cheka.
24th September 2016, 07:20 AM
that's a lot of fs {0}
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Odds-are-long-for-housing-vouchers-9243176.php
Tanya Raines has yearned for more space nearly every day since her 2-year old twins were born, squeezing their way into an already cramped one-bedroom apartment.
That dream has been difficult to realize, however, on just $733 per month in disability payments.
Having turned down public housing last year because of safety concerns, Raines now hopes to secure a Housing Choice Voucher, another form of housing assistance that would help her rent a home in the private market.
"I want them to have a little puppy running around and playing with them," Raines, 28, said of her three children. "I want them to have a backyard where I can cut my own grass - and smell it and everything."
Raines was one of more than 58,000 residents to enter the Houston Housing Authority's voucher lottery as of Friday. The agency opened its program waiting list Monday for the first time in four years, having almost worked its way through the list from 2012.
The authority projects more than 60,000 households will apply before the application window closes Sunday night.
The odds are long.
Even if Raines is one of the 30,000 applicants accepted onto the waiting list via random lottery, she may not hear from the authority for five years, based on the agency's current projections. Just 1,500 to 2,500 vouchers become available annually, depending on how quickly current voucher holders exit the program.
Designed to provide families with a greater array of rental options, the vouchers pay for about 18,000 of Houston's roughly 78,000 subsidized units.
That leaves at least another 100,000 Bayou City families in need of affordable options in the wake of rapid demolition and high-end inner-city building after the 2008 recession, which boosted rents across the region.
Despite Houston's reputation for affordability, 46 percent of renters in the metropolitan area spent more than 30 percent of their income on housing, making them "cost burdened" by federal standards, according to a report by Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. Nearly half of these 417,800 families allocated more than half of their income for housing.
Income guidelines
To qualify for a voucher, residents must earn less than 50 percent of the area's median income - $24,250 for an individual and $34,600 for a family of four.
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Odds-are-long-for-housing-vouchers-9243176.php
Tanya Raines has yearned for more space nearly every day since her 2-year old twins were born, squeezing their way into an already cramped one-bedroom apartment.
That dream has been difficult to realize, however, on just $733 per month in disability payments.
Having turned down public housing last year because of safety concerns, Raines now hopes to secure a Housing Choice Voucher, another form of housing assistance that would help her rent a home in the private market.
"I want them to have a little puppy running around and playing with them," Raines, 28, said of her three children. "I want them to have a backyard where I can cut my own grass - and smell it and everything."
Raines was one of more than 58,000 residents to enter the Houston Housing Authority's voucher lottery as of Friday. The agency opened its program waiting list Monday for the first time in four years, having almost worked its way through the list from 2012.
The authority projects more than 60,000 households will apply before the application window closes Sunday night.
The odds are long.
Even if Raines is one of the 30,000 applicants accepted onto the waiting list via random lottery, she may not hear from the authority for five years, based on the agency's current projections. Just 1,500 to 2,500 vouchers become available annually, depending on how quickly current voucher holders exit the program.
Designed to provide families with a greater array of rental options, the vouchers pay for about 18,000 of Houston's roughly 78,000 subsidized units.
That leaves at least another 100,000 Bayou City families in need of affordable options in the wake of rapid demolition and high-end inner-city building after the 2008 recession, which boosted rents across the region.
Despite Houston's reputation for affordability, 46 percent of renters in the metropolitan area spent more than 30 percent of their income on housing, making them "cost burdened" by federal standards, according to a report by Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. Nearly half of these 417,800 families allocated more than half of their income for housing.
Income guidelines
To qualify for a voucher, residents must earn less than 50 percent of the area's median income - $24,250 for an individual and $34,600 for a family of four.