Housing vouchers sit unused at some rural Washington agencies
Vouchers face a crowded market
It’s not uncommon for voucher recipients to struggle in the rental market. A 2018 state law made it illegal for landlords to refuse to rent to someone because of their “source of income,” which is defined to include government housing assistance programs. But such discrimination remains widespread.
However, in multiple cases, housing authorities have yet to even issue vouchers to eligible clients – a necessary first step in the process to begin the housing search.
Sue Clark, executive director of the Asotin County Housing Authority in Eastern Washington, said that although there were clients who wanted the vouchers, they couldn’t find landlords willing to accept them, so the housing authority never issued any vouchers.
“People came in and inquired and we would have issued [them] if they could have found housing,” Clark said. “I can’t say there’s not a need for it, because there absolutely is, but there’s just not a lot of housing over here.”
Clark’s comments suggest the housing authority waited until clients found housing to issue the vouchers, which a HUD spokesperson said goes against program protocol. Clark also said that she understood the vouchers as temporary, with rental subsidy expiring after 18 months. That is not the case; the subsidy continues indefinitely. Clark did not reply to multiple follow-up calls seeking clarification on her comments.
This story is a part of Crosscut’s WA Recovery Watch, an investigative project tracking federal dollars in Washington state.
Asotin County’s failure to use the vouchers mirrors the challenges at other social service providers in rural Washington, where small teams in cash-strapped agencies are tasked with quickly distributing significant pots of pandemic aid. Yakima and Spokane Counties were forced to return a combined $3 million in federal rent assistance this year after missing spending deadlines.
Skagit Housing Authority has issued just three of their 32 vouchers thus far, according to HUD’s data dashboard. Citing a 1.5% vacancy rate in the county, executive director Melanie Corey said the agency is making a strategic choice to issue the vouchers in small batches to avoid having voucher-holders compete against each other for rare openings.
“If you have 32 vouchers out there and they’re all applying for one unit that’s open, you’re not going to have success,” said Corey, who added that two more vouchers have been moved to other jurisdictions at the request of clients .
One might assume that finding people eligible for this program – that is, anyone currently or previously experiencing homelessness, or at risk for it – should be the easy part. Yet Corey noted an additional 14 households are in the pipeline, some have completed all the paperwork and are ready to go – but the agency cannot find them.
“Some of them have phones, some of them do not. Sometimes their phones are turned off,” Corey said. “Physically finding them is a problem.”
The Community Action Council of Skagit County is tasked with doing outreach to encampments and referring clients into the program. Dulce Vazquez-Cruz, the council’s resource center manager, said losing track of clients is fairly common.
“The client could be located in Mount Vernon and then you find out that they are somewhere in Sedro-Woolley or moved over to Whatcom County to seek services there,” she said.