The San Diego Housing Commission has halted the issuance of Section 8 vouchers, citing a lack of federal funding to cover current and future commitments.
KPBS reports the commission announced it would not be able to issue project-based vouchers for several years. The agency received $275.4 million from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development in its last fiscal year for rental assistance, but it spent $282.3 million covering rental bills and it is not expecting to receive additional voucher funding in the immediate future. As a result, voucher offerings are on indefinite hold.
“We don’t have vouchers to address new needs right now,” Housing Commission CEO Lisa Jones said.
Housing Commission Chairman Mitch Mitchell said the agency warned San Diego’s political leadership in the fall of 2022 that it faced an evaporation of voucher funding. During the past five years, the Housing Commission allocated approximately 1,670 project-based vouchers. Roughly 78% of the more than 3,700 project-based vouchers are now reserved for San Diego residents who were formerly homeless.
Housing Commission Vice Chairman Ryan Clumpner stated the project-based vouchers was the most important tool for reducing local homelessness, but he lamed that the agency is “now at the point where we have exhausted that resource almost entirely.”
Will current recipients of Section 8 be able to keep using there vouchers?
Yes