Latest news with #HousingChoiceVoucherProgram
Technical.ly
3 days ago
- Business
- Technical.ly
Pittsburgh housing authority recruits AI to help with application backlogs
Pittsburgh's housing authority will begin using artificial intelligence to help its understaffed voucher department process thousands of applications from people in need of affordable housing. On Thursday, the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh (HACP) board approved payment of $160,392 to Boodskapper Inc., a private artificial intelligence company known as The company offers several services to automate housing authority work, which include reviewing and verifying certification packages from current voucher holders. The effort will begin as a one-year pilot program. Addressing concerns from the board members and a public speaker about the role the AI would play, HACP Executive Director Caster Binion stressed, 'The AI will not be in charge, not making decisions.' 'This will be used for recertifications specifically,' he added. Recertifications refer to updates affecting existing voucher holders, such as household income level and number of family members. Households with vouchers pay 30% of their income toward rent and utilities, with the balance covered by the HACP. The authority's Housing Choice Voucher Program Director Lashawna Hammond told the board the 'AI would scan recertification packets with their income and then it shows us on the back end if the packet is completed. So it's not processing, it's just doing preliminary work.' Approval of the pilot comes after Binion signaled in a meeting last year with City Council the authority would experiment with AI and other efforts to improve the efficiency of the voucher program. In 2020, PublicSource reported that the housing authority planned to 'enhance the voucher program,' but those efforts were hampered due to staffing shortages, according to the authority's leadership. Since then, steps have been taken to train new staff, according to Binion, who along with the board's former chair pledged improvements in 2022. Board member Charlise Smith worried that the program might take on human tendencies to discriminate against certain types of people. A public commenter at the board meeting echoed Smith's concerns. 'We all agree that increased efficiency is needed within the HCV Program to address administrative delays that limits the use of HCVs,' said Megan Hammond, a housing justice advocate and executive director of the Fair Housing Partnership of Greater Pittsburgh. 'AI is dependent upon the humans who create the AI. As a result, AI is susceptible to the continuation and scaling of fair housing concerns,' Hammond said, noting that the National Fair Housing Alliance created a Responsible AI Symposium that includes a framework for auditing algorithmic bias in these programs. Hammond called for 'greater transparency about the role of the proposed including checks and balances for applicants and voucher recipients to dispute inaccurate information.' She pressed for monthly public reports from the authority on the status of the Housing Choice Voucher waiting list every month along with information on where the authority allocates funds. Concerns over the use of AI in public housing has also reached the federal level. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development released guidelines for housing authorities across the country on best practices and uses of this new technology in an attempt to enforce the Fair Housing Act and prevent discrimination in housing. LaShawna Hammond maintained the program is needed to help with the backlog of recertification applications that threaten to overwhelm her staff. She noted that the system will be used to improve processing time and reduce clerical and user errors. She said the system will be able to detect missing information in the application and how that would trigger an automatic response to the client, letting them know that their application is incomplete. She said her department has 13 housing specialists, each averaging a caseload of 500. She said they hired five new housing specialists to start June 30 but it would take some time to train the new hires and bring them up to speed.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Applications will open to help Tyler residents find a home
TYLER, Texas (KETK) — Neighborhood Services will reopen its Housing Choice Voucher Program later this month to help Tyler residents find safe and affordable housing. First Baptist Church of Timpson damaged during severe weather The Housing Choice Voucher Program is a way for the federal government to help low-income families, older adults and disabled people find nice homes at a fair price. Those who are accepted can use the assistance to lease single family homes, apartments and townhomes. Applications will be entirely online from June 24 at 7 a.m. to June 26 at 6 p.m. and those without internet access can use the computers at the Rose Garden Center from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tyler Parks and Recreation along with Neighborhood Services will offer support during the application period. According to the City of Tyler, 2,000 applicants will be selected at random by a computer with honorably discharged veterans, elderly and disabled people receiving priority. Those wanting to apply will need to use or create an email address and help can be requested through 903-531-1303. Status updates on applications will be available starting on June 30. Smith County firefighters save dog stuck in storm drain For more information about this housing opportunity, visit: Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
