A lack of federal funding forced the Howard County Housing Commission to freeze the waiting list for housing vouchers ? a move some said is contributing to rising numbers of homelessness in the county.
“The waiting list is more than we can fill for at least three years,” said commission executive director Leonard Vaughan of the yearlong moratorium on issuing new housing vouchers, commonly known as Section 8 vouchers.
The freeze could continue “indefinitely,” he said. “The only way to get it released is if more [federal] money is allocated.”
At the time of the moratorium, about 2,800 people were on the list in Howard, and those people are receiving vouchers as others leave the program, said county spokeswoman Victoria Goodman.
“Adding more people to the list was creating false hope,” she said. “There was no way we could make our way through that number.”
Howard serves “quite a few” families through the vouchers, Vaughan said, but declined to elaborate on the amount, saying it was not commission policy to give out numbers about the services. He did say the county was “probably serving four or five people a month.”
The reduction in federal funds is beyond county control, and officials are working through other programs to help residents, said James Smith, executive director for the Community Action Council of Howard County, which provides programs for residents who are economically disadvantaged.
For example, the council runs a program that helps residents with a portion of their rent, but with limited funds only about 25 families are in that program, Smith said.
“We do the best we can do with these programs,” Smith said.
The freeze on vouchers in Howard is part of a national trend, as more local agencies are receiving less federal funding, said Barbara Sard, director of housing policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington.
“Congress needs to fix and maintain a renewal funding policy that assures agencies that funds are available,” she said.
To address the rising homelessness rate in Howard, construction begins this week for a new $5.5 million Grassroots Intervention Center with double the amount of space in its shelter.
The county provided a nearly $2 million loan for the project.
In the last five years, the county poverty level has nearly doubled to more than 4 percent.
