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A Picture of Subsidized Households Meaning of Codes(11)

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A Picture of Subsidized Households Meaning of Codes(11)

Name in This Report
Computer File
Description
blank or -1 = low reporting or unknown. 0 = rounds to zero. 888 = units spread in many counties, none has over 1/3 of units. 99 = 99% or more.
Name Start Width
Program pgm 1 2 Summary level is in the FIRST column:
  1. U.S. totals
  2. Special summaries, by sub-program or by size of agency. Actual size of agency is shown at end of record.

  3. State total, also used for DC and outlying areas

  4. Housing agency total*

  5. No longer used

  6. Project record (not for Certificates+Vouchers, Moderate Rehabilitation) A 'project' is a building or group of buildings funded at about the same time.

  7. Census tract summary

    A Census tract is an area of about 1,500 homes, chosen by local communities in cooperation with the Census Bureau, as an area that is somewhat homogeneous socio-economically. Maps were published by the 1990 Census, showing tract boundaries

Programs are in the SECOND column. Numeric values are used in the data file, while letters are used in printed reports:

File Report

1 A Total for all programs

2 B Indian Housing
3 P Public Housing


Section 8:

4 C Section 8 Certificates+Vouchers
5 K Section 8 Moderate Rehabilitation
6 S Section 8 New Construction or Substantial
Rehabilitation (including 202 and 811 financing)



Federal Housing Administration (FHA):

7 T Section 236 project
8 F Other FHA projects with subsidy (including
Sec. 8 Loan Management, Rental Assistance
Program (RAP), Rent Supplement, Property
Disposition, etc)

9 L Low Income Housing Tax Credit


* Note that programs 6-9, (S, T, F, L) are not included in housing agency summaries, since they are independently managed.

Programs 2-5 (B, P, C, K) are administered by HUD's "Office of Public & Indian Housing" through local housing agencies.

Programs 6-8 (S, T, F) are administered by HUD's "Office of Housing."

Program 9 (L) is administered by the Internal Revenue Service.

Sort sequence: All records are sorted by state abbreviation (US summaries are in " U" at the beginning). Programs run by housing agencies (2-5 or B, P, C, K) are then sorted by housing agency number ("code"). The remaining, independent, projects are sorted by county and zip code, with missing county or missing zip at the end. Summary tract records are sorted by county & tract. Each user may re-sort the data as needed.

Address & City name 5 40 Name of the project, agency, state, or size class.

For summary level 6, projects: name is in the first 16 characters of this item, a brief address is in the next 16 characters and city is in the last 8 characters. When a project has more than one address, a central one was picked, as discussed below under "Latitude."

For any project in programs 2-4 (B, P, C) whose agency does not have the same code as the beginning of the project number, we put a note in the name (e.g. RQ001001 is noted as being: @RQ005). This is in positions 1-6 of the name, or at the end of the street address (columns 27-32 of this field, which are 31-36 of the record) if that part of the street address was blank.

For any project in programs 6-7 (S, T, F) the first character of the name shows the sub-program, and the name is actually in characters 2-12 of this item. The subprograms are:

S.8 No S.8 subsidy      
  6 S q   S.8 New Construction or Substantial Rehabilitation
  6 S u   S.8 New Const. or Substant. Rehab. with 202/8 financing
  6 S v   S.8 New Const. or Substant. Rehab. with 202/811 financing
  7 T c 3 S.236: "c" shows S.8 Loan Management Set-Aside (LMSA/RAPSUP)
  8 F b 2 Below Market Interest Rate (BMIR): "b" shows LMSA/RAPSUP
  8 F o   Other S.8 Loan Management Set-Aside (LMSA/RAPSUP)
  8 F p   Property Disposition projects
For summary level 7 in program 4 (C), Census tracts in Certificates+Vouchers this item shows: county and tract, in the format: "Cert+Vch:county123 1234.67tract"

For summary level 7 in program 1 (A), Census tract summaries across all programs, this item shows: population, renter households, and percent in various programs, in the format: "12345pop 2345ren 12P 12C 12H 12L". The abbreviations are as above, except H is a total of programs 6, 7 and 8 (S, T and F).

Code code 48 11 Project code or number: This always starts with a 2-letter state abbreviation (RQ for Puerto Rico, as used in most HUD project numbers).

