Section 8 applications open

The Housing Authority of the City of Austin has received 89 vouchers from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that will provide housing for non-elderly disabled residents. The vouchers, which are for use in congregate living facilities or to help individuals transition out of homelessness, will bring the Mainstream Housing Choice Voucher Program – formerly known as Section 8 – up to 148 total vouchers. HACA will work with organizations such as Ending Community Homelessness Coalition, Integral Care and ARCIL to distribute the vouchers and provide services to help recipients maintain a stable housing situation. The application process for the voucher program, which caps recipients’ portion of their monthly rent expenditure at 30 to 40 percent of their take-home income, is open until Sept. 24. After the application period closes HACA will choose 2,000 completed, eligible applications via a lottery to go on a voucher wait list. In 2014, the last time applications were taken, the agency received nearly 20,000 applications and put 2,500 on its wait list, which has been gradually served and exhausted over the intervening four years.