Due to limited program funding, families struggling to afford housing that manage to get off the waiting list for a Housing Choice Voucher must typically wait for years before receiving a voucher, CBPP analysis of Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) data shows. Among the 50 largest housing agencies, only two have average wait times of under a year for families that have made it off of the waiting list; the longest have average wait times of up to eight years. On average nationally, families that received vouchers had spent close to two and a half years on waitlists first, exposing many to homelessness, overcrowding, eviction, and other hardship while they wait. (See the Appendix for data on average wait times by state and among the largest agencies.)

Moreover, these figures understate the unmet need for assistance. Millions of other families eligible for rental assistance never receive it because their names never rise to the top of the waiting list or they live in communities where the housing agency has closed or doesn’t keep a waiting list. Also, because of insufficient funding, local housing agencies often prioritize specific groups for available vouchers such as veterans, working families, or people fleeing domestic violence or experiencing homelessness. Setting priorities in the face of limited funding makes sense, but it means that families that need help paying for housing but fall outside the priority groups may never get assistance. For all of these reasons, an agency’s average wait for people receiving vouchers does not reflect the average wait for someone who puts their names on a waiting list for one.

Significantly expanding the federally funded voucher program would help more people access rental assistance when they first need it instead of facing years of hardship. Significantly expanding the federally funded voucher program, which helps households with low incomes rent a modest unit of their choice in the private market, would help more people access rental assistance when they first need it instead of facing years of hardship. A top priority for policymakers in the upcoming recovery package should be to provide substantial, multi-year funding for new housing vouchers.

The state and local housing agencies that administer the voucher program use virtually all the voucher assistance funds they receive, but a shortage of resources for rental assistance leaves the vast majority of eligible households without aid...

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√ (Of the $15.7 million in new funding, about $1.6 million will be used for “program administration,” including the potential hiring of temporary workers to speed up the process, Giese said.)

www.eastvalleytribune.com

City to provide $14M in rent, utility assistance

Tom Scanlon, Tribune Managing Editor
6 - 7 minutes

With hundreds behind on rent and utilities, Mesa is moving quickly to pump out new funding assistance.

In 2020, the Mesa CARES program funneled federal money to provide 1,781 families with nearly $7 million in rent assistance. The average payment per household was $3,875. 

But the program ran out of funding in early December, leaving 2,000 on a waiting list just when COVID-19 started a holiday surge.

Similar to the vaccine shots that boost a body’s defense, the city just received $15.7 million in booster funding - and this week started getting residents caught up on essential bills.

“Checks have begun to be distributed,” Deputy City Manager Natalie Lewis said. By Thursday, three days into the program, 38 payments were made, with an average payment to landlords or utility providers of $6,000, Lewis said.

In 2020, Mesa received $132 million in federal funds to combat the economic fallout from the pandemic. Various programs provided meals, grants to struggling businesses and rent and utility relief.

“We have new funding,” Ruth Giese, Mesa’s Community Services director, told Mesa City Council at a Feb. 4, study session..

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