Posted on: Monday, June 6, 2005
Housing options drying up for poor
By James Gonser
Advertiser Staff Writer
Joselyn Wakefield, 29, is a pregnant single mother with three children. Seven years ago she added her name to the city's Section 8 rental voucher program in hopes of finding a home and help paying the rent.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser But she has yet to find a landlord who will accept it.
"All the places I called, most said they don't accept Section 8," Wakefield said. "The ones that do say it was taken already. I went house to house posting notes to find a place ... asking neighbors; I'm having a hard time."
The apartment she lives in now does not accept Section 8, and her voucher expires July 31. If she can't find a cooperative landlord, the seven-year wait will have been for nothing.
"I'm going to keep calling, keep putting up notes," she said. "Some people have the luck. I just hope I get lucky, too."
Wakefield's situation is all too common, said Betty Lou Larson, the housing programs director for Catholic Charities Hawai'i.
The federal Housing Choice Voucher program, commonly called Section 8, is administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
To be eligible for the program, a family's income must be below 50 percent of their community's median income. By law, 75 percent of the vouchers go to applicants earning 30 percent or less of an area's median income.
On O'ahu, the median income for a family of four is $67,500, so that family cannot earn more than $33,900 to be at the 50 percent level.
Families receiving Section 8 assistance pay between 30 percent and 40 percent of their income toward rent and the government pays the balance, within limits.
There are more than 2 million vouchers in use nationwide and more than 10,000 in Hawai'i. More than half of the users are families with children.
The city Department of Community Services stopped accepting applications for federal rental housing assistance May 27. With about 10,500 people already on the waiting list, it would take about 10 years for new applicants to receive rental assistance and it makes no sense to keep adding names to the list, according to the city.
The state program on O'ahu stopped placing names on its waiting list April 30, 1999, and there are still 1,003 people waiting for vouchers.
Each county and the state has its own Section 8 program. "If you give out 100 vouchers, only 50 maybe can use it," Larson said. "That is why it is so important to create more affordable housing."
Larson said some landlords are willing to take Section 8 tenants, but they have to jump through a few bureaucratic hoops.
"Out in the community, landlords will often not take Section 8 because it requires an inspection, which can take one to two weeks, and it requires a lot of paperwork," she said. "They don't get their first rent check right away. It's guaranteed, but could take time."
Landlords often have people with cash in hand who want to move in right away, she said.
Once in a unit, voucher holders can stay in the program for years, as long as they still meet income requirements.
Kailua resident Raymond Anderson received a voucher 14 years ago and found a landlord willing to accept Section 8. He has stayed put ever since.
When he applied for rental assistance, he had a limited education and a young son. Now he has his GED, his son has graduated from high school and he works full time as a security guard.
"Security only pays $8 or $9 an hour," he said. "You got to make $100 or $200 a day to survive. Without (Section 8), I would be on the streets. That's reality, period. I couldn't afford it."
Julikta Ramero, 35, has been on the voucher waiting list for three years. The mother of three recently has been living at Ala Moana Beach Park with her children, ages 3, 5 and 14.
Ramero takes her children to school and daycare in the mornings and then goes to work at a fast-food restaurant.
She is placing her hopes on getting a voucher and getting into a home to provide a better life for her family.
"Hopefully soon," she said. "That is what I want, please. I cannot be doing this forever. Anywhere, please. I don't care as long as we get something."
Ramero said living with her family in the park is very difficult.
"I'd be OK if it was just me, but when you get kids involved it is a really hard situation," she said. "You don't know what to do. It's scary. You never sleep. You only let the kids sleep. There are so many freaks everywhere."
With so many homeless people in Hawai'i and the waiting list so long for Section 8, lawmakers hope tax incentives will increase the number of affordable housing units being built.
The Legislature this year passed the Omnibus Housing bill, which gives greater flexibility to developers seeking rental housing loans and grants, among other measures.
The Legislature also passed a bill that, in part, increases the conveyance tax for properties valued at $600,000 or more, and all residential properties that are second homes or investments.
The Housing and Community Development Corp. of Hawai'i recently approved awards totaling $1.3 million in federal and $400,000 in state low-income housing tax credits for two affordable housing projects that provide nearly 100 new affordable rental apartments.
"We cannot achieve our common goal of providing more affordable housing opportunities for our residents on all islands without the collaboration of private-sector partners," Gov. Linda Lingle said. "These tax credits will help reduce the cost to the developers and in turn bring down the rental rates for the families who will be moving into the apartments."
Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.
After all this time, the Wahiawa resident's name finally came to the top of the list and she was given a voucher.
Joselyn Wakefield needs a place for herself and her children, Jashawn, 2, Essence, 11, and Jerome, 5, that will accept Section 8 recipients.
Hawai'i's tight rental market and lack of affordable housing meant that about 2,000 of the 12,000 vouchers available in Hawai'i last year went unused because the recipients couldn't find a place to live. A study conducted for the state estimates the need is 30,000 affordable housing units — 17,000 rentals and 13,000 sales units.
Housing vouchers
