Spokane’s funding in jeopardy for a program crucial to keep people out of homelessness

Local organizations were instructed Tuesday to immediately halt referrals to a crucial housing voucher program as overwhelming demand sapped the city’s funding for it, effectively preventing more people in Spokane from getting off the streets.

At least 19 organizations that receive funding from the Spokane Housing Authority will no longer connect people to homes through the federally funded housing choice voucher program meant to find safe and stable housing for low-income families, older adults, people with disabilities and the homeless.

“We are very much worried about it,” said Joe Ader, CEO of Family Promise of Spokane, a nonprofit shelter. “All housing assistance is needed. We are in a housing crisis and a homelessness crisis at the same time.”

A housing choice voucher is issued to people to find housing where they please as long as the landlord approves the tenant and that the unit is within the market rate of the voucher. To be eligible, people must be homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, as classified by their income or ability.

Because housing vouchers are inherently tied to rental costs, they require funding increases that match inflation to keep pace of serving Spokane’s citizens.

The housing authority cannot keep up with rising housing and rental costs, which led to the issuance of more vouchers, causing a projected budget shortfall, according to the housing authority’s Director of Housing Assistance Programs, Kelly Keenan.

The notice is “effective immediately.”

The assistance will be suspended indefinitely until something can be done, Keenan said. All the agreements with the agencies that issue referrals are still in place.

Veteran vouchers are also still in effect, as well as project vouchers, which are tied to the specific building or apartment unit.

“The amount Spokane Housing Authority pays for every voucher has also been increasing at a rapid rate,” Keenan said. “The reality is that funding appropriations at the national level have not kept pace.”

Funding could be delayed even further because it’s election season, when the U.S. will get a new president and people to represent their states in Congress.

Spokane Housing Authority receives about 50 referrals a month, Keenan said, and they’ve seen an 83% success rate, or households that have successfully leased a unit, over the last year with people who used the voucher program.

“Those programs have been a really essential and effective way to connect people with assistance to our vouchers, including making sure they have help locating units and getting to the move-in process,” he said. “It’s a great way to leverage the reach of those agencies.”

The YWCA, a nonprofit that assists domestic violence victims, has successfully referred 38 households to the Spokane Housing Authority for the vouchers since January, according to a statement from Jen Haynes-Harter, director of housing.

Ader said Family Promise of Spokane houses about five families a month with the vouchers.

“That’s 15 to 20 people a month who leave homelessness with that,” he added.

The Spokane Regional Health District also issues temporary vouchers to assist people with housing, but a spokesperson did not provide more information Thursday evening.

The shortfall’s impact was predicted by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in January. Market rate rent has risen 28%, and voucher costs have risen 18% while trying to keep up. The center reported the disparity would hamper efforts in place to address homelessness and would put more people at risk.

The risk is especially high for children, who make up 41% of the nation’s voucher-assisted households. It’s the same for people with disabilities, people of color and women in general, “who disproportionately utilize housing vouchers” and are more likely to be harmed by cuts, the center said.

Ader has one family with a terminally ill father who submitted an application for a voucher and was likely to receive it. Not anymore, unless his team can find another resource to help them.

“We are going to do everything we can to find other options, but it does take a tool away that’s significant for us,” he said. “The head of house can’t work anymore. He’s at end of his life, and they have child.”

The notice was also abrupt, Ader said. The shelter hadn’t heard anything about the halting of vouchers before Wednesday. Apparently, neither had the YWCA, who said it was “surprised” to learn about the immediate suspension in a statement sent to The Spokesman-Review on Thursday.

“The sudden halt of these vouchers presents a significant challenge for the vulnerable individuals and families we serve,” the statement from Haynes-Harter said. “We appreciate the Spokane Housing Authority’s ongoing efforts to address this issue and are grateful for their commitment to finding a resolution. We have been informed that a meeting will take place soon to discuss the situation and explore next steps.”

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development public affairs officer Vanessa Krueger said that before the notice, the department and Spokane Housing Authority “had a conversation” about spending and budgets in which they were notified that Spokane is applying for “set-aside shortfall funding,” a grant that assists public housing agencies.

“The set-aside funding is not certain but highly likely. (They) won’t find out for a few months if they get that,” Krueger said. “But that would cover the shortfall we are talking about.”

The department would also consider the shortfall “to be a result of their own spending level” that “could’ve been avoided by issuing fewer vouchers,” she said.

Typically, housing agencies issue more vouchers than needed because not all of them are used. But if those vouchers are all used at a rate higher than the federal funds available, “you can get into a shortfall situation,” she said.

A 2024 survey taken in January involving hundreds of volunteers mobilizing across the county found 2,021 people living on the streets and in shelters, according to previous reporting from The Spokesman-Review. It’s unclear how the suspension of housing choice vouchers would affect that number.

In the meantime, Ader is looking at state funding, although limited, to help fill the gaps the suspension of the vouchers are going to leave.

He’s also eyeing other resources, like private donations.

“How long will this last before this tool comes back? If it’s two months or six months, those are different things. And the timing of the year makes it challenging,” he said.

“As the weather cools off and we have less shelter beds in the system because of reduced funding already, and then increased housing costs, all of those are factors for increasing homelessness. Removing any tools to help solve it adds greater pressure on an already overpressurized system.”