Wait for rental-assistance grows amid recession
by Christopher Cadelago
San Diego Union Tribune
January 24, 2011
The number of people applying for rental-assistance vouchers from San Diego County has risen steadily over the past two years, as joblessness and the housing collapse continue to batter seniors and the working poor.
About 14,000 households have applied for the county-issued vouchers since 2009, swelling the waiting list to more than 41,000. In the city of San Diego, 52,000 families have lined up for the federal vouchers known as Section 8.
The county’s program serves roughly 10,500 households, while the city assists some 14,400 families. Applicants can now expect to wait between five and 10 years before receiving the benefits, an increase of one to two years.
“The foreclosure situation and the economic environment have had a tremendous impact on our low-income communities,” said David Estrella, county director of Housing and Community Development. “It’s particularly challenging for our families to thrive when the opportunity is so limited.”
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development provides money for the vouchers and tells housing authorities the maximum amount they can issue. Section 8 recipients pay about 30 percent of their net incomes toward rent, and the voucher covers the balance.
They can live in government-owned housing or in private developments where landlords accept the benefits.
Susan Riggs Tinsky, executive director of the San Diego Housing Federation, said the volatile economy has caused more people to embrace the prospect of affordable housing.
San Diego County operates four complexes and more than 100 units of public housing. Since 2007, the waiting list has grown from 9,000 to 20,000, an increase from three to seven years.
The county has a strategy to improve waiting times, said rental assistance chief Kelly Duffek, and it revolves around technology.
A computer program that connects with new GPS devices has allowed county officials to schedule and conduct more housing inspections for rental-voucher recipients.
They’ve also shifted staff to handle additional candidates and reduced processing time by conducting in-house interviews, Duffek said. The public has until Feb. 3 to comment on the 2011-12 draft Public Housing Agency Plan.
The number of rental-assistance vouchers provided by the federal government grew steadily from the mid-1990s to 2001, when they began to trickle into agencies. Over the past 10 years, there’s been virtually no movement, San Diego Housing Commission CEO Rick Gentry said.
“At the same time, the turnover rate has slowed to almost nothing,” Gentry said. “It’s rare that a family walks away from subsidies.”
Trina Ybarra, 29, was spending $900 a month for a one-bedroom apartment that she shared with her children in Golden Hill. The single mother applied for a rental-assistance voucher and was told she’d wait a decade.
Instead, she put her name on the waiting lists of affordable-housing developments. Last year, after a two-year wait, Ybarra was among the first low-income tenants to move into a new, three-bedroom apartment for $928.
“After moving in, I got a phone call saying that Section 8 would be another four or five years,” she said.
Wakeland Housing and Development Corp., which owns the building, has 15 affordable complexes in the county. Its vice president and chief operating officer, Rebecca Louie, said her waiting lists average two to three years, with some as long as 10.
Meanwhile, the building downturn and proposed elimination of redevelopment agencies has added to concerns about keeping pace with demand. The latest regional needs assessment for very low- to moderate-income housing called for 62,771 new units from 2003 through 2009, according to the San Diego Association of Governments. In that time, the number of those units green-lighted across the county was just 11,550.
Matthew Jumper, president of San Diego Interfaith Housing Foundation, said his 77-unit project in Poway has more than 800 people on the interest list. Many, he suspected, were of the “very, very low-income category.”
The Lemon Grove nonprofit has seen a 30 percent increase in families opting to leave the region since 2008. “People just give up,” Jumper said. “And they move someplace where it’s more affordable for them.”
San Diego Union Tribune
January 24, 2011
The number of people applying for rental-assistance vouchers from San Diego County has risen steadily over the past two years, as joblessness and the housing collapse continue to batter seniors and the working poor.
About 14,000 households have applied for the county-issued vouchers since 2009, swelling the waiting list to more than 41,000. In the city of San Diego, 52,000 families have lined up for the federal vouchers known as Section 8.
The county’s program serves roughly 10,500 households, while the city assists some 14,400 families. Applicants can now expect to wait between five and 10 years before receiving the benefits, an increase of one to two years.
“The foreclosure situation and the economic environment have had a tremendous impact on our low-income communities,” said David Estrella, county director of Housing and Community Development. “It’s particularly challenging for our families to thrive when the opportunity is so limited.”
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development provides money for the vouchers and tells housing authorities the maximum amount they can issue. Section 8 recipients pay about 30 percent of their net incomes toward rent, and the voucher covers the balance.
They can live in government-owned housing or in private developments where landlords accept the benefits.
Susan Riggs Tinsky, executive director of the San Diego Housing Federation, said the volatile economy has caused more people to embrace the prospect of affordable housing.
San Diego County operates four complexes and more than 100 units of public housing. Since 2007, the waiting list has grown from 9,000 to 20,000, an increase from three to seven years.
The county has a strategy to improve waiting times, said rental assistance chief Kelly Duffek, and it revolves around technology.
A computer program that connects with new GPS devices has allowed county officials to schedule and conduct more housing inspections for rental-voucher recipients.
They’ve also shifted staff to handle additional candidates and reduced processing time by conducting in-house interviews, Duffek said. The public has until Feb. 3 to comment on the 2011-12 draft Public Housing Agency Plan.
The number of rental-assistance vouchers provided by the federal government grew steadily from the mid-1990s to 2001, when they began to trickle into agencies. Over the past 10 years, there’s been virtually no movement, San Diego Housing Commission CEO Rick Gentry said.
“At the same time, the turnover rate has slowed to almost nothing,” Gentry said. “It’s rare that a family walks away from subsidies.”
Trina Ybarra, 29, was spending $900 a month for a one-bedroom apartment that she shared with her children in Golden Hill. The single mother applied for a rental-assistance voucher and was told she’d wait a decade.
Instead, she put her name on the waiting lists of affordable-housing developments. Last year, after a two-year wait, Ybarra was among the first low-income tenants to move into a new, three-bedroom apartment for $928.
“After moving in, I got a phone call saying that Section 8 would be another four or five years,” she said.
Wakeland Housing and Development Corp., which owns the building, has 15 affordable complexes in the county. Its vice president and chief operating officer, Rebecca Louie, said her waiting lists average two to three years, with some as long as 10.
Meanwhile, the building downturn and proposed elimination of redevelopment agencies has added to concerns about keeping pace with demand. The latest regional needs assessment for very low- to moderate-income housing called for 62,771 new units from 2003 through 2009, according to the San Diego Association of Governments. In that time, the number of those units green-lighted across the county was just 11,550.
Matthew Jumper, president of San Diego Interfaith Housing Foundation, said his 77-unit project in Poway has more than 800 people on the interest list. Many, he suspected, were of the “very, very low-income category.”
The Lemon Grove nonprofit has seen a 30 percent increase in families opting to leave the region since 2008. “People just give up,” Jumper said. “And they move someplace where it’s more affordable for them.”