Inside residents’ struggles to use affordable housing vouchers
State residents endure poor living conditions as they await vouchers, search for housing
Across Connecticut, thousands of governmentsubsidized affordable housing vouchers have gone unused in recent years, a Hearst Connecticut Media Group investigation found.
Residents who’ve won lotteries for the vouchers, in some cases after waiting years, often find themselves mired in government red-tape and restrictions.
The problem has worsened since the pandemic, with many voucher recipients finding themselves outmatched as they compete in a red hot housing market.
Here are the stories of several voucher recipients’ struggles.
‘I want to give up’
Last fall, Anju Freeman thought she finally had a way out of her apartment in New Britain. Living there had become unbearable.
After more than two years on a waiting list, Freeman received a government-subsidized voucher to help cover the cost of renting a new place.
But, like many other voucher recipients, Freeman faced challenges finding a unit where she could use her voucher. It expired in September, unused.
Freeman, still in her New Britain apartment, is back on waiting lists to try to get another voucher.
“I want to give up so badly sometimes, but I just can’t,” Freeman said. “Nobody understands.”
The federally-funded Section 8 vouchers are awarded by local housing authorities through a lottery system to low-income individuals and families.
The one Freeman received, from the Bristol Housing Authority, initially gave her two months to find an eligible unit within Bristol, Southington, Plainville or Terryville.
Freeman, who is disabled, needed to find a first-floor or accessible apartment.
“You have to do it all on your own,” Freeman said. “And that’s the hard part because you have no idea which places accept Section 8 and which don’t. And with the economy nowadays, it’s just very hard because all the prices are going up.”
After trying unsuccessfully for two months, the housing authority granted Freeman a 30-day extension. Freeman started working with a realtor in hopes of having more luck.
Many listings her realtor sent her were second-floor units, which she considered but none worked. She applied to some.
“But landlords are so picky nowadays,” Freeman said. “Half of them that I looked at, they already chose someone else.”
Freeman said she felt some landlords discriminated against her because they were skeptical about renting to someone with a voucher.
The cycle continued. Freeman received six more 30-day extensions before her voucher expired on September 14.
Just 18 percent of those who got a voucher from Bristol Housing Authority in 2021 were able to find a home to lease.
‘It’s just not fair’
Dina Tareq and her family immigrated to the United States from Iraq in 2014. For the first six months here, a resettlement agency helped the family with their relocation to New Haven.
After that, the task of finding housing fell to Tareq’s family. A friend told her about Section 8 housing vouchers. Tareq, who was 18 at the time and knew little English, applied.
Nine years later, Tareq’s family is still stuck on the New Haven Housing Authority’s voucher waiting list.
“We wasted our time waiting for Section 8 and housing,” Tareq said.
Periodically, Tareq has visited the housing authority’s office to inquire about her family’s place on the waiting list. Each time, she gets the same answer.
“‘You’re on the line, you’re on the list, you are on the line, you’re on the list.’ … It’s just not fair,” Tareq said.
Meanwhile, Tareq’s family lived for a time in a New Haven neighborhood that she considered to be unsafe. “Dangerous…I never saw these things in my country,” Tareq said.
Since then, the family has relocated to a place she feels is safer, but affording rent every month means every family member working constantly. Tareq graduated from UConn and now works as a sales director with Sisters of the Diaspora Collective, which organizes for housing justice in New Haven.
“We have to struggle like working all day basically,” Tareq said. “And it wasn’t enough.”
The New Haven Housing Authority last year cleared old names off its waitlist compiled from a lottery that ran in 2007. Some names removed were no longer eligible, in need of housing, or interested in moving to New Haven to use it. Tareq and her family hope to get a call soon informing them they won a voucher
“We don’t know what’s gonna happen.”
‘A slamming door’
Jennifer Holmes said she left her home in the Midwest
in 2018 to flee an unhealthy relationship.
She moved with her two children and her emotional support dog to Portland, where she was raised, looking for a fresh start.
She applied for the Portland Housing Authority’s subsidized housing waitlist and its Section 8 voucher waitlist.
While she waited, Holmes said she cycled through a series of uncomfortable living situations, including sleeping on the floor of her mom’s trailer and a stint in a homeless shelter.
Three and a half years later, the Portland Housing Authority notified Holmes she was next on the list for subsidized housing available through the town.
Holmes spent thousands breaking the lease where she was living and moved into the subsidized apartment. She quickly realized conditions there weren’t much better.
In June 2022, Holmes received a Section 8 voucher.
The housing authority initially gave her four months to use the voucher, which is for a three-bedroom apartment with a rent of $1,700. That, Holmes said, has been nearly impossible to find in the small towns of Portland and Cromwell where her voucher is eligible.
Unable to find a place, the authority extended her voucher to Dec. 20 Holmes continues to search but fears she may never be able to use her voucher.
“Trying to get help on housing, period, has been a slamming door in my face time after time,” Holmes said.
Of the 11 vouchers the Portland Housing Authority issued in 2021, only one was successfully used.
‘It’s very depressing’
Yvette Tyson has used a
Section 8 housing voucher before. But never has she faced this much difficulty to use it.
“I’ve been putting in applications all over the place,” said Tyson, who is working with a realtor, searching online and sending in applications. “I’m not finding anything. And it’s very depressing.”
Over the past six years, Tyson has lived in two apartments on a Section 8 housing voucher through the Stamford Housing Authority.
After two years in her current unit, she decided she wanted to find somewhere else to live after a dispute with her landlord.
Trying to find her next apartment in Stamford, where she’s lived her whole life, has proved extremely challenging. What she can afford is dictated by the value of
her voucher. She worries it will expire before she can use it.
Tyson, who had surgery in May to treat lung cancer, and suffers from posttraumatic stress disorder, said she needs to find a place where her live-in aid can stay with her.
“Somebody needs to hear the story because it’s really real,” Tyson said. “Struggles are real. And depression and all that as well.”
Now, as her one-year lease comes to an end, she worries she will soon become homeless if she can’t find a new place soon. She lives with her belongings in boxes on the floor of her apartment.
“I’m just packing because I never know what’s going on,” Tyson said. “I am ready to get out of here.”
In 2021, Stamford issued
31 vouchers, 27 of which were successfully used by tenants with Section 8.
‘It’s overwhelming’
Carmen Castro has been looking for a new place to rent using her Section 8 voucher since early 2020.
She has nothing positive to say about her search.
“It’s horrendous. It’s overwhelming. No one wants to take the Section 8 voucher. There’s a housing shortage in Connecticut,” she said. “It’s overwhelming to me because there’s no place available.”
Castro initially started looking for a new place to live after her lease switched to a month-tomonth contract rather than a yearlong one. The uncertainty of the month-tomonth deal made her uneasy.
Her situation became more dire a few months ago when her landlord moved to evict her, accusing her of not paying rent. Castro said she eventually clarified the matter in housing court mediation. Court records show the eviction case against her was withdrawn.
But the experience left her scarred. She’s continuing her search for a new place to live using her voucher.
Her voucher is from the state Department of Housing, so she can use it anywhere in the state, but wants to stay in Trumbull close to her grandchildren. She’s not too hopeful. “You have to be rich to live in Trumbull,” she said.
She’s found few available places to rent in town and has been turned away from the ones she has found. She believes some landlords have turned her away because she wants to use a voucher.
Since 2019, nine out of every 10 new vouchers the state Department of Housing has issued have been used.