Mike Charlton visited the
Housing Works office in Redmond on a recent morning in January. The 41-year-old
was there to apply for a Housing
Choice Voucher (HCV).
Charlton was eventually joined by his wife, Marina. They have five kids between
them, aged eight months to 16 years.
Charlton said this would be
the fourth consecutive year he’s applied for one of the coveted vouchers that
are meant to help families pay rent. But his need for help is more urgent than
it was in years past.
“This will be the first
time we’ll apply for a voucher while we’re homeless,” said Charlton, a licensed
contractor. “I took a little time off when our baby was born, and the bills
piled up fast. Before we knew it, we were behind on rent, and we were evicted.”
Charlton
said he was born and raised in Redmond, and he’s seen the cost of living
skyrocket since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Before
that, we were doing okay,” Charlton said. “Now, we’re spending the night
with different family members, sleeping on couches as they let us.”
Oregon leads the nation in the percentage
of families with children who are living unsheltered, at 56%, according to the
most recent Annual Homelessness Assessment Report.
Thousands
of residents from Deschutes, Jefferson and Crook counties apply for the
vouchers each year, but less than 25% receive one. For families like Charlton’s,
the voucher is a lifeline that can be the difference between having a home of
one’s own and depending upon the kindness of relatives. It can also be the
thing that prevents them from living on the streets.
How Does the Voucher Process Work?
Funded
by the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development (HUD),
the agency responsible for finding solutions to America’s housing needs, the
vouchers are meant to
help low-income persons and families pay rent for apartments on the private
market.
Housing Works is the sole HUD
administrator for Deschutes, Jefferson and Crook counties. Applications for the
highly competitive program open each year during the second week in January.
This year, the application window was open from Jan. 13 at 8am to Jan. 17 at 5pm.
Lesly Gonzalez is the HCV
director at Housing Works. She began her career there as a receptionist 18
years ago.
“When voucher applications
were still done on paper,” Gonzalez said with a laugh.
Though she’s seen two major
economic crises during her time with Housing Works — the Great Recession of
2008 and the COVID-19 pandemic — Gonzalez said the number of applications has
remained roughly the same.
“This is an important
program, so the demand for this type of assistance is consistent,” she said. “But
we have started to see more applications from people who are currently living
in places like New York and Florida.”
Residents of other states
may apply for vouchers, but priority is given to individuals and families who
live and work locally. Priority is also given to other groups through vouchers
aimed specifically at helping elderly and disabled people, veterans, emergency
housing and those who are working toward home ownership.
While anyone may apply,
there are income limits. In Deschutes County, for instance, a family of four must
make $47,600 or less annually to qualify. In Jefferson and Crook counties, that
number is $38,000.
Once the application window
closes, a waitlist is determined via lottery, in which random applications are
selected. Those applicants are notified and asked to verify their income and
submit to criminal background checks.
“There are two instances
where applicants will be denied during the background check,” Gonzalez said. “Sex
offenders who are lifetime registry in any state, and those who have been
convicted of manufacturing methamphetamine on public housing property.”
When applicants and members
of their households pass those steps, they’re connected with a housing
specialist and required to attend an orientation. Once that process is
completed, successful applicants receive a housing voucher.
What Happens When You Get a Voucher?
Even
if Charlton’s family is awarded a voucher, there are a number of barriers that
must be passed along the way to moving into a home.
Gonzalez said that 3,383 people applied
for a voucher this year. That’s nearly a thousand more than in 2023, the most recent
year for which data is available, when 2,447 people applied for a voucher
through Housing Works, according to executive director Lynne McConnell. Of
those, 572 were offered assistance.
“But
only 183 of those families found rentals that would accept the vouchers,”
McConnell said. “Those who receive a voucher have 120 days to use it.”
Four
months to find an apartment may feel like a long time, but it goes quickly,
Gonzalez said.
“We can provide extensions
in some cases,” Gonzalez said. “Disabled people, for instance, can apply for a
reasonable accommodation extension.”
Why do those offered
vouchers fail to find a rental?
“There
just isn’t enough affordable housing in the area,” Gonzalez said. “Then, when
someone finds an affordable apartment, they may have to come up with first and
last month’s rent, as well as a damage deposit.”
“Some
of them will have to come up with more than $3,000 in 48 hours,” Gonzalez added
after a pause.
That’s
no easy task.
About
two-thirds of renter households qualify as low income, according to a report by Oregon Housing and
Community Services. The authors of the report found that wages in the state
increased by 6.3% between 2017-22, while rent spiked by 13% from 2020-22.
The
result? Only 47% of employed Oregonians could afford a one-bedroom apartment.
To
balance supply and demand, half a million affordable rentals will need to be
built throughout the state over the next two decades. The City of Bend needs to build 32,000
affordable rentals during that same time to meet demand.