In summary levels 1-3, this code has a very brief label, like AL for Alabama. For summary levels 4-7, the meaning varies by program:

In program 1 (A: i.e., for tract summaries that include all programs present in the tract), this code shows: state, tilde (~), HUD units as % of housing units in the tract in 1990, and number of housing units in the tract in 1990, like "AL~12% 1234 "

In programs 2-5 (B, P, C, K) this code shows: state abbreviation, then blank and agency#, then blank and project# if any, like: "AK 001 001" In program 2 or B, an M after the project# (in the 11th character) means Mutual Ownership. Portability households are coded with the agencythey are billed to (whence they moved).

In program 6 or S this code shows: state, 2-digit HUD office, and project number, like "AK01R123456"

In programs 7-8, (T, F) this code shows: state, underline, 3-digit HUD office and project number, like "AK_11144666" For this group, if state was unknown, we generated it from the HUD field office code. There may be some errors where offices cross state lines.

In program 9 or L this code shows: state, curly bracket ({), then state-defined project ID, if any, like "AK{87-123"

Units Available units 61 7 Number of units: Units under contract for federal subsidy, and available for occupancy.

This count is as of 5/98 (same as tenant data) for Public & Indian Housing, Certificates, Vouchers and Moderate Rehabilitation. In other programs it is not as recent as the tenant data: it is as of 9/30/95, except in Tax Credits it is 12/94.

If an agency overall has more Certificates+Vouchers than it reports on, we assume each tract has extra Certificates+Vouchers in the same proportion (but we assume no more than one and a half times as many in a tract as the number reported)..

The number of units was missing and had to be estimated for a few projects.

In Tax Credits, when we show 35 units we had no data (and used 35 since it is the national average); projects which truly had 35 or 36 units are shown as 36.

In Ofc. of Housing (programs 6-8 or S-F), 66 units mean we had no data (and used 66, the national average); 67 means actually 66 or 67.

In Public & Indian Housing, zero units are shown for 95 projects. It is believed most are not active project numbers.

%Occupied occ 69 2 Occupied units as % of available.

This count is available in program 3 (P: Public Housing) from a source independent of the reports that describe individual households, so we can show household reports as a percent of occupied units (next item).

Elsewhere no data are actually available, and numbers are assumed, purely for calculating reporting rates: In program 6 (S) occupancy rates are stipulated at 98%, and in programs 7-8 (T, F) at 96% (Wallace 1993, page 2-27, though his figures are based on rent revenue, and occupancy is less). In other programs we stipulate 99%, since almost all units are assumed occupied.

%Reported rep 72 2 Households for which reports were received, as % of occupied units.

We use household reports received through 5/98 or 7/98. Only the most recent report on each household is counted. We go far enough back in the files to have the same number of household reports as occupied units, in each Public & Indian project or Certificate+Voucher or Moderate Rehabilitation program, but no farther back than 30 months before 5/98. Households reported to have moved out are not counted, of course.

In Office of Housing programs we always use the most recent 30 months, and reduce weights in any projects with over-reporting. Over-reporting happens when agencies do not report move-outs, so more than one household is in the HUD file, for the same unit.

In Tax Credits no reporting is required. Some summary data are in the report, but not the data file, from Opportunities to Improve Oversight of the Low-Income Housing Program, 1997.

When households take certificates or vouchers to a new area (portability), they are reported by the local agency there, but are still billed to and in this file are counted against the original agency that issued them a certificate or voucher. The 1996 file wrongly counted them against the agency that reported them.

Some of the units available in Section 236 projects are occupied by households with incomes high enough to pay full rent, without subsidy. These households are not always reported to HUD and, if not, their characteristics are not included in this report.

%<1Yr mover 75 2 % in program less than a year.

If it is 100% or 0%, the project has reported only admissions, or no admissions, either of which is usually a data quality problem.

This item and all remaining items are expressed as a percent of occupied units, not available units.

The items were calculated from units for which household reports were received, and these are believed to be generally representative of all occupied units.

H.Hold.Siz size 78 3.1 Average size of household, with decimal point & decimal place (for example 2.5).

To find the number of people served by the agency, multiply this size by units available and % occupied.

Av.Rent rent 82 3 Average gross household rent per month.

This includes rent the household pays to the agency or landlord, and an estimate of any separately metered utilities they pay (and also ownership costs in Indian ownership programs).

Based on households with rent in the range $1-$2,498; other rents are considered errors. Virtually all zero rents are missing data, since the minimum rent (10% of income) applied to positive income (see note on missing data in income) gives positive gross rent. However if gross rent is lower than estimated utilities, rent to the agency or landlord may be zero.

