Press Room

Oakland -- Section 8 renters are currently at risk of homelessness because of massive funding shortfalls occurring in the program, and the Berkeley Housing Authority still needs around a million dollars in extra funding to properly maintain it's public housing and section 8 housing assistance programs.

In Berkeley, tenant organizer Patrick Kehoe, a former Resident Advisory Board (RAB) member of the Berkeley Housing Authority said, "Berkeley's housing authority is short $300,000 to fully fund and staff the Section 8 housing program and we hope that the City will cover the current funding shortfall, and that a vote is scheduled in the near future for another $700,000 in needed funding to come from the housing trust fund for capital improvements of Berkeley's public housing units. It's really hard times for so many families due to state budget cuts and a poor economy, "said Kehoe," and the housing authority needs to be fully funded to remain under local control, and to keep section 8 tenants from becoming homeless. I've been trying to organize low-income families to appear at City Council meetings, to request additional funding needed to properly maintain the housing authority and it's programs."

The Section 8 voucher program assists low-income families with their rent payments, and generally tenants do not have to pay more than 30% or 40% of the rents being charged, with the rest of the rent being payed to landlords from federal subsidies, on a monthly basis.

According to housing activists, there may be hundreds of public housing agencies currently experiencing funding shortfalls during fiscal year 2009, because HUD's budget was approved later in the year than usual. And due to a bad economy, state budget cuts and job losses experienced by family members in the section 8 program, the PHAs are paying more than expected for rents and rising utilities. Additionally, families are holding onto their vouchers longer due to the bad economy, slowing down the voucher turnover in major cities, resulting in less options to reduce program costs through attrition.

In addition, some housing authorities issued more vouchers than their current budgets will support, and HUD has asked the PHAs to submit an e-mail no later than August 14th, if further funding is needed to keep them from terminating families from the section 8 housing program.

Due to funding shortfalls in the federally funded Housing Choice Voucher program (Section 8 Housing Program), during mid August, 150 low-income families in Jacksonville, Florida, had their Section 8 vouchers taken from them and their names were placed on the Jacksonville Housing Authority waiting list, with many families now facing homelessness as a result of losing their housing assistance vouchers.

In New Hampshire, Section 8 tenants were recently charged a higher percentage in rents due to funding shortfalls in the program, while 76 families in Garfield County, Colorado, have been at risk of losing their section 8 vouchers recently. Additionally 1,144 section 8 families recently have been placed at risk of homelessness in Madison, Wisconsin, due to funding shortfalls in the voucher program.

Around an additional 125 families in Utah County, Utah, are currently facing homelessness because they are scheduled to lose their section 8 vouchers by September 1st, in addition to the 285 families that also lost their vouchers in Northern Oregon this past July, but have been spared from homelessness temporarily thanks to $795,000 in federal money that was approved on August 13th, to assist the families in paying their rents.

During August, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has been advising public housing authorities (PHAs) across the nation that additional funds have been made available to address the massive funding shortfalls currently taking place in around 15% of the nations 2,400 PHAs, that administer HUD's Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program, also known as the Section 8 Housing Voucher program.

Additionally, on August 3, HUD announced that it would re-issue a Feb. 25, 2005, notice that among other things allows PHAs to have the flexibility to deal with funding shortfalls by raising rents on low-income families, and lowering the payment standards immediately to all new admissions, including tenants relocating from their existing housing sites, and remaining residents with new housing assistance payment contracts. In some cases, PHAs may once again be allowed to deny residents from moving from one location to another if the PHA does not have sufficient funds, including HUD's permission to choose from a whole host of other draconian options that are harmful to low-income families, to deal with funding shortfalls.

The Oakland Housing Authority (OHA) has recently received a $10.6 million federal stimulus grant for capital improvements of it's public housing, and theres no mention on their website if they are experiencing a funding shortfall to cover their 11,142 section 8 voucher holders. But on August 18, 2009, the OHA announced that it is proposing to develop a Local Housing Assistance Program (LHAP) plan to provide housing to low-income families that may not qualify for public housing or the section 8 program, as we currently know it.

As an MTW housing authority, the OHA is allowed to grab funds normally used for the section 8 voucher program or from it's public housing program to use for other purposes, including the creation of slush funds which may make it difficult to figure out how it's money is really being spent. Housing activists have bitterly spoken out against MTWs because they abide by fewer rules than most other housing authorities do and can charge higher rents than normal housing authorities do, to the elderly, poor and disabled low-income families in public housing and the section 8 program. A public hearing at the OHA will be conducted on September 28, that would allow locals to speak out against, or for the new proposals involving the LHAP plan.

San Francisco's housing authority provides 21,000 section 8 vouchers to low-income families, and their website does not mention if theres a funding shortfall currently, if that may be the case.

According to HUD, it has recently awarded $89 million in additional funding from its $100 million set-aside fund to some PHAs, to cover some of the existing funding shortfalls. In coming weeks another $41 million in funds will be dispersed to eligible housing authorities and agencies on the verge of terminating families from the section 8 voucher program.

The additional HUD funding came just in time to save 432 housing vouchers from being terminated by the Omaha Housing Authority, saving hundreds of families from homelessness during the current unfolding housing crisis occurring nationwide.

More than 4.7 million seniors, disabled persons and low-income families are assisted by the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program, by helping them to afford housing and avoid homelessness.