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Administrative Plan 4/1/2016 Page 16-4 <br />adjustments if it determines that rent burdens for assisted families in SAHA’s jurisdiction are <br />unacceptably high 24 CFR 982.503(g)]. <br />SAHA Policy <br />SAHA will review the appropriateness of the payment standards on an annual basis when <br />the new FMR is published. In addition to ensuring the payment standards are always <br />within the “basic range” SAHA will consider the following factors when determining <br />whether an adjustment should be made to the payment standard schedule: <br />Funding Availability: SAHA will review the budget to determine the impact <br />projected subsidy adjustments will have on funding available for the program and <br />the number of families served. SAHA will compare the number of families who <br />could be served under revised payment standard amounts with the number <br />assisted under current payment standard amounts. <br />Rent Burden of Participating Families: Rent burden will be determined by <br />identifying the percentage of families, for each unit size, that are paying more <br />than 30 percent of their monthly adjusted income as the family share. When 40 <br />percent or more of families, for any given unit size, are paying more than 30 <br />percent of adjusted monthly income as the family share, SAHA will consider <br />increasing the payment standard. In evaluating rent burdens, SAHA will not <br />include families renting a larger unit than their family unit size. <br />Quality of Units Selected: SAHA will review the quality of units selected by <br />participant families when making the determination of the percent of income <br />families are paying for housing, to ensure that payment standard increases are <br />only made when needed to reach the mid-range of the market. <br />Changes in Rent to Owner: SAHA may review a sample of the units to <br />determine how often owners are increasing or decreasing rents and the average <br />percent of increases/decreases by bedroom size. <br />Unit Availability: SAHA may review the availability of units for each unit size, <br />particularly in areas with low concentrations of poor and minority families. <br />Lease-up Time and Success Rate: SAHA will consider the percentage of <br />families that are unable to locate suitable housing before the voucher expires and <br />whether families are leaving the jurisdiction to find affordable housing. <br />Changes to payment standard amounts will be effective on December 1st of every year <br />unless, based on proposed FMRs, it appears that one or more of SAHA’s current payment <br />standard amounts will be outside the basic range when the final FMRs are published. In <br />that case, SAHA’s payment standards will be effective on October 1st instead of <br />December 1st. <br />Exception Payment Standards [982.503(c)] <br />SAHA must request HUD approval to establish payment standards that are higher than the basic <br />range. At HUD’s sole discretion, HUD may approve a payment standard amount that is higher <br />than the basic range for a designated part of the FMR area. HUD may approve an exception <br />payment standard amount (in accordance with program requirements) for all units, or for all units <br />of a given size, leased by program families in the exception area. Any SAHA with jurisdiction in <br />3-348