This is item 14 on form HUD-50058 (highest of: 10% of gross income, 30% of adjusted income, or welfare rent), except in vouchers, where it is item 22k (total family contribution), and Indian Mutual, where it is item 17h (family cost).

Spending spend 86 3 Average Federal spending per unit per month. Not fully comparable across programs.

For Public & Indian housing, this only includes 1996 operating and modernization spending, since the construction costs have already been paid for, and opportunity cost is not available. It omits Drug Elimination Grants, which are the only other major source of current spending.

Operating subsidy to all agencies, and modernization funding to large agencies (generally over 250 units), is distributed every year by formula so we use the actual funding.

For smaller agencies modernization funding is competitive, and they do not all receive it each year, so the actual funding in any one year would not reflect average long term costs. As an approximation we found the average modernization per unit, and multiplied this average by the units in each agency to estimate the long term expected value of modernization spending. A higher fraction of Indian agencies receive modernization than of other agencies, so we did the average separately for Indian and non-Indian agencies.

At each agency, for purposes of this summary, total spending is averaged per occupied unit per month, without differentiating among projects. In fact some projects receive more or less than average each year.

For other programs, total spending is calculated for each unit (from the rent calculation form) and averaged, so averages should vary correctly in each tract and agency. In Certificates+Vouchers and Moderate Rehabilitation our estimate also includes the 8% administrative fee.

Av.Income incom 90 3.2 Average total household income. This is shown in thousands of dollars per year, with decimal point.

This is basically total income before adjustments, expected for the next 12 months, but it does exclude some types of income which HUD regulations do not count at all, such as earnings of minors, and scholarships.

Averages below $1,000 are shown as .00-.99 thousand dollars. Averages below $10,000 are shown as 1.0-9.9 thousand dollars. Higher averages are shown as 10. to 99. thousand dollars. (All software that we are familiar with can handle this floating decimal point; normally declare the maximum width: 3 and maximum decimal positions: 2.)

Based on households with income in the range $1-99000. Virtually all zero incomes are missing data, since even homeless households moving in would expect some income assistance in the year to come.

%<$5000 i5 94 2 % Below $5,000
%$20000+ i20 97 2 % $20,000 or more (you can get the category $5-19,999 by subtraction)
%Wages wage 100 2 % Majority of household's income comes from wages and/or business
%Welf welf 103 2 % Majority of household's income comes from welfare (AFDC, TANF, or General Assistance, not Supplemental Security Income)

Note that remaining households have majority of income from another source, such as pensions, Social Security, SSI, unemployment benefits or child support, or have a mixture, with no type giving a majority of income.

Welfare income may not all be identified in this file, because of changes in the welfare programs. In private projects (Office of Housing programs) the data collection form 50059 identifies "Public Assistance," and the instructions say this does not include Supplemental Security Income (SSI). In other programs, the form 50058 (6/93 version, used for most data in this report) has categories including SSI, AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children), General Assistance, and "Other nonwage." The 1997-98 versions of form 50058 have changed AFDC to the current national name TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families; many states have unique local names). "Welfare" in this report includes Public Assistance from form 50059 and AFDC, TANF, and General Assistance from form 50058.

Before the new form 50058 came into use (and it is still not in use in some agencies), some TANF income may have been placed under Other nonwage, or other categories which are not counted as welfare here, or the source of income may have been left blank. It will always be hard to measure a national program with 20-30 local names.

Data on source of income (both wages & welfare) had to be suppressed in the New York City Housing Authority (NY 005), since only 1% were reported to be on welfare, which indicated some error in processing the data on source of income.

Incm.Mix mix 106 2 Income mix as percent of average income. The larger the number, the more income mix.

This is the coefficient of variation, which is the standard deviation of income, as a percent of the average income. The standard deviation measures how far each household's income is from the average income. Incomes that are far above or below average have large effects, since the differences are squared before being averaged. A correction in the calculations results in 11% larger income mix estimates in programs 6-7 (S, T, F), and 4% larger nationally.

%ofMed med 109 2 Average of: household's income as percent of local median income, adjusted for household size.

