FACT
A family with one full-time minimum wage earner cannot afford fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment anywhere in the United States.
Spokane Housing Authority works with property owners throughout the area to support the rental of apartments and houses to Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Participants.
If you own or manage private-market rental housing in Spokane, we encourage you to consider renting to a family or individual with voucher assistance.
If you’d like more information, check out our Landlord Library
or contact:
SHA’s Landlord Liaison at
llinfo@spokanehousing.org or
by calling 509-328-2953, extension 2, and then select the option for “Landlords.”
A family with one full-time minimum wage earner cannot afford fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment anywhere in the United States.
The Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program is financed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to provide rent subsidies in the form of housing assistance payments (HAP) to private Landlords on behalf of low-income individuals and families.
The HCV Program offers financial assistance for rental housing to eligible low-income individuals and families. The intent of the HCV Program is to lessen the burden on the family’s budget for housing costs, allowing them greater choice in selecting a rental unit. By partnering with property owners of private market rental housing in the Spokane area, the program provides participants with the ability to locate and rent any type of housing, in any area of the county.
The HCV Program relies on a set of legally-binding agreements between three parties: the Spokane Housing Authority, the HCV Participant (tenant), and an independent owner of rental property (landlord).
The Housing Quality Standards (HQS) is the federally mandated inspection requirements designed for all types of housing throughout the nation. HQS was developed to ensure that housing assisted through the HCV program is “affordable, decent, safe and sanitary.”
Units are inspected at initial move-in; bi-annually and as needed or requested by property owner or program participant.
Click on the link below to view a checklist of basic HQS inspection items so you can ensure your unit(s) are in compliance with HQS standards and ready for inspection.
HQS_Inspection_Checklist.2020.FORM.HAP
The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD’s) rent reasonableness standard is designed to ensure that rents being paid are reasonable in relation to rents being charged for comparable unassisted units in the same market. SHA will determine whether the contract rent you are requesting is reasonable using a comparison of rents, location, size, amenities, quality, etc. The HUD regulation governing rent reasonableness is 24 CFR 982.507.
If you would like to make your rental available to an HCV participant, please contact our Landlord Liaison at llinfo@spokanehousing.org and/or go to AffordableHousing.com.
After the initial occupancy period, the owner may request a rent adjustment.
SHA is dedicated to investigating allegations of suspected fraud in our HCV program.
To report suspected fraud, you may choose any of the following:
To open an investigation, please provide as much identifying information as possible regarding the details of your allegation. The more you can provide, the better chance we have of making a determination of whether a violation has been committed. Below are some examples of the information we will need:
SHA will not be able to open an investigation without at least one verifiable item of information, such as the name of an employer or the name of an unauthorized household member. All calls are confidential and you may choose to remain anonymous.
All suspected criminal activity should be reported to the local police department.
Phone: 509-328-2953
Fax: 509-327-5246
TDD: 7-1-1
customerservice@spokanehousing.org
25 W Nora
Spokane, WA 99205
Regular hours for walk-in appointments:
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday
from 10:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M.
To confirm we’re open for walk-ins, click here during listed times above.