City plan replaces lost vouchers for homeless

Initiative would provide $3.4M in rental help for people, families affected by HUD freeze

Faced with a federally mandated freeze on new housing vouchers, the city of Houston is gearing up to provide $3.4 million in rental assistance for hundreds of chronically homeless people and families with young children.

The temporary initiative is designed to help sustain city efforts to reduce homelessness while Houston’s Housing Choice Voucher Program remains suspended, and allow families with kids to move to neighborhoods with better schools.

“Instead of coming to a dead stop indefinitely, this (would give) us just a hiccup of delay,” said Eva Thibaudeau, director of programs for the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County. “It’s a wonderfully straightforward solution.”

The proposal relies on a combination of federal grants and local housing dollars and is contingent on City Council and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development approval.

Neither initiative is expected to come to City Council for approval before mid-June.

‘Innovative solution’

HUD last month ordered the Houston and Harris County housing authorities to stop issuing new vouchers in a bid to cut costs from their federally-funded programs, leaving roughly 33,000 families on their waiting lists in limbo.

Houston’s housing authority also revoked about 900 vouchers from families whose chosen homes had yet to be inspected, and Harris County rescinded nearly 60 vouchers.

Among other things, the freeze would have hampered Houston’s efforts to house its chronically homeless population, a top priority for the last two mayoral administrations.

By setting aside $2.4 million in federal HOME funding, the city expects to be able to help house roughly 250 chronically homeless people who otherwise would have qualified for a voucher through the housing authority, a separate agency.

“This is an effort to backfill on a temporary basis,” Housing Director Tom McCasland told City Council’s housing and community affairs committee Tuesday.

Housing Authority President Tory Gunsolley lauded the plan, calling it an “innovative solution.”

“I think it’s very admirable that they’re stepping up at a time when we’re not able to step up, and we are happy to partner with them on continuing the good work that was going on with ending homelessness,” he said.

The Houston area’s homeless population has been decreasing steadily, and, despite recent public outcry about homeless camps and panhandling, reached a multi-year low in January of roughly 3,400 people.

The Houston Housing Authority’s freeze also bars current voucher holders from moving into higher-cost units, dealing a blow to the city’s plan to help 350 families with a housing voucher and children in kindergarten through third grade move into low-poverty neighborhoods zoned to high-performing elementary schools.

‘Important commitment’

The voucher mobility program was announced in January in response to a federal finding that Houston’s housing practices violate the Civil Rights Act.

Houston now is seeking to set aside $1 million in local housing dollars to cover the increased cost of moving to a more expensive unit, if the family has children between 4 and 8.

Research shows that living in so-called “high-opportunity” neighborhoods improves children’s chances of upward mobility.

“Affirming the city’s commitment in terms of the right to choose the neighborhood in which these families live was an important commitment for the mayor and an important commitment for the city,” McCasland said.

If City Council and HUD approve, the city would reach out to eligible families to gauge interest and, in the case of outsized demand, select recipients by lottery.

“At the end of the day, there are kids who, with a little bit of additional assistance, could be in terrific elementary schools,” McCasland added. “That is one of the best ways to end intergenerational cycles of poverty.”

Harris County Housing Authority spokeswoman Timika Simmons said the agency still is evaluating how to respond to its voucher freeze.