Local median incomes are estimated regularly by HUD, because they are used in setting income limits for housing subsidies. The most common income limit is L50, 50% of local median income, adjusted for household size. There are some state and national floors and ceilings, which restrict the amount of variation from area to area. Here we compare the income of each subsidized household to the local adjusted median income (i.e. twice the L50 limit), so for example if local median income is $30,000 (and the L50 limit is $15,000), then a subsidized household with $10,000 income has 33% of local median income.

Every year, HUD estimates the median income of families in each metropolitan area and each non-metropolitan county, in order to establish income limits. That estimate is based on both subsidized and unsubsidized families. "Families," used in establishing median incomes, include only people living together who are related by blood, marriage or adoption; people living alone are not used for establishing median incomes, but of course they are eligible for subsidy, and are included in all the statistics on subsidized housing.

When we say "adjusted for household size" we mean the following: We make no adjustment in households with 4 people. We reduce the denominator (the estimate of local median income) by 10% for each person under 4 in a household (3 people: 90% of the 4-person denominator; 2 people: 80%; 1 person: 70%). We increase the denominator 8% for each person over 4 in the household (5 people: 108% of the 4-person denominator; 6 people: 116%; etc.).

The terms family and household here have specific meanings. The area median income is based on both subsidized and unsubsidized families. Families include only people living together who are related by blood, marriage or adoption; people living alone are not used for establishing median incomes. They all are included in the broader term household and all are of course eligible for subsidy, so when writing about people living in subsidized units, we use the broad term households. There is also another sense of family, as opposed to elderly households, which was once a common distinction in HUD programs. We avoid that usage, since we now have many non-elderly single people in HUD programs. When we want to indicate households where the head and spouse are under age 62, we use the term non-elderly.

%Age<25 a24 112 2 % Under age 25: age of head or spouse, whichever is older
%Age62+ a62 115 2 % Age 62+
%Age85+ a85 118 2 % Age 85+ (part of line above)
%Disab<62 d61 121 2 % With disability, as % of households below age 62 (includes households where either head or spouse has handicap or disability)
%Disab62+ d62 124 2 % With disability, as % of households age 62 or more
%Minority min 127 2 % Minority
%Black blac 130 2 % Black, not Hispanic
%Hispanic hisp 133 2 % Hispanic (of any race)
%Nat.Amer indn 136 2 % Native American
%Asin-Pac asia 139 2 % Asian or Pacific Islander
Dif PR-HA dif 142 2 Difference between project & agency in % Minority: measures extent to which subsidized minorities live in different places from subsidized whites. Scale is 0-50 for agencies (individual small projects can exceed 50). The larger the number, the more separately whites & minorities live.

For Public Housing projects, this is the difference between: % minority for the project, and overall % minority for Public Housing at the agency. Difference is shown for each project (in absolute value). Average of these differences is shown for each agency.

For Certificates+Vouchers (which do not have projects), difference is based on Census tracts with more than 10 households reported: average difference between: % minority among Certificates+Vouchers in the tract, and overall % minority among Certificates+Vouchers at the agency.

Summaries of this item exclude agencies that are under 5% or over 95% minority, and agencies with only one project or tract, since there cannot be much difference there.

%0-1 Bedroom bed0 145 2 % 0-1 Bedrooms (efficiency apartments & 1 bedroom units)

We treat units with no bedrooms reported and more than 2 people as missing data, and omit them from numerator & denominator of bedroom percents.

%3+Bedrms bed3 148 2 % 3 Bedrooms or more

Note that 2-bedroom units can be obtained by subtraction.

%2Sp+Chil sp2 151 2 % Both spouses: married couple with 1 or more children under 18
%1Sp+Chil sp1 154 2 % Spouse not present; but 1 or more children under 18 are present
%Female fem 157 2 % Female head. This is bigger than single parents, since many elderly women are female heads, but have no children present.
%Br>Peopl bedx 160 2 % Overhoused, with more bedrooms than people
%w/Utility utav 163 2 % With valid utility allowance ($1-$1,000 are considered valid) This is an estimate of the utilities the household needs to pay to the utility company. It is zero if all utilities are included in rent
Av.Utility atav 166 3 Average utility allowance, among households with it, in $ per month
Mos.Stay stay 170 2 Average months since moved in. Excludes programs 4-5(C,K), since move in dates before 1993 are not known
Mos.Wait wait 173 2 Average months on waiting list, among admissions. Excludes programs 6-9 (S, T, F, L), which do not report waiting list dates
Mos.Rept rept 176 2 Average number of months since manager reported on household.

