Some Fort Wayne public housing residents and Section 8 voucher holders will see their rent climb automatically every year—even if their income doesn’t go up—under a new “Stepped Rent” policy the Fort Wayne Housing Authority is launching through a federal Moving to Work demonstration program.
The policy doesn’t apply to everyone. Only non-elderly, non-disabled households are eligible, and during the enrollment period, half will be randomly assigned to the stepped rent group while the other half stay on existing rules as a control group for a six-year study.
How the rent increases work
In year one, rent is set at 30% of adjusted income or a $50 minimum. After that, rent rises each year by a specific dollar amount—calculated as 2% of HUD’s published Fair Market Rent for the area, broken down by unit size. That increase happens regardless of whether a household’s income goes up, stays flat, or drops.
The annual increase may shift slightly if HUD publishes new Fair Market Rents, since the stepped amounts are tied to those figures…