In The News - 4/29/2024
The Spokesman-Review
County housing voucher window to open
Section 8 rental assistance program helps subsidize rent for low-income applicants who qualify
For the first time in about eight years, the Spokane Housing Authority will begin accepting applications for vouchers that could mean the difference between a family living on the streets or entering a new home.
Housing choice vouchers will be available for the first time since 2016. That year, the agency accepted applications in a threeday window during which it received around 5,000 applicants.
But this time, the organization will open the application window for a week.
Housing Authority Executive Director Pam Parr expects to receive about 10,000 applications.
“There’s insufficient funding to help all of the people who would qualify to get rental assistance,” Parr said.
Though the number is striking, it does not mean a large number of vouchers will be issued. It merely extends the current waitlist that currently sits at about 50 people who still haven’t received vouchers after applying in 2016.
What the figure does represent, sources say, is the severity of Spokane County’s housing issue.
Because of a pre-application screening process, Parr said applicants often qualify. And comparatively, other housing authorities are more strict, Parr said.
As long as applicants fit in the income bracket, are not a registered sex offender and haven’t been convicted of the production of methamphetamine, then applicants probably qualify for a Spokane County Section 8 voucher.
Based on U.S. Census data that shows the number of low-income residents in Spokane County, Parr said the program does not reach enough of the individuals who need them.
“If your income is at or below 50% of the area median income, you qualify. But we get a set amount of vouchers and dollars each year,” she said. “We only have vouchers for 25% of the people who qualify.”
When a tenant receives a voucher and moves into their new home, more often than not, they use the voucher continually, according to Parr.
“Sixty percent of the households that are on a voucher are elderly or disabled households – so they have a fixed source of income,” she said. “Most of the people we serve will remain on a voucher indefinitely.”
Those who wish to receive a voucher often are trying to escape troubling accommodations, she said.
“I think many of them are homeless, or they’re living in an overcrowded situation,” she said. “Or they’re paying way too much of their income for rent and utilities, and they have to make really tough choices about what they are going to pay this month and what they’re going to go without.”