HOC is squeezed as Federal Funding tightens

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HOC is squeezed as federal funding tightens

by Patricia M. Murret | Staff Writer
Gazette Newspapers
September 10, 2008

As county demand for lower-income housing assistance grows, federal funding for public housing gets smaller and smaller.

That means the Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County is limited in its opportunities to help, officials said. All program funds come from limited federal housing grants, so the number of residents HOC helps cannot grow, even as need does.

HOC serves about 20,000 people with an average household income of $16,000 through its low-income subsidized housing rental programs, said HOC's Housing Resources Director Les Kaplan. HOC owns and manages about 1,547 public housing units in Montgomery County, including approximately 900 for seniors and people with disabilities. Later this month, more than 5,000 seniors and disabled are expected to apply for fewer than 100 vacancies, Kaplan said. More than 18,000 low-income families and singles are expected to apply in late fall, based on 2006 estimates, for about 5,669 public housing vouchers HOC administers through its popular housing voucher program, which provides rental subsidies to apply towards rent. But it's possible only about 250 housing choice vouchers will be available for newcomers, Kaplan said. About 7,000 families and seniors are expected to scramble and apply for the few remaining vacancies in general public housing.

Once awards are granted, wait list rolls will be purged and not open again for two years.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's public housing operating fund, which supports public housing day-to-day operation and maintenance nationwide, has received 90 percent of the money it needs since 2004, said Susan Krimer, an HOC spokeswoman. This year, HOC's public housing program, which last added new units in 1989, received 83 percent of its operating costs. In the absence of full federal funding, Montgomery County helps make up the shortfall, Krimer said. HOC runs other affordable housing programs.

According to HUD statistics, 59 percent of public housing residents nationwide are extremely low-income, earning less than 30 percent of area median income. Forty percent of people living in public housing are children and 50 percent of heads of household are elderly and disabled.

These vulnerable populations have few options.

"That is one of the great problems in our society – there aren't enough units, homes for very poor people," Kaplan said. "That is true throughout the United States, but in Montgomery County specifically because rents are very high and people with low incomes simply can't afford them," he said. "And of course if you're a senior whose only income is $6,000 per year, your alternatives are limited."