Section 8 wait list to reopen

The Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority will reopen a waiting list today for a housing voucher program targeted toward low-income families, after it was closed for five years.

City officials say the waiting list for the federal Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program, which subsidizes rent for extremely low- and very low-income families, contained so many names that they could not justifiably keep it open and have families potentially waiting months or years to receive a voucher.

“It was just unfair to keep it open,” said Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris.

Rebecca Weybright, housing manager for the city’s housing authority, said the waiting list has been exhausted after contacting families and determining whether they were eligible for the program.

Charlottesville has about 300 vouchers, all of which are taken, but Weybright said she expects about 1,500 people to sign up during the week the waiting list is open. Seventy-five percent of new admissions are being reserved for families under the extremely low-income bracket, who make less than 30 percent of the area’s median income — currently at $20,550 annually for a family of four.

“It’s mainly a question of when we lose someone from the voucher program or we get more funding,” Weybright said of voucher availability.

If an apartment is approved by the city as having reasonable rent, vouchers can be used with any participating landlord to reduce rent for an indefinite time period. The city’s housing authority has a list of 45 landlords participating in the program, where tenants would pay about 30 percent of the rent while the government picks up the rest.

But, Weybright said, “People are not living in luxury apartments because they have vouchers. We’re not going to approve an apartment that’s too expensive because that’s not good for anyone.”

Officials said that ideally, families who use the vouchers would only do so temporarily until their situations improve. Tenants who are eventually able to pay full rent costs must give up the voucher within six months.

Weybright said the likelihood of obtaining more vouchers from the federal government is slim, despite that finding affordable housing in Charlottesville remains an obstacle for some residents. According to a January 2007 State of Housing report of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission — whose service area is Charlottesville and the counties of Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa and Nelson — Albemarle County and Charlottesville had the most vouchers in the region at 435 and 330, respectively.

“It’s very challenging to find housing,” she said. “I think what people often end up doing is doubling up.”

Peter Loach, a member of the Housing Directors Council, which commissioned the 2007 report, and deputy director of operations for the Piedmont Housing Alliance, said although there are not enough vouchers for the community, there are not enough participating landlords nor affordable apartments where people can live.

“They’ll end up not being able to use the voucher,” Loach said.

Norris said housing challenges in the city and the expected rush to get on this program’s waiting list further exemplify the need for more affordable housing. The same housing report showed that by 2010, the region would need an additional 3,950 affordable rental units based on low-income renter projections. In 2000, there were 17,910 low-income renters, with a projected increase to 21,860 by 2010.

“That doesn’t mean we need to build 4,000 apartments,” Loach said. “A lot of that means there are thousands of households that are spending way more than 30 percent of their income on rent.” More rental subsidies, he said, would help alleviate that problem.

The idea of starting a local voucher program has been floated among some city officials, but given the current fiscal environment, Norris said it would be difficult to start up.

“Ultimately, we just need more supply of affordable housing,” Norris said.

Weybright said that even if the area’s affordable housing stock increases, that does not necessarily mean low-income families will be able to purchase their own homes.

“Unfortunately, a lot of people we see are not ever going to get there,” she said. “Buying a house is out of reach for a lot of folks.”

Providing vouchers, she said, is one of several methods needed to help the area’s working poor who often live day to day.

“Vouchers are really difficult to get,” Weybright said. “But we’re one piece of the solution.”