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The FSS Program Was Expanded Beyond Public Housing Authorities—Here's How It's Going — Shelterforce
By Reid Cramer -
December 8, 2023
FSS was based on a good idea—to revise rent rules for families using housing assistance so there are better incentives to work, earn, and save. Normally, rent is set at 30 percent of a family’s income, which means rent goes up when a family earns more. Under the FSS Program, participating families whose incomes rise have the amount of the rent increase diverted into an escrow savings account. Participants sign five-year contracts that identify their financial goals and they are connected to support services while enrolled. These goals can be personalized and flexible, but to graduate—and gain access to the full amount of their accumulated savings—participants need to additionally meet two specific program goals: they must obtain appropriate employment suitable to their skills and education and the entire household must be free of cash assistance, such as TANF. (Food stamps and Medicaid are exempt.) The point of the program is to transform housing assistance so that it works more like a springboard to greater financial security and economic mobility...
...Aaron Gornstein, president and CEO of POAH, was part of the push to get Congress to permanently extend the FSS Program to multifamily affordable housing providers. He saw how participants in public housing had benefited and made the case to lawmakers that this tangible asset building opportunity should be extended to all residents receiving housing assistance, including those in one of the 13,000 affordable housing units across 11 states, plus D.C., that POAH owns and operates. Their organizational model is already service-centric, so fulfilling that part of FSS is not daunting, and the ability to offer families access to additional financial resources is attractive. He also wanted the opportunity to see if the mission-driven multifamily affordable housing providers could do it better than housing authorities. POAH has committed to offering FSS to all eligible residents. Between 2016 and 2022, the organization enrolled 560 residents, who collectively saved over $1.1 million.
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