Sacramento’s subsidized housing voucher wait list is opening. Here’s how to apply
For the first time in three years, the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency is opening its wait list for its highly sought-after subsidized housing vouchers.
The Housing Choice Voucher program, more commonly known by its former name Section 8, is designed to help thousands of low-income residents and families secure and afford a home. The tenant-based voucher program helps recipients by covering part of the rent of a home in the private market, while the project-based voucher provides assistance at specific affordable housing communities.
The wait list application for the tenant-based voucher opens Wednesday and closes Jan. 26. A total of 5,000 applicants will be randomly selected and placed on the wait list. The project-based voucher waiting lists opens Wednesday and will remain open until further notice.
Under the tenant-based voucher program, households generally pay a landlord about 30% of their income toward rent and utilities, with the local housing agency covering the rest through federal funds.
But securing a tenant-based housing voucher is not a guarantee of finding an affordable home. At any given time, about 1,100 people have a voucher already in hand but aren’t using it, said SHRA spokeswoman Angela Jones in a statement.
Voucher holders struggle to find a landlord willing to accept it, or are getting beat on affordable homes in Sacramento’s increasingly cutthroat rental market. A Bee investigation last year found several landlords broke state law by banning voucher holders from applying to units, a discriminatory practice that spurred California officials to crack down on landlords.
Many will wait months before being able to use their voucher, couch-surfing, or sleeping in their car, or paying a rent they can’t afford in the meantime.
Nearly 4,000 landlords currently house tenants using housing choice vouchers, Jones stated, with 134 landlords signing up during the pandemic through a CARES Act-funded incentive program.
“In today’s tight housing market, we rely on residential property owners who are willing to accept a voucher so that low income families can afford a safe, decent place to live,” Jones stated.
About 43,000 people applied to get on the wait list when it last opened in 2018, a reflection of the intense demand for affordable housing in Sacramento County. Of those who applied, 7,000 were randomly selected and added to the wait list.
SHRA is opening up applications again because the agency has “nearly exhausted that list,” Jones said in a statement. Some on the wait list have received vouchers, some have yet to be processed; others have moved away, have become ineligible, or have not responded to the agency.
Eligibility for tenant-based vouchers includes income limits: A person making less than $31,750, or a family of four making less than $45,300, for example, qualifies. Criminal background checks are conducted on all adults applying for housing.
In addition to the tenant-based voucher, the housing agency is also opening up several project-based wait lists, including for the newly constructed Mirasol Village, a major mixed-income development managed by SHRA north of downtown that includes 427 new homes.
People can apply for the wait list at www.sacwaitlist.com, and check back in after Feb. 14 to see if they’ve been placed on the list. A full list of project-based wait lists is also on the housing agency’s website. Applying to SHRA’s wait lists is free.
This story was originally published January 11, 2022 at 10:34 AM.