Rental Opportunities For Low-Income Families

The new policy will increase the pool of apartments affordable to families receivingfederal housing vouchers by 25% or more than 1.4 million units nationwide.Over the past three years, rents have risen more than one-and-a-half times faster than inflation andtwice as fast in some markets. According to HUD's State of the Cities 2000 report, "rather thanbenefiting from the surging economy, low-income renters are left to compete for a dwindling supply of affordable rental housing on the private market." Some recipients are being forcedto return their vouchers because they can't find an apartment that qualifies under HUD's current rentguidelines.