Those who have already applied for vouchers will remain on the waiting list, along with all new applicants who apply on or before June 30. Waiting lists for the housing authority’s public housing program and other programs will remain open and new applications are encouraged at all times.

The Housing Choice Voucher Program provides rent subsidies that allow low-income families to rent privately-owned units in Seattle.

SHA’s board of commissioners approved a resolution to suspend applications at its regular monthly meeting on May 19. According to that resolution, the suspension will allow the housing authority to focus its resources on serving those already on the waiting list, rather than adding households who would have to wait years for housing.

The move was prompted by recent federal budget cuts to housing authorities nationwide. Those cuts are expected to affect the overall supply of vouchers in the coming year. Unlike previous years, the federal government will not be making large new allocations of vouchers to housing authorities. It is expected that the only vouchers that will be available for the foreseeable future are "turnover vouchers" which come back to the housing authority when families leave the program. SHA re-issues 18 to 20 turnover vouchers each month.

Currently, there are about 4,600 applicants on the general waiting list for a Section 8 voucher, and the housing authority will have a maximum of 350 vouchers to give to people on that list over the next 12 months. SHA estimates that at current rates of voucher distribution, someone applying through the general waiting list today would wait up to three years for a voucher.

"Allowing the waiting list to grow any longer would be a disservice to the low-income community," said Kathy Roseth, director of SHA’s PorchLight division. "If we didn’t stop taking applications for a period of time, we would be misleading applicants about the housing resources that are truly available to them within a reasonable time period."

Recent federal budget cuts also led to layoffs in SHA’s admissions department, and suspending applications will help to compensate for those layoffs by reducing the number of applications to be processed. In addition, business hours will be reduced at the PorchLight Housing Center, where SHA’s admissions department is located, to help close the budget gap. Effective July 1, PorchLight will be open Tuesday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Roseth stressed that SHA will accept voucher applications in the future.

"We will begin accepting applications for vouchers as soon as it is clear that doing so would benefit the people we serve," she said. "As always, we will do everything we can to award as many vouchers as possible, as quickly as possible." Roseth said that SHA does not expect to begin taking applications for the voucher program again for at least one year.

In accordance with federal regulations and its own administrative plan, SHA began publicizing these changes in mid-May with articles and announcements in local publications.