WCCA, Asheville Housing Authority team up for Fair Market Rent study in Transylvania County

Staff Reports
·2 min read
For rent sign
For rent sign

In an effort to increase access to affordable housing in Transylvania County, the Dogwood Health Trust has awarded a $28,593 grant to Western Carolina Community Action.

The grant will allow WCCA to team up with the Asheville Housing Authority to conduct a Fair Market Rent Study for Transylvania County, according to a news release.

The results of the study could affect the amount subsidy that is available to clients of the Housing Choice Voucher program in order to help them pay rent.

Fair Market Rents are calculated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and determine how much a Housing Choice Voucher will pay toward a property’s monthly rent, the release says.

Renters are expected to make up the difference while spending no more than 30% of their monthly income on rent and utilities. The problem comes when actual rental prices for affordable housing in the community exceed the HUD-determined FMR rates, the release says.

Sheryl Fortune, director of Housing Programs at WCCA, noted that there has been a huge difference in the Fair Market Rent numbers between Henderson, Buncombe and Transylvania counties for several years, despite the cost of living in those areas being very similar.

Fortune explained that in 2020, the gap was so severe that a renter living in a two-bedroom house in Transylvania County, just over the Henderson-Transylvania county border, would receive $573 less in assistance than a renter living in a two-bedroom house on the opposite side of the county line in Henderson County.

The real estate markets of the counties are not significantly different, according to the release.

Thanks to the grant from the Dogwood Health Trust, the 2021 AHA-WCCA Housing Study is currently underway. Local housing advocates are urging anyone who receives a survey request to respond as quickly as possible. WCCA and AHA will use the survey results to appeal the proposed 2022 HUD FMR’s in order to support their request to increase FMR rates so that more low-income seniors, veterans, disabled persons and families will be able to rent decent, safe and affordable homes.

This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: Fair Market Rent study to take place in Transylvania County