USA Today
10-06-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Trump budget proposal could tighten access to housing vouchers in Nevada
Trump budget proposal could tighten access to housing vouchers in Nevada More than 15,000 households in Nevada rely on federally funded housing vouchers, with thousands more waiting years to access vital rental assistance. Representatives from the local housing authorities worry many would be locked out of vouchers and other assistance under President Donald Trump's proposed budget, which calls for billions of dollars in cuts to housing programs. 'Based on our current average monthly subsidy in our Housing Choice Voucher Program, we've estimated that for every million-dollar reduction in housing assistance, it would be approximately 93 fewer households that we would be able to serve,' said Dr. Hilary Lopez, the executive director for the Reno Housing Authority. An estimated 15,300 people in Nevada rely on housing choice vouchers, formerly known as section 8 vouchers, which provide rental assistance subsidies for low-income people, seniors and people with disabilities, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The number doesn't include other types of specialized vouchers, such as emergency solutions housing vouchers designed to pay rent for people and families at risk or experiencing homelessness. Another 2,500 people live in public housing throughout the state, according to data from CBPP. Trump's budget requests, which have been formed into the 'One Big Beautiful Bill,' were passed overwhelmingly by House Republicans in late May and are currently being debated in the Senate. The proposal, which aims to slash Medicaid and food assistance programs, would reduce the Department of Housing and Urban Development's budget by more than 40% amid a national housing and homeless crisis. The cuts to homeless assistance dollars include a $27 billion reduction in funding to the State Rental Assistance Block Grant, which funds housing vouchers. The recommendations released by the White House in May said the proposed cuts 'would encourage States to provide funding to share in the responsibility to ensure that similar levels of recipients can benefit from the block grant.' If these proposed cuts are approved it 'would be staggering in both scale and impact,' Renee Willis, the president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, said in a press call last week. 'Rather than preserving and strengthening the federal rental assistance program that serves as a lifeline for these communities, the budget proposed consolidating HUD's five largest rental assistance programs into a single state-run block grant,' Willis said. 'It also imposed a two-year time limit on assistance.' She added that the budget proposal is not only 'misguided but fundamentally unjust' but that it 'abdicates the government's responsibility to address poverty and housing stability.' While the full scope of these cuts, or the state and local impact of reductions, has yet to be determined, social service providers and local governments fear any cuts to HUD funding would reduce Nevada's already fragile social safety net to tatters. The Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority declined to answer questions about the proposed budget cuts as well as how it currently used federal funding dollars. 'While federal funding changes are uncertain at this time, we remain laser focused on our mission to provide safe, sanitary and affordable housing to eligible residents within our jurisdictions – housing that will provide an environment that fosters independence, self-sufficiency and community pride,' Lewis Jordan, executive director of the Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority said in a statement. Bill Brewer, the executive director for the Nevada Rural Housing Authority, said he is still waiting to see what the final budget will look like. Any amount would mean less people in rural areas being served. 'Worst case scenario, if we took a 40% cut to our vouchers, then we would be looking at cutting about 500 households off of assistance out of our approximately 1,275 voucher holders,' he said. 'If it was just 12% or 10%, then we're still looking at losing 120 to 130 households' 'They'll simply lose their support' The Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority currently oversees the lion's share of housing assistance, around 12,000 vouchers for low income residents. Reno Housing Authority, which provides assistance throughout Washoe County, allocated around 2,094 housing choice vouchers last year. Nevada Rural Housing Authority oversaw about 1,100 vouchers, not including specialized housing assistance. Reno Housing Authority relies on two main federal funding sources: $32 million from the federal government to provide housing vouchers along with $3 million to administer public housing. 