About 16,600 individuals misplaced their place on the Houston Housing Authority’s (HHA) Housing Selection Voucher waitlist after failing to replace their info in Might and June, leaving lower than 2,000 candidates in line for a federal profit that pays a good portion of lease for very low-income households.
This system requires residents to allocate 30% to 40% of their revenue in direction of lease, whereas HHA covers the distinction. The years-long waitlist for the sought-after program final opened in 2016, when about 30,000 candidates joined the road.
Out of 18,246 individuals who remained on the waitlist earlier this yr, just one,599 responded to the “save my spot” initiative in Might and June, a spokesperson for HHA advised Houston Public Media. The “save my spot” marketing campaign required candidates to replace their private family info on a brand new on-line portal.
Sheila Drake is a single, disabled grandmother with a five-person family ready for a voucher. She advised Houston Public Media she was unable to replace her info in the course of the window. Drake stated she was advised by HHA to come back to the authority’s workplace in individual, however she lacked transportation.
“I really feel just like the system simply didn’t care about me,” Drake stated. “The system didn’t care. Being on that housing listing since 2016, and now it’s 2025, is simply actually pathetic.”
After Houston Public Media shared her info with HHA, Drake acquired a number of calls and was in a position to replace her info and make sure she’s on the waitlist.
“I do know that it was a blessing,” Drake stated. “They’re very tough to get in contact with.”
Taylor Laredo, group navigator with the nonprofit Texas Housers, stated the practically 17,000-person discount within the waitlist “does increase some crimson flags” about whether or not there was enough communication concerning the urgency of the replace.
“It’s type of alarming that that variety of households shall be one step farther behind from accessing that housing, and we’ve got to ask ourselves why,” Laredo stated.
The same replace in December 2023 garnered 2,300 responses. On the time, the housing authority saved everybody on the waitlist. HHA subsequently delayed further updates, prolonged deadlines and undertook a public messaging marketing campaign in an effort to assemble extra responses.
Kenneth Coles, senior vice chairman overseeing HHA voucher operations, emphasised the outreach efforts, however acknowledged the authority “would count on that some variety of candidates who needed to stay on the listing bought withdrawn as a result of there was a disconnect” between contact info supplied in 2016 versus now.
“I imply, who is aware of?” Coles stated. “That’s actually the rationale why we’ve got controls in place that ought to somebody who was withdrawn from the listing — both for trigger or by accident — we’ve got a technique to listen to every of their particular person conditions, and there’s a path to being restored again to the listing within the spot that you simply have been withdrawn from.”
For individuals who could have been faraway from the waitlist as a result of they didn’t replace their info in Might or June, a spokesperson for the HHA stated they need to comply with these steps:
- Name (713) 260-0500 throughout enterprise hours. You may both communicate with a reside agent or be prompted to go away a message concerning the waitlist. Depart your full title, alongside together with your present cellphone quantity, e mail deal with and mailing deal with.
- As soon as your info is acquired, a waitlist administrator will comply with as much as affirm one of many following:
- Should you have been beforehand on the Housing Selection Voucher waitlist, you may be advised whether or not your standing is “on listing” or “withdrawn.”
- If you weren’t beforehand on the Housing Selection Voucher waitlist, you may be notified that you’re “not on the listing.”
- Should you’ve been withdrawn however nonetheless want help, contact the decision middle. Your info shall be handed alongside to waitlist directors, who will work with you to reinstate your place.
RELATED: Houston Housing Authority considers work necessities, deadlines for housing vouchers
In an effort to get extra individuals off the waitlist and into this system, HHA is contemplating imposing work necessities and deadlines on households utilizing vouchers. HHA officers stated rising family revenue would decrease the quantity of lease HHA has to pay, opening the door for extra households to come back off the waitlist. This system presently serves about 19,000 households.
The issues come because the federal authorities pushes for work necessities and deadlines of its personal. HHA President and CEO Jamie Bryant advised Houston Public Media’s “Houston Issues” discuss present on Friday that the authority is trying to “craft guidelines that truly would work and that wouldn’t displace individuals,” like senior residents, single-parent households or those that have disabilities.
Bryant stated the authority remained in “preliminary conversations” concerning the potential change, which officers beforehand stated would take no less than a yr to implement.
