Thousands expected to apply for housing vouchers in Spokane County this summer

For the first time in about eight years, the Spokane Housing Authority will begin accepting applications for vouchers that could mean the difference between a family living on the streets or entering a new home.

Housing choice vouchers will be available for the first time since 2016. That year, the agency accepted applications in a three-day window during which it received around 5,000 applicants.

But this time, the organization will open the application window for a week.

Housing Authority Executive Director Pam Parr expects to receive about 10,000 applications.

“There’s insufficient funding to help all of the people who would qualify to get rental assistance,” Parr said.

Though the number is striking, it does not mean a large number of vouchers will be issued. It merely extends the current waitlist that currently sits at about 50 people who still haven’t received vouchers after applying in 2016.

What the figure does represent, sources say, is the severity of Spokane County’s housing issue.

The program

The housing-choice vouchers comprise the nation’s largest-rental assistance program that subsidizes rent for qualifying applicants and allows them to choose to sign a lease at any private residence in the county.

Also known as Section 8 vouchers, the program helps low-income families, the elderly and those who are disabled.

To qualify, households must earn 50% or less of the median income of the area, which is determined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The department also stipulates that at least 75% of households that receive housing -choice vouchers must earn incomes at or below 30% of the median income.

Because of a pre-application screening process, Parr said applicants often qualify. And comparatively, other housing authorities are more strict, Parr said.

As long as applicants fit in the income bracket, are not a registered sex offender and haven’t been convicted of the production of methamphetamine, then applicants probably qualify for a Spokane County Section 8 voucher.

Based on U.S. Census data that shows the number of low-income residents in Spokane County, Parr said the program does not reach enough of the individuals who need them.

“If your income is at or below 50% of the area median income, you qualify. But we get a set amount of vouchers and dollars each year,” she said. “We only have vouchers for 25% of the people who qualify.”

When a tenant receives a voucher and moves into their new home, more often than not, they use the voucher continually, according to Parr.

“Sixty percent of the households that are on a voucher are elderly or disabled households – so they have a fixed source of income,” she said. “Most of the people we serve will remain on a voucher indefinitely.”

Those who wish to receive a voucher often are trying to escape troubling accommodations, she said.

“I think many of them are homeless, or they’re living in an overcrowded situation,” she said. “Or they’re paying way too much of their income for rent and utilities, and they have to make really tough choices about what they are going to pay this month and what they’re going to go without.”

Market in crisis

After years of potentially waiting in line for vouchers, Section 8 recipients have 120 days to find an apartment.

But because of a housing shortage, this can be a feat, Parr said, even with the help of the 23 nonprofit organizations to help their search.

“During COVID, people just weren’t moving. So I think that made it more challenging,” she said. “Things have eased up some and people are having a little easier time but we are still granting extensions to the 120-day period often.”

The housing shortage affects anyone looking for a home, not just low-income earners, and the city has implemented a few initiatives to increase the inventory.

Parking 2 People, New Markets Tax Credit, Building Opportunity and Choices for All Initiative, and especially the Multi-Family Tax Exemption are other programs that are helping the housing problem, Parr said.

“I think they absolutely help,” she said. “There are some developers that are using them pretty regularly.”

Steve Corker, president of the Landlord Association of the Inland Northwest, foresees a kink in the effort to offer more affordable housing: landlords growing more wary of subsidized housing.

“The biggest problems with the voucher program, and the other assistance program, is the screening process that places people in homes with lingering alcohol or drug-use issues or mental illness,” Corker said. “The inability to control tenant conduct that results in damaged property is one of the reasons landlords won’t participate in the programs.”

Corker, a longtime former Spokane city councilman, said there is a “political stigma” around rental assistance programs among landlords.

“I would say more landlords participate in the voucher program than ever before, but some people still refuse to do it for their own – call them ‘conservative’ – reasons,” he said.

Landlords who participate in the program have more security in receiving rent payments because they are backed by the government. But Corker said this does not overcome the risk of costs to repair damaged property.

“The fact that the government is paying, it becomes a political thing,” he said. “And then when we hear stories of bad experiences , it just puts fuel on the fire.”

As a result, he worries that tax credits will not entice landlords enough to offer affordable and low-income units, or builders to develop them.

Instead, developers may favor overpriced, luxury projects that cater to the influx of renters coming from areas with a higher cost of living.

Corker recently spoke with some affluent young renters from Chicago and Sacramento at a new Spokane-area apartment complex.

“I did a walk-through and there was no carpeting, little parking and, gosh, noise level. It’s amazing what they’re charging for rent,” he said.

Corker recognized that approaching a housing shortage requires new inventory for renters of all pay scales, but he hopes builders begin to focus on more affordable developments.

Steven MacDonald, Spokane’s director of community and economic development, noted that more projects were permitted by the city for residential and multifamily housing in 2023 than any other year – though records do not differentiate which are low-income or affordable housing.

Those working with tenants receiving rental assistance see the impact voucher and other assistance programs can have.

“It really makes a difference,” said Parr, the Housing Authority director. “I feel very fortunate to have the career I have because at the end of the day, I go home knowing that what I did mattered.”

Krystal McCray, manager of the Richard Allen Apartments, which consists of almost all low-income units, echoed Parr’s sentiments.

“I get a lot of calls and emails everyday from people facing homelessness and needing places to stay. It really is a crisis,” McCray said. “And I have the opportunity to help them. That’s what I love about my job – no matter how much paperwork it is.”

McCray used to manage a market rate property before working at her current apartment building, Richard Allen, which is a property in Spokane’s East Central neighborhood that is subsidized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to its website.

“The difference in attitude is a bit different,” she said. “My tenants are kind and always grateful for their opportunity – we’re all a little family.”

As for the Section 8 opportunities, Parr said applications will be accepted in June or July and announced at each one of their 23 nonprofit partners, during community outreach events and other media opportunities.

Ahead of the announcement, McCray encourages more landlords to work with tenants who need it because it can change lives.

“My tenants are willing to cooperate because they know we’re trying to work with them,” she said. “That’s what these programs are all about.”