'It does fluctuate on an annual basis and really depends upon federal appropriations,' Lopez said. Of the more than 2,000 households – roughly 3,600 people – that rely on housing choice vouchers in the Reno area, Lopez said close to three-quarters of clients who receive housing choice vouchers are seniors or disabled households. The breakdown is similar for the 600 households living in a public housing unit. Average income for those relying on housing vouchers is roughly $18,000, according to the authority's 2025 annual report. Nevada's housing shortage and skyrocketing rent prices have made it difficult for the authority to meet the demand for services, Lopez said. 'Over the last several years, we've seen those rents consistently rise,' Lopez said. 'What that means is that the average rental subsidy that we're providing has also been increasing over time and that also impacts the number of clients that we can assist.' The rural authority gets about $12 million for its housing choice vouchers, which funds its 1,077 vouchers throughout the rural areas. Additionally it received last year $786,340 for Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Vouchers, which provides assistance for 76 veterans experiencing homelessness. Similar to the Reno authority, Brewer said roughly two-thirds of housing voucher recipients are elderly or disabled. 'They're not the kind of folks that can go out and get a job and take care of themselves,' he said. 'They're already living on Social Security or supplemental Social Security, and they simply can't afford a $1,500 a month rent payment. That's all the money they get in most cases.' Demand for housing assistance is growing. Reno's authority has about 4,000 people waiting to apply for housing vouchers while the rural authorities have 2,248 applicants waiting. 'What we try to do for households on our wait list, we try to serve them within anywhere from about 18 to 36 months,' Lopez said. The waitlist in rural Nevada opened last year and 'within a week's time, we had about 5,000 applicants on there,' according to Brewer. 'We had to close the list.' 'It will take us at least two years, if not longer, to work through that list,' he added. 'I think we still have a couple thousand names on there that we will work through.' Nevadans wait an average of 38 months, more than three years, to receive housing vouchers, according to 2021 data from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. In addition to housing choice vouchers, communities across the country, including those in Nevada, also began receiving funding for emergency housing vouchers through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 signed by President Joe Biden. Funding for that is expected to be depleted by the end of 2026. Willis from the National Low Income Housing Coalition said Trump's current budget request doesn't provide additional funding for these emergency vouchers and could 'put more than 60,000 households at risk of losing their assistance and being pushed into homelessness.' The rural authority received $455,616 for Emergency Housing Vouchers, which support 36 people. Washoe County previously told the Nevada Current 137 people rely on emergency housing vouchers in the county. In a 'normal year,' Brewer said the rural authority would just roll people relying on emergency housing voucher holders 'onto a regular Section 8 voucher.' He doesn't know if that would be possible if the proposed cuts are passed. 'If our voucher program overall is cut, we won't have any room to bring those people on to the (housing choice) vouchers,' he said. 'They'll simply lose their support.'
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Housing vouchers, already scarce, would be even harder to get under Trump's budget bill
An estimated 15,300 people in Nevada rely on housing choice vouchers, formerly known as section 8 vouchers, which provide rental assistance subsidies provided for low-income people, seniors and people with disabilities. (Photo: Ronda Churchill/Nevada Current) More than 15,000 households in Nevada rely on federal funded housing vouchers with thousands more waiting years to access vital rental assistance. Representatives from the local housing authorities worry many would be locked out of vouchers and other assistance under President Donald Trump's proposed budget, which calls for billions of dollars in cuts to housing programs. 