Rent help adds hope, but problems remain HOUSING: Not all landlords go along with the voucher program.
September 13, 2000
By JOSÉ ALFREDO FLORES
The Orange County Register
For Yvonne Ontiveros, the race to find affordable housing before her housing voucher expires has gotten a little easier.
Tuesday, with federal housing officials pumping millions into the Section 8 voucher program, there are 4,100 more apartments in Orange County that Ontiveros can now afford to live in.
"Now there is finally some hope," she said.
But there remain some landlords who refuse to accept these vouchers, and with vacancy rates at 3.3 percent in the county, many voucher holders are left with no choice but to throw away the opportunity.
"I thought when I started with Section 8 it was a lot easier to get a place," Ontiveros said. "Now I'm seeing it's not so easy."
Ontiveros and her family of five are among the 7,200 families living in Section 8 housing. The 25 percent increase in funding, announced Tuesday, does two things: increases the amount of money available for those currently holding vouchers, and adds 740 vouchers to the system.
With increasing rents, some renters with vouchers can't make ends meet.
"We are finding families struggling to use vouchers under our current system," said John Hambuch, a manager at the Orange County Housing Authority in Santa Ana. "Our voucher program cannot be competitive in this kind of market."
The Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates that the number of apartments accessible to voucher holders will go up from 16,400 to 20,500 in the county.
The increased funding may help people like Desiree Cooper of Orange, whose family of five was evicted when her building's owners stopped taking vouchers.
"It's been frustrating," she said. "We have these vouchers but can't do anything with them."
The rental voucher lasts for 120 days, and if a family is unable to secure housing it will lose the voucher. There have been cases of families finally getting a voucher only to have it expire.
Cooper's family moved from a comfortable two-bedroom apartment in Buena Park into a house with three other in-laws. Her three children must now make friends in a new school 30 miles away from their old home.
"Buena Park was very comfortable to live in," Cooper said. "But then everyone in our building with vouchers had to move out."
The program allows working families to pay 30 percent to 40 percent of their income for rent. Families with virtually no income pay only a small fraction of their income.
Part of the reason why landlords stay away from vouchers is the paperwork involved with the Section 8 program.
"It's the path of least resistance," said Hambuch. "Owners are not enthused about working with the government."
Hambuch has worked with the housing agency for 20 years and has seen Orange County change dramatically in that time. In the 1980s there was an extreme shortage of affordable housing, with two- thirds of low-income renters unable to use their vouchers. In the mid-1990s there was a 95 percent success rate. Today there are 5,000 families on the waiting list for vouchers.
Low-income renters nationwide have been hurt by a surging economy. They are left to compete for a diminishing supply of affordable rental housing.
"This will lift the bar in terms of giving vouchers," said Hambuch. "This program has already been a success story, and it's only going to get better now."
