How well do Housing Choice Vouchers work? HUD promises improvements amidst temporary freeze in Cincinnati and Dayton
Housing Choice Vouchers are portable subsidies that low-income families can use to lower their rents in the private market. But is this 50-year old solution to the housing crisis working as well as it should? The Department of Housing and Urban Development and local entities like the Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority and Greater Dayton Premier Management, which receive the federal funds from HUD to issue the vouchers, are trying to make changes but budgetary constraints are hampering their efforts.
Voucher freeze in Cincinnati and Dayton
The Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) faces a deficit of more than $200,000 by the end of the year, forcing it to suspend the distribution of any new Housing Choice Vouchers. CMHA says the cost it pays on behalf of families has gone up significantly.
In an interview with Brick by Brick, CMHA CEO Greg Johnson points to rising rents and increased competition. “So, we have some encroachment on units that landlords would normally rent to a voucher holder, if they have the opportunity, they may rent to a market rate [renter] because they don’t have to go through the process that we go through. (inspections can sometimes leave rentals vacant for months)
Three-thousand families are still on a 2022 waiting list to get a voucher. Some current voucher holders worry their voucher may not be renewed if they can’t find a place to live in 90 days. But the Cincinnati housing agency says in the flyer below, “CMHA anticipates not terminating families from the Housing Choice Voucher (HVC) program due to shortfall identification.”
CMHA clarifies to Brick by Brick the only voucher holders at risk of losing their vouchers are the families who got them in July and have 90 days to find a place to live. CMHA says normally they could ask for an extension but not in this case with a public housing deficit.
Greater Dayton Premier Management is also temporarily suspending Housing Choice Vouchers because of a budget deficit. GDPM CEO Jennifer Heapy tells Brick by Brick HUD didn’t cut its funds but it will have to freeze the issuance of any new vouchers. GDPM is facing the same issues as Cincinnati, rising rents and a shortage of housing. There are more than 4,000 families on a GDPM Housing Choice Voucher waiting list.
History of the Housing Choice Voucher
Congress created what is now the Housing Choice Voucher by passing an $11-billion Housing and Community Development Act in 1974. It took a while to get going and some say it’s still not as successful as was hoped.
Even those working in the housing sector expressed doubt of its viability. Fifteen months after its creation only about 200 families nationwide were housed with a voucher. In a 1975 New York Times article, Baltimore’s Commissioner of Housing and Community Development Robert Emry Jr. expressed his disapproval saying, “The 1974 Housing Act is extremely misguided. I cannot understand this Administration’s reluctance to admit it’s failure.”
Lack of existing housing was a problem then and now. In 1975, The Housing Authority of Cook County (Chicago) told the New York Times it couldn’t get financing for rehabilitation or construction to build the much-needed housing.
Today there is also a shortage of housing and a shortage of vouchers.
Voucher criteria
The need is so great that every couple of years public housing authorities open a waiting list. Thousands are still on it in Southwest Ohio.
To be eligible, recipients must make no more than 50-percent of the area’s medium income, but most are closer to 30-percent, or $30,000 for a family of four in Cincinnati and $27,000 in Dayton.
In Cincinnati and Dayton recipients have 60 days to find a place to live with their voucher.
Credit: Long Beach, California Housing Authority
To rent a place, voucher holders pay 30-percent and the government pays the rest. Without this government subsidy, millions of people couldn’t afford a place to live.
The search for landlords
CMHA and GDPM need more landlords so their voucher program can be more successful. GDPM’s Jennifer Heapy tries to find 50-60 new ones every year. Thanks to a Landlord Liaison, GDPM was able to recruit 90 new providers recently. The Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority is also on the lookout for more housing providers.
Housing provider Jeff Campbell’s story
Jeff Campbell and his partner Caroline Cartier accept Housing Choice Vouchers to rent their single-family homes. Campbell grew up in public housing and knows there’s a stigma that comes with it.
He told Brick by Brick people often think, “Oh, you’re lazy. You’re this. You’re that. And I saw these people and I said, you know what? If I’m going to do this, I’m going to do real estate, I’m going to also do it the right way and not just try to make a quick buck.”
Campbell even helps tenants with some of the legwork. During the approval process, he often shows up on behalf of his tenants for an hours long wait at CMHA.
Campbell continues to rent to voucher holders but complains the inspection process isn’t as efficient as it could be. His houses have been vacant for months while waiting for government inspections and sees this as a weak selling point if public housing authorities are trying to recruit more landlords.
Inspection delays
Campbell says, “There’s almost like a two week lag for the inspection in some ways and then after the inspection the tenant has to qualify on paper, applying for the unit, background check, credit check, things of that nature and from my experience, I look past those things but not every person that may be renting may. It’s a very daunting process.”
CMHA’s Greg Johnson is trying to make improvements. He says tenants can now submit information through an electronic or online portal, so they don’t have to come to the main CMHA office. Landlords have been able to use an electronic portal like this for years now.