'Based on our current average monthly subsidy in our Housing Choice Voucher Program, we've estimated that for every million-dollar reduction in housing assistance, it would be approximately 93 fewer households that we would be able to serve,' said Dr. Hilary Lopez, the executive director for the Reno Housing Authority. An estimated 15,300 people in Nevada rely on housing choice vouchers, formerly known as section 8 vouchers, which provide rental assistance subsidies provided for low-income people, seniors and people with disabilities, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The number doesn't include other types of specialized vouchers, such as emergency solutions housing vouchers designed to pay rent for people and families at risk or experiencing homelessness. Another 2,500 people live in public housing throughout the state according to the data from the CBPP. Trump's budget requests, which have been formed into the 'One Big Beautiful Bill,' were passed overwhelmingly by House Republicans in late May and are currently being debated in the Senate. The proposal, which aims to slash Medicaid and food assistance programs, would reduce the Department of Housing and Urban Development's budget by more than 40% amid a national housing and homeless crisis. The cuts to homeless assistance dollars include a $27 billion reduction in funding to the State Rental Assistance Block Grant, which funds housing vouchers. The recommendations released by the White House in May said the proposed cuts 'would encourage States to provide funding to share in the responsibility to ensure that similar levels of recipients can benefit from the block grant.' If these proposed cuts are approved it 'would be staggering in both scale and impact,' Renee Willis, the president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, said in a press call last week. 'Rather than preserving and strengthening the federal rental assistance program that serves as a lifeline for these communities, the budget proposed consolidating HUD's five largest rental assistance programs into a single state-run block grant,' Willis said. 'It also imposed a two-year time limit on assistance.' She added that the budget proposal is not only 'misguided but fundamentally unjust' but that it 'abdicates the government's responsibility to address poverty and housing stability.' While the full scope of these cuts, or the state and local impact of reductions, has yet to be determined, social service providers and local governments fear any cuts to HUD funding would reduce Nevada's already fragile social safety net to tatters. The Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority declined to answer questions about the proposed budget cuts as well as how it currently used federal funding dollars. 'While federal funding changes are uncertain at this time, we remain laser focused on our mission to provide safe, sanitary and affordable housing to eligible residents within our jurisdictions – housing that will provide an environment that fosters independence, self-sufficiency and community pride,' Lewis Jordan, executive director of the Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority said in a statement. Bill Brewer, the executive director for the Nevada Rural Housing Authority, said he is still waiting to see what the final budget will look like. Any amount would mean less people in rural areas being served. 'Worst case scenario, if we took a 40% cut to our vouchers, then we would be looking at cutting about 500 households off of assistance out of our approximately 1,275 voucher holders,' he said. 'If it was just 12% or 10%, then we're still looking at losing 120 to 130 households' The Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority currently oversees the lion's share of housing assistance, around 12,000 vouchers for low income residents. Reno Housing Authority, which provides assistance throughout Washoe County, allocated around 2,094 housing choice vouchers last year. Nevada Rural Housing Authority oversaw about 1,100 vouchers, not including specialized housing assistance. Reno Housing Authority relies on two main federal funding sources: $32 million from the federal government to provide housing vouchers along with $3 million to administer public housing. 'It does fluctuate on an annual basis and really depends upon federal appropriations,' Lopez said. Of the more than 2,000 households – roughly 3,600 people – that rely on housing choice vouchers in the Reno area, Lopez said close to three-quarters of clients who receive housing choice vouchers are seniors or disabled households. The breakdown is similar for the 600 households living in a public housing unit. Average income for those relying on housing vouchers is roughly $18,000, according to the authority's 2025 annual report. Nevada's housing shortage and skyrocketing rent prices have made it difficult for the authority to meet the demand for services, Lopez said. 'Over the last several years, we've seen those rents consistently rise,' Lopez said. 'What that means is that the average rental subsidy that we're providing has also been increasing over time and that also impacts the number of clients that we can assist.' The rural authority gets about $12 million for its housing choice vouchers, which funds its 1,077 vouchers throughout the rural areas. Additionally it received last year $786,340 for Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Vouchers, which provides assistance for 76 veterans experiencing homelessness. Similar to the Reno authority, Brewer said roughly two-thirds of housing voucher recipients are elderly or disabled. 'They're not the kind of folks that can go out and get a job and take care of themselves,' he said. 'They're already living on Social Security or supplemental Social Security, and they simply can't afford a $1,500 a month rent payment. That's all the money they get in most cases.' Demand for housing assistance is growing. Reno's authority has about 4,000 people waiting to apply for housing vouchers while the rural authorities have 2,248 applicants waiting. 