published by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The Rent Reform Demonstration was a rigorous test of alternative methods of setting rents in the
Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program, with the goal of determining whether an alternative to
the income-based rent calculation could incentivize employment and reduce administrative burden
while protecting families from financial hardship. The Rent Reform Demonstration began in 2015
and enrolled approximately 6,600 HCV households across four public housing agencies (PHAs)
participating in the Moving to Work (MTW) demonstration. As families were enrolled in the study,
they were randomly assigned either to a group subject to the new rent policy or to a control group
that continued with the existing rent policy. The new rent policy calculated rents based on families’
prior-year income rather than anticipated income, eliminated deductions from income; slightly
lowered the percent of income that would be paid toward rent; introduced or increased the minimum
dollar amount families were required to pay toward their rent and utilities; and, most notably, did
not require families to report increases in income for three years (triennial recertifications),
compared to annually under regular rent rules.

The evaluation compared the experiences of those subject to the new rent rules and existing rent
rules over time. This is the final report for the evaluation and analyzes the impact of the new rent
rules at three PHAs—Lexington, Louisville, and San Antonio—over 6.5 years, with an impact
sample of 4,756 families. (A fourth PHA, Washington DC, opted to discontinue the new rent policy
in 2019 and is thus not included in this long-term analysis.) Overall, the study did not find that the
new rent rules increased employment or reduced costs to the PHA. However, the new policy did
somewhat reduce administrative burdens and resulted in tenants keeping housing assistance longer.
In addition, both tenants and PHA staff preferred the new policy to the existing rules.

Please visit the Rent Reform Demonstration page to see the other reports in the evaluation and related publications.