Households are reported annually, on a flow basis, so for good recent data the average should be about 6 months. Larger averages mean recent data have not been received, or have not been accepted, because of errors.

Latitude lat 179 6.3 Average latitude. Data file includes decimal point and 3 decimal places

For all summaries except projects this is an arithmetic mean, weighted by number of subsidized units. (If there is only one certificate or voucher in a tract, we round latitude and longitude to 2 decimal places instead of 3, to preserve confidentiality.)

For projects with only one address, we give its latitude and longitude. For projects with more than one address, we pick the address that is closest to the median latitude and median longitude of the whole project, and use this address' latitude, longitude, zip code, county, tract, etc. (see Subsidized Housing Projects' Geographic Codes, 1996)

Longitude long 186 8.3 Average longitude. Data file includes decimal point and 3 decimal places.

Negative means West longitude, which covers most of the United States. Zero is on a line through Ghana, Spain & Britain; negative numbers go to -180 in the Aleutians; positive numbers go to +180, also in the Aleutians.

Distances in miles between points a and b can be calculated (where f=.0174532925 and converts from degrees to radians):

IF abs(longa-longb) < .001 THEN
distance = abs(lata-latb) * 69.055
ELSE
distance = 3956.56 * arcos{ [sin(lata*f) * sin(latb*f)]
+ [cos(lata*f) * cos(latb*f) * cos(abs(longa-longb)*f)] }
END IF
Zip zip 195 5 Zip code, assigned by the postal service, unique within United States. 88888 means no Zip code has 1/3 of units
County tract 202 12.2 Numeric codes for state, county & census tract

State in first 2 positions: 2-digit code, from 01 for Alabama to 78 for Virgin Islands. Consistent with the 2-letter abbreviation in the earlier item, "Code" except for portability, where "Code" shows the state that issued the Certificates+Vouchers, and this field shows the state where they are used. These 2 columns are only in the data file, not in the printed report.

County in next 3 positions: 3-digit code, unique within state. 888 means no county has 1/3 of units

Census tract in last 7 positions: 7-digit code, for the tract surrounding the project, code unique within county, including decimal point and 2 decimal places. 8888.00 means no tract has 1/3 of units. These 7 columns are only in the data file, not in the printed report.

These are FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards) codes, consistent with the 1990 Census codes & maps. For example 060710022.01 is in California (06), in San Bernardino County (071), tract 22.01.

T%Poverty tpov 216 2 Tract % Poor: Poor as % of population, in Census tract that surrounds project, data as of 1990

This, like other items, is averaged for all projects, weighted by number of units in each project

T%Minrty tmin 219 2 Tract % Minority: Minorities as % of population, in Census tract that surrounds project, data as of 1990
T%OwnSFD tow1 222 2 Tract Single Family Owners: Households that are owner-occupants of single family detached homes, as % of households in Census tract that surrounds project, data as of 1990. This counts owner-occupants in buildings with 1 unit, not townhouses, condominiums, or mobile homes
MSA msa 225 4 Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA or PMSA). Code is unique within the United States.

0 means not in any metropolitan area (blank or -1 means status unknown)

8888 means no metro area has 1/3 of units.

MSA and PMSA (Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area) codes form one consistent series; the distinction is minor: PMSAs are pieces of even larger "Consolidated" areas (CMSAs), while MSAs are free-standing.

These are statistical areas established by the Office of Management and Budget. HUD has subdivided some for setting Fair Market Rents and Income Limits, and HUD's areas are not reflected here

Place place 230 4 Census Bureau Code for the city, town, or Census-defined place (such as a well-known locality that is not legally incorporated). Unique within state. 8888 means that no code has 1/3 of units. These codes are not the same as FIPS place codes or minor civil division (MCD) codes, each of which has 5 digits, nor the same as Census MCD codes (3 digits). All codes are compared at http://www.census.gov/population/www/estimates/mcdplace.html
Cong.Dist cd 237 2 Congressional District, for the Congress elected in 1994. 88 means no district has 1/3 of units. Unique within state.
HA.Size cl 238 1 Size class of housing agency, total units in all programs

0 not in any agency
1 1-99 units in agency
2 100-299 units in agency
3 300-499 units in agency
4 500-999 units in agency
5 1,000-2,999 units in agency
6 3,000-4,999 units in agency
7 5,000-9,999 units in agency
8 10,000-29,999 units in agency
9 30,000 or more units in agency

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