'What we try to do for households on our wait list, we try to serve them within anywhere from about 18 to 36 months,' Lopez said. The waitlist in rural Nevada opened last year and 'within a week's time, we had about 5,000 applicants on there,' according to Brewer. 'We had to close the list.' 'It will take us at least two years, if not longer, to work through that list,' he added. 'I think we still have a couple thousand names on there that we will work through.' Nevadans wait an average of 38 months, more than three years, to receive housing vouchers, according to 2021 data from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. In addition to housing choice vouchers, communities across the country, including those in Nevada, also began receiving funding for emergency housing vouchers through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 signed by President Joe Biden. Funding for that is expected to be depleted by the end of 2026. Willis from the National Low Income Housing Coalition said Trump's current budget request doesn't provide additional funding for these emergency vouchers and could 'put more than 60,000 households at risk of losing their assistance and being pushed into homelessness.' The rural authority received $455,616 for Emergency Housing Vouchers, which support 36 people. Washoe County previously told the Current 137 people rely on emergency housing vouchers in the county. In a 'normal year,' Brewer said the rural authority would just roll people relying on emergency housing voucher holders 'onto a regular Section 8 voucher.' He doesn't know if that would be possible if the proposed cuts are passed. 'If our voucher program overall is cut, we won't have any room to bring those people on to the (housing choice) vouchers,' he said. 'They'll simply lose their support.'
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Wilmington's new affordable housing complex is opening. Here's what it costs to live there
The opening of a workforce housing complex in New Hanover County gives a window into what is considered affordable in the Wilmington area. Starway Village, a 278-unit workforce housing complex finishing up construction at 2346 Carolina Beach Road, will provide housing for residents who make 60% or less of the area median income, or AMI, in New Hanover. When the project was in the planning stage in 2023, Mayor Bill Saffo said it was the largest affordable housing development to receive funding from both the city and the county. More StarNews: Accessing local journalism is even easier with the StarNews app The total cost of Starway Village was estimated to be $75 million. The project received over $2 million from New Hanover, $4.2 million from the city of Wilmington and $9 million from the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency in Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funds. Two years later, applications for the first phase of Starway Village are now open. Much of the project is still under construction, but it is expected to be completed in July. The complex's amenities include a pool, dog park, community rooms, business center and an exercise room. Starway Village's one-bedroom units are priced at $1,047 per month. Two-bedroom apartments are $1,252 and three-bedroom units are $1,442. For a two-person household in New Hanover, 60% AMI amounts to $47,640, according to a housing needs assessment conducted by Root Policy Research. The affordable monthly housing cost at this income level is $1,191. Households that spend more than 30% of their gross income on housing are considered cost burdened. Roughly 35% of New Hanover residents fall into that category. While the assessment did not provide data for larger households, the average household in New Hanover has slightly more than two earners. There are roughly 106,000 households in the county. For middle income renters who earn between $35,000 and $49,999 in New Hanover, the percentage of households that are cost burdened jumped from 41% in 2018 to 74% in 2023. Typical asking rent rose 57% in that time, while median renter income increased by 45%. The median gross rent in New Hanover was $1,466 in 2023, higher than the maximum affordable rent at median renter income was $1,320. While building affordable housing at 60% AMI is necessary, it's not enough to meet the demand in New Hanover. To keep up with projected growth, the county would need to create an additional 4,700 units priced below 50% AMI in the next decade. Across income levels, New Hanover needs 21,200 more units in that timeframe to accommodate for the area's increasing population. In addition to the rent cap at Starway Village, the complex accepts subsidies from the Housing Choice Voucher Program, commonly known as Section 8. The program provides vouchers to low-income tenants, ensuring that they only pay between 30% and 40% of their adjusted monthly income. Daniel Sheehan covers the city of Wilmington and New Hanover County for the StarNews. Reach him at dsheehan@ This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Starway Village affordable housing opening in Wilmington, NC
