Housing board OKs applying for aid program

FAYETTEVILLE — Residents waiting on a housing voucher could soon have another option.

The Housing Authority Board on Monday agreed to allow Angela Belford, interim director, to apply for the tenant-based rental assistance program under the Arkansas Development Finance Authority. The program provides yearlong relief to those waiting to receive a housing voucher to live on a private property.

The Housing Authority’s voucher program, commonly referred to as Section 8, has a two-year waiting list, Belford said. It also has a separate voucher program for veterans.

The program allows residents who are a year away from receiving a voucher to enroll in the new program, and then roll into the authority’s housing choice voucher program, she said.

The program would provide $225,000 yearly to the Housing Authority, including administrative costs, and could likely serve about 40 residents, Belford said. The authority can apply to the program every year, she said.

It also would cover rent and utility deposits for residents, while the authority’s regular voucher program doesn’t. Commissioners stressed support for that aspect.

“That’s a real barrier,” said Melissa Terry, board chairwoman. “I’m all for that.”

In other business, the authority has made housing applications, rental payments, maintenance requests and payments to property managers available online. The system was in a testing phase for a couple weeks, and now has rolled out fully, Belford said. Residents who previously filled out a paper application can update their information online, she said.

About 25 people have applied for housing online without formal advertisement of the new feature, Belford said.

Commissioners and members of the public at Monday’s meeting expressed enthusiasm for having an alternative to a paper process.

“The fact that people were using it within 24 hours shows it’s a service people have been going to our website expecting to be there and it wasn’t,” Commissioner Evelyn Rios Stafford said.

The board also interviewed candidates for executive director. Belford became interim director last fall.

Belford, along with Pauline Olden and Artena Thompson, applied.

Candidate interviews went past 9:30 p.m.