MANSFIELD — Mansfield Metropolitan Housing Authority Director Steve Andrews said the agency is underspending in most areas of its budget, with the exception of voucher payments.
The MMHA administers 1,911 federally-funded housing vouchers for Richland County residents. The number of vouchers the agency receives, as well as its funding amounts, are determined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Andrews updated the MMHA board on the agency’s financials during a meeting this week.
In April, the agency used slightly more than 99 percent of its allocated housing choice vouchers.
In order to be counted as “utilized,” a voucher holder must be using the voucher to rent a place to live. Those who have been approved and are looking for a place to rent are not counted towards utilization rates.
All told, the agency spent 99.3 percent of its available HUD funding for housing choice vouchers during the first four months of the year, leaving about $34,000 unspent.
From January through April, the authority had a housing choice voucher utilization rate of 98.54 percent.
“In both cases, these numbers put us at a super high rate for HUD,” Andrews said. “Most housing authorities are struggling to get above 95 percent. (We’re) clearly the high performer.”
Andrews said the authority is on track to overspend its allocated funds for mainstream vouchers, which are reserved for non-elderly individuals with disabilities.
Mainstream voucher utilization is at 100 percent with 78 vouchers in use.
Andrews said the agency may need to shift some of its mainstream voucher recipients to housing choice vouchers to balance the books towards the end of the year.
The authority can also apply for HUD’s “set aside” funding to help cover end-of-the-year overages.
“The other possibility is if HUD says ‘No, we’re not going to give you any set aside funds,’ any overspending would have to come out of our operating funds,” he said.
“That’s the concern when we are overspending, but it’s early in the year and this is the time to do it. We can adjust numbers and prepare for it as we go through the rest.
“At this point in time our leasing is up very high,” Andrews said. “We don’t need to continue landlord incentives and pay them to come on the program.”
While it appears Congress has reached a deal on the debt ceiling, Andrews told the authority’s board funding for June and July housing voucher payments is already on its way to the MMHA.
“The first thing that HUD (The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) had already determined was the June and July housing payments were already set in the queue to be paid,” Andrews said.
“In the history of the last 30 years, even when government shutdowns have happened, every landlord has always gotten paid.”