HUD Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing Rich Monocchio used to run the Housing Authority of Cook County (Chicago). He praised the housing authorities in Cincinnati and Dayton but told Brick by Brick inspection delays are unacceptable and he cited his past work in Cook County as an example where they could do inspections in as little as three hours. He encourages housing authorities to focus on plumbing, electricity and other safety measures, not graffiti and an uneven sidewalk.
“We’re looking to have safe, decent housing, not perfect housing. That’s an important point because not every apartment is perfect. Most places do have a few things wrong, but as long as it doesn’t rise to that level of life, health and safety, we’re going to approve it,” says Monocchio. He added that HUD is working to update inspection protocols to help local authorities become more efficient.
HUD to lengthen minimum time to find housing
Right now the law says voucher holders have at least 60 days to find a place to live. Monocchio says that’s being changed and beginning in 2025 they will have double that time, 120 days.
The Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at New York University says if renters only have two months to find housing less than a third are successful.
HUD expanding Small Area Fair Market Rent
The Department of Housing and Urban Development is trying to get the voucher value as close to the median rent as possible. Forty-four percent of vouchers are now set by zip code, called Small Area Fair Market Rent. Cincinnati and Dayton don’t have it this year but will have it in 2025. This would help the voucher be more competitive with market prices, possibly making it more attractive to area housing providers.
The effectiveness of the Housing Choice Voucher
HUD commissioned four studies to assess the performance of the Housing Choice Voucher program. The most recent was in 2019 when the success rate was 61-percent, meaning just 61-percent of voucher holders were able to use their vouchers to find a place to live.
Monocchio says that’s concerning. “One of the most important things on my agenda is to make it so that every single person who secures a voucher, because let’s remember, this is something that often times you wait 3,4,5,6,7 years for, and it’s paramount that HUD and the housing authorities who run these programs make sure that those households get a unit,” he says.
The Furman Center studied 1,300 public housing authorities in 2022. It found 90,000 households that got new vouchers were unable to use them. That’s about half.
USA Today reports HUD doesn’t require public housing authorities to track or improve high failure rates, instead incentivizing them to use all their funding so, just like an airline overselling seats to ensure a full flight, they have funding for families they know won’t be able to use them.
Limitations
There are several factors that limit the success of the Housing Choice Voucher program:
- There aren’t enough vouchers to go around. Two-point-three million households have one. Ten million are eligible.
- Two months isn’t very much time to find a place.
- There aren’t enough landlords that accept housing vouchers.
- Voucher holders experience discrimination.
- Cincinnati, Dayton and others have temporarily frozen any new vouchers because of budget constraints.
- HUD’s funds are limited by Congress. They do not increase automatically like Medicaid and SNAP (formerly Food Stamps).
Results
- Millions of families, who couldn’t otherwise afford their rent, continue to be housed.
- It allows voucher holders to live in areas of opportunity with better schools and health care systems.
- Housing authorities connect voucher holders with other service providers through partnerships, such as job training and health resources to help them reach goals beyond safe and secure housing.
- The program reduces homelessness.
Boston is one city many point to as running a successful housing voucher program. In 2023, 88-percent of families who got a voucher were able to use them, despite one of the most expensive and competitive rental markets, according to USA Today.
One reason is every tenant is connected with somebody who helps them find a home. Partnering with schools, homeless shelters and other social service groups helps fill the gap. And Boston doesn’t open a wait list every couple of years. It relies on organizations to refer families in need.
Cincinnati and Dayton Public Housing Authorities do collaborate and work with social service and city agencies to help refer clients or find voucher holders housing but perhaps, based on the outcomes, not to the extent of some other entities.
Looking ahead
Public Housing Authorities do recognize the importance of giving the choice to voucher holders to live in whatever neighborhood they want. Studies by Harvard Economist Raj Chetty and others have proven that if families move to areas of opportunity when their children are young, they do better.
The problem is HUD only has so much money and it’s unclear if the number of people getting vouchers can increase beyond one in four families who need them.
Many are encouraged that the housing crisis is now a political conversation.
Are you enjoying exploring solutions with the Brick by Brick podcast and team? Your feedback is very important to the effort, as we continue to dig deeper into the responses to some of our most pressing social issues, including the housing crisis. Click on the green button below to take a short survey to help reinforce and refine our work. Thank you.
Ann Thompson – Host, Producer
Over the last thirty years in Cincinnati, Ann Thompson has brought a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her reporting. She has reported and anchored for WVXU, WKRC, WCKY, WHIO-TV and Metro Networks and freelanced for NPR, CBS and ABC Radio. Her work has been recognized by the Associated Press and she has won awards from the Association of Women in Communications and the Alliance for Women in Media. She is a former News Director and Operations Manager. Ann has reported from India, Japan, South Korea, Germany and Belgium as part of fellowships. Ann thinks of the Brick by Brick project as “journalism for good.” She serves as host and producer. Ann lives in Anderson Township with her husband Scott. They have two boys. Jake graduated from the Air Force Academy in 2022 and Kurt attends West Point.
