Section 8 Housing Assistance Payments ProgramFair Market Rent (FMR) Schedules for Use in the Rental Certificate Program, Loan Management and Property Disposition Programs, Moderate Rehabilitation Program and Rental Voucher Program

DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

Office of the Secretary

[Docket No. N-94-3754; FR-3699-N-02]

Section 8 Housing Assistance Payments Program--Fair Market Rent

(FMR) Schedules for Use in the Rental Certificate Program, Loan

Management and Property Disposition Programs, Moderate Rehabilitation

Program and Rental Voucher Program

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, HUD.

ACTION: Notice to extend FMR public comment period.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: This Notice advises the public that HUD is extending the

public comment period for the FMRs until October 14, 1994 in order to

give PHAs in FMR areas with small rental housing inventories the

opportunity to use the new survey guide HUD has recently developed.

HUD is also announcing in this Notice that there will be two final

FMR publications again this year. The first publication will make the

proposed FMRs for all areas effective on October 1, 1994. The second

publication, to be issued late in the year, will announce revised final

FMRs for the areas for which HUD has made a determination that the

rental housing surveys submitted provided a sufficient basis for such

revision.

DATES: Comments are due October 14, 1994.

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments to the

Office of the General Counsel, Rules Docket Clerk, room 10276,

Department of Housing and Urban Development, 451 Seventh Street SW.,

Washington, DC 20410. Communications should refer to the above docket

number and title. To expedite processing, each commenter is requested

to simultaneously submit a copy of its comments to the Economic and

Market Analysis Staff in the appropriate HUD Field Office. A copy of

each communication submitted will be available for public inspection

and copying during regular business hours (7:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Eastern

Time) at the above address.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael R. Allard, Economic and Market

Analysis Division, Office of Policy Development and Research,

Department of Housing and Urban Development, 451 Seventh Street SW.,

Washington, DC 20410; (202) 708-0577 (TDD: (202) 708-0770). (Telephone

numbers are not toll-free).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 8(c)(1) of the United States Housing

Act of 1937 requires the Secretary to publish FMRs periodically, but

not less frequently than annually, to be effective on October 1 of each

year. On June 23, 1994, HUD published the proposed Fiscal Year (FY)

1995 FMRs with a 60-day public comment period to August 22, 1994.

With this Notice, HUD is extending the public comment period until

October 14, 1994 to ensure that PHAs and other interested parties who

wish to use the new rental housing survey guide will have sufficient

time to do so.

The guide is intended for PHAs administering Section 8 programs in

small FMR areas, for whom the formal Random Digit Dialing (RDD)

methodology would not be cost effective. It enables a PHA to carry out

a rental housing survey by itself, for a fraction of the cost of a

formal RDD. The guide provides instruction on how to choose the best,

most cost-effective means of surveying the rental housing stock in the

FMR area. It describes survey options and provides specific advice and

guidelines for conducting valid surveys and submitting comments in

accordance with statistical requirements. The simplified methods

presented in this guide offer the least costly means of obtaining valid

FMR estimates for public housing agencies that manage under 500 Section

8 units in FMR areas with under 5,000 total rental units. Even the

smallest PHAs might wish to review this guide for its suggestions on

how to develop representative samples and conduct statistically

acceptable surveys.

HUD is not mandating use of the new guide for PHAs in small FMR

areas or use of the RDD method for larger areas. However, it is

strongly urged that commenters consider these approaches because they

are much more likely to result in an end product that is acceptable to

HUD.

Copies of the new survey guide are available from HUD USER, at

(800) 245-2691. Questions concerning the guide may be directed to HUD

field office economists.

Dated: July 8, 1994.

Michael A. Stegman,

Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research.

[FR Doc. 94-16977 Filed 7-12-94; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4210-32-P