Cityscape: Volume 15 Number 1 | Article 21

The goal of Cityscape is to bring high-quality original research on housing and community development issues to scholars, government officials, and practitioners. Cityscape is open to all relevant disciplines, including architecture, consumer research, demography, economics, engineering, ethnography, finance, geography, law, planning, political science, public policy, regional science, sociology, statistics, and urban studies.

Cityscape is published three times a year by the Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R) of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

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Climate Change and City Hall

Volume 15 Number 1

Mark D. Shroder

Michelle P. Matuga

Policy Brief: The Small Area FMR Demonstration

Peter B. Kahn, Geoffrey B. Newton, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Fair Market Rents (FMRs) are used to define payment standards that govern the amount of assistance that Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCVP) participants receive. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) currently publishes a single FMR for each HUD metropolitan FMR area. To provide program participants with wider access to opportunity areas, the Department developed Small Area Fair Market Rents (SAFMRs). SAFMRs represent a fundamentally different way of operating the HCVP in metropolitan areas; therefore, HUD is testing SAFMRs through a demonstration program to better understand the programmatic effects.