Single Room Occupancy Program Materials

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The Single Room Occupancy (SRO) program is authorized by Section 441 of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. Under the program, HUD enters into Annual Contributions Contracts with public housing agencies (PHAs) in connection with the moderate rehabilitation of residential properties that, when rehabilitation is completed, will contain multiple single room dwelling units. The PHAs make Section 8 rental assistance payments to participating owners (i.e., landlords) on behalf of homeless individuals who rent the rehabilitated dwellings. The rental assistance payments cover the difference between a portion of the tenant's income (normally 30%) and the unit's rent, which must be within the fair market rent (FMR) established by HUD.

Rental assistance for SRO units is provided for a period of 10 years. Owners are compensated for the cost of some of the rehabilitation (as well as the other costs of owning and maintaining the property) through the rental assistance payments. To be eligible for assistance, a unit must receive a minimum of $3,000 of rehabilitation, including its prorated share of work to be accomplished on common areas or systems, to meet housing quality standards (HQS).

Assistance provided under the SRO program is designed to bring more standard SRO units into the local housing supply and to use those units to assist homeless persons. The SRO units might be in a rundown hotel, a Y, an old school, or even in a large abandoned home.

	SRO Terms
	Forms of Assistance
	Term of the Assistance
	Eligible Participants
	Eligible Structures
	Rehab Costs
	Housing Quality Standards
	Resident Occupancy Requirements
	Determining the SRO Rental Payment
	Application Process
	SRO Project Development
	Annual and Special Adjustments