The Rent Reform Demonstration was a rigorous test of alternative methods of setting rents in the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program, with the goal of determining whether an alternative to the income-based rent calculation could incentivize employment and reduce administrative burden while protecting families from financial hardship. The Rent Reform Demonstration began in 2015 and enrolled approximately 6,600 HCV households across four public housing agencies (PHAs) participating in the Moving to Work (MTW) demonstration. As families were enrolled in the study, they were randomly assigned either to a group subject to the new rent policy or to a control group that continued with the existing rent policy. The new rent policy calculated rents based on families’ prior-year income rather than anticipated income, eliminated deductions from income; slightly lowered the percent of income that would be paid toward rent; introduced or increased the minimum dollar amount families were required to pay toward their rent and utilities; and, most notably, did not require families to report increases in income for three years (triennial recertifications), compared to annually under regular rent rules.

The evaluation compared the experiences of those subject to the new rent rules and existing rent rules over time. This is the final report for the evaluation and analyzes the impact of the new rent rules at three PHAs—Lexington, Louisville, and San Antonio—over 6.5 years, with an impact sample of 4,756 families. (A fourth PHA, Washington DC, opted to discontinue the new rent policy in 2019 and is thus not included in this long-term analysis.) Overall, the study did not find that the new rent rules increased employment or reduced costs to the PHA. However, the new policy did somewhat reduce administrative burdens and resulted in tenants keeping housing assistance longer. In addition, both tenants and PHA staff preferred the new policy to the existing rules.