DUBUQUE, Iowa (KCRG) - Dubuque housing officials put new programs in place to encourage landlords to accept tenants who receive housing choice vouchers.
Ryan Feller, the self-sufficiency coordinator with the city’s housing department, said, through a recent study, they found the acceptance rate in the city for the housing choice voucher program is around 31 percent, so the incentives aim at raising that percentage.
The programs include:
- Unit bonus: provides $1,000 to landlords that lease to a housing choice voucher participant
- No-loss vacancy bonus: provides up to one month’s rent to hold a vacant unit for a voucher participant to get it leased
- Damage reimbursement fund: Feller said the goal is to work with the landlord to ensure best practices and tenant education are happening right away, so that their fear of any kind of damages happening are addressed immediately The program offers up to a $2,500 reimbursement after the deposit is withheld
- Energy-saving program: aims to help landlords replace a water heater or furnace that is in an assisted unit. Feller said this would help with utility bills and to enhance the unit.
“We are going to give it six months and give it a try and see how that works for us and reevaluate in a continuous basis to make sure we are utilizing our funding in the best way possible,” she explained.
Feller added the programs are designed to target areas with low acceptance rate. She said the incentives would allow them to spread out housing choice voucher program participants, which would give participants of the program the opportunity to enjoy more of what the city has to offer.
“It is absolutely important to have a variety of neighbors throughout our community and having the opportunity of living areas that are not as concentrated as others gives access to different amenities,” she explained. “We find some of our lower census tracks are up near the shopping area when transportation is often an issue. That puts our participants in a better position to access those great shopping areas.”
Feller added they have already presented the programs to local landlords. She said landlords have told them they would feel more comfortable renting to voucher participants with these incentives and protections in place.
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April 03, 2021 at 08:08AM
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Dubuque Housing Department implements incentives to encourage housing choice voucher acceptance - KCRG
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