Pittsburgh's housing authority overwhelmed by applications for subsidized housing vouchers
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — The Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh has been overwhelmed with applications for subsidized housing vouchers since it began accepting them on Monday.
As KDKA-TV money editor Jon Delano explains, housing officials say it demonstrates how critical the shortage of affordable housing really is.
On Monday morning, for the first time since 2018, Pittsburgh's housing authority offered a short window for people to apply for a Section 8 housing choice voucher that can be used for subsidized housing, and the number of applications hit 7,000 in the first 36 hours.
"There has been a lot of displacement since COVID. Folks are not working. The rents have been raised very high with a lot of these private owners. And folks want to get on this subsidized housing because it is adjusted to your gross income," says Jala Rucker, a commissioner on the board of the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh.
Rucker says while having a voucher does not guarantee affordable housing, with that voucher the tenant pays no more than one-third of their gross income for rent and the housing authority pays the rest of their rent with federal funds.
But currently, there's no requirement that landlords accept tenants with vouchers.
"Landlords are not obligated to accept the voucher, and they can even post in their ad that their property is not Section 8 eligible or that they don't take vouchers. So, not all of the landlords work with the voucher program," says Devon Goetze with Auberle, a non-profit human services organization that helps tenants find housing.
Goetze says it's unfortunate that some landlords discriminate in this way.
"Finding the unit is really the toughest part after getting the voucher," she notes.
Rucker says part of the blame is with some housing authorities being too slow to act on behalf of both tenants and landlords.
"The response and turnaround time in the past has just been absurd. Landlords and tenants are saying they can't get in touch with their housing specialist. They can't get their raft of paperwork or the inspectors getting out to those units," she says.
Rucker says it's getting better, but even with guaranteed rent, landlords don't want to put up with delays. Still, none of that is slowing down the voucher applications, which could reach 20,000 before the deadline at midnight on Friday.
Goetze says it's a sign of the current housing crisis.
"We need to have access to more affordable housing to be available to individuals and families," Goetze said.