2026-09-03 · housing
Facing Budget Shortfall, Home Forward Plans to Increase Portion of Income Most Clients Pay on Rent
Home Forward said it plans to raise the share of monthly income most of its tenants and voucher holders pay toward rent — a tenant now paying 28% of income would pay 31% — to help close an estimated $31 million budget gap, with the change taking effect no earlier than February 1, 2027. Spokesman Rylee Ahnen said about 12,356 households would be affected, including Housing Choice and project-based voucher holders, and the agency expects the increases to reduce the deficit by $6 million. Tenants will get 90 days' notice, and the increases coincide with the end of a one-year rent-increase moratorium Home Forward imposed on landlords who accept Section 8 vouchers.
In July, Home Forward said its budget shortfall was $31 million — double the figure the agency had described earlier in the year, an error interim director Michael Buonocore attributed to previous leadership.