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Nearly 6,000 seek a spot on SHA's Section 8 waiting list
Demand still far exceeds supply of vouchers
SEATTLE—June 12, 2006—After a
brief open period of just under two weeks, Seattle Housing
Authority's waiting list for the Housing Choice Voucher program
closed again on May 26. During that short period, 5,949
households turned in forms to request one of the 4,000 available
spots.
Lisa
Cipollone, SHA's director of housing advocacy and rental
assistance, noted that the fact that sign-up forms exceeded
available waiting list spaces by fifty percent is a testament to
the need for affordable housing in the city.
"We are glad
that we are able to extend vouchers to a new group of Seattle
residents, but it is still unfortunate that we are unable to
serve all who need this assistance," she said. The Section 8
program, one of SHA’s most popular, provides vouchers that allow
low-income people to rent private housing anywhere in Seattle; SHA makes up the difference between the rent a landlord charges
and what a household can reasonably pay. More than 7,000
households in Seattle are currently using such vouchers.
In July 2003, SHA closed an existing Section 8
waiting list because the wait-times were so long. (This was the
first time in the history of the agency that the list was closed.)
With only 500 or so families remaining on that 2003 waiting list,
the opportunity can now be extended to new households.
In order to be fair to all applicants, SHA
decided to create the new waiting list by lottery. Lottery sign-up
forms were made available on the Seattle Housing Authority Web site,
at public libraries and neighborhood and community centers, and in
SHA offices and buildings across the city. SHA advertised the
lottery in newspapers that reached the widest possible audience.
The next step, once data from all the forms has
been entered into the computer, is to select, in random order, the
4,000 households that will comprise the new waiting list. Letters
will be sent by July 1 to everybody who entered the lottery; those
who are on the new waiting list will be told their position number
(1 of 4,000; 2 of 4,000; etc.).
SHA will begin offering vouchers to those on the
new waiting list as soon as all households on the old list have been
served. For those fortunate few who drew low numbers, the wait will
be measured in months, not years. For people who made the list but
drew high numbers, the wait could be as long as three years, by
which time SHA expects to start the process all over again with
another lottery and another wait list.
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