There Is Help
Thrive Central Oregon, based in Bend, offers an array of housing-related services. Whether one needs help applying for a voucher, finding
an affordable rental after receiving a voucher or connecting to resources to
help pay for rental applications and move-in expenses, Thrive’s advocates serve
around 200 families per month.
Sarah Mahnke, Thrive’s
founder and executive director, said that around 20 of those families secure
housing each month.
“Which is significant,
because the market is so tough right now,” Mahnke said. “We could help so many
more people and families if we had more resources. The demand is so high right
now.”
Mahnke said that Thrive’s
first consideration is helping families find the resources they need to meet
move-in costs, which can be over $3,000. Anyone may apply for help, but many of
Thrive’s programs require that applicants make 60% of the Actual Median Income,
per HUD guidelines.
Thrive receives limited
funding from governmental and foundation sources, said Mahnke.
“Beyond that, 100% of our
private donations go directly to our housing assistance programs,” she said. “Every
person has a story, and every story is important. We want to become part of
those stories by helping those people find a home.”
An Uncertain Future for the Housing Voucher Program
As
U.S. President Donald Trump prepares to launch his second term, he says he
wants to “dismantle federal
bureaucracy.” To do so, he enlisted tech billionaire Elon Musk and former GOP presidential
candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to co-lead the Department of
Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The duo intends to cut $2 trillion in annual
federal spending through mass reductions or, in some cases, abolishing whole
departments. Ramaswamy has since
resigned from DOGE, leaving Musk in charge. While some doubt the incoming
administration will be able to achieve the latter, it could potentially starve
those departments of funding.
Trump’s
pick to run HUD, former NFL player turned politician Scott Turner, has a record of opposing
initiatives that would help homeless people. Turner supported a bill in 2015 that would have
allowed landlords in Texas to deny renting apartments to applicants who are
receiving federal housing assistance, like the voucher.
When
asked about Turner’s record, and the potential for funding cuts, Gonzalez said
that she’s seen administrations come and go — and she has no intention of
changing her approach.
“We’ve
got an office full of people who have decades of experience,” she said. “We’re
confident that, no matter who’s in office, we’ll continue to help people
through whatever comes.”
McConnell said that, while
she hopes to see an increase in the number of vouchers available, the amount of
funding for this year is uncertain due to continuing resolutions by U.S.
Congress, who vote periodically on funding and other HUD-related matters.
“The information from HUD
is coming continuously, and we adjust the budget every two weeks to accommodate
changes and attrition,” said McConnell. “This information could change at any
point as the federal budget is so uncertain during this transition.”
Becoming a Better Citizen
Dr. Claire Herbert is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology
at the University of Oregon. Her research focuses on laws, regulation
enforcement and sheltering practices to better understand homelessness.
Herbert said that, while policy that
makes building affordable housing attractive to more developers is necessary in
the long run, we also need to find immediate solutions to prevent families from
becoming homeless in the first place.
“Harm reduction is so important because
homelessness has a way of compounding existing problems,” said Herbert. “The
longer someone lives unhoused, the harder it will be to help them. The
government must step in at some point, and private citizens can help in many
ways, too.”
Herbert said that emergency efforts to house families displaced by the wildfires that tore through the Pacific Palisades
community in Los Angeles, Calif., may offer solutions to communities
experiencing housing crises across the U.S.
“They’re asking people who have second
homes to consider renting them to displaced families,” Herbert said. “They’re
asking owners of short-term Airbnb property to rent long-term. Those are
creative ways to handle housing crises, and we should take note.”
Herbert added that increasing funding for
the housing voucher program would help people now, which doesn’t just benefit
individuals and their respective families but the broader community.
“I heard a woman speak at a meeting
recently,” said Herbert. “After becoming homeless, she had found her way to a
tiny home. She didn’t have to worry about meeting the high expenses she once
had, so she had more time to bake cookies for her neighbors, to volunteer in
her community. Because of that, she said she’d become a better citizen.”
Mike
Charlton agreed with that notion, but said that he needs to ensure that his
family’s needs are met first. He said a voucher would take a great weight off
his shoulders, and he could focus his time and energies on things other than
securing shelter for the night.
“It’s
just getting harder and harder to rent, and more expensive,” he said. “If we
could at least get into a place, we could start saving money to buy our own
house.”
“That’s
the ultimate goal,” Charlton added. “We want to own our home, so we won’t be
forced to move around anymore. I want our kids to have a home, to know what a
home is. It’s sad that working people can’t afford to live here.”
Homelessness: Real Stories, Real Solutions is a journalism lab funded by Central Oregon Health Council under FORJournalism, an Oregon nonprofit dedicated to supporting journalism statewide. Sign up for weekly newsletters to receive updates.
This article appears in The Source Weekly January 23, 2025.
MAKE LOCAL JOURNALISM HAPPEN
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
5 kids huh?