Government housing subsidies are distributed by local housing authorities. These housing authorities are given a limited amount of funds to distribute in their area according to strict guidelines. The funds provided do not necessarily increase if the need in the local area increases.
Local housing authorities do not always accept applications. If they have reached the limit of their funding, they will stop accepting applications for housing subsidies. A year or two can go by before a person in need can apply for a housing subsidy.
If you do apply, and if you do meet the strict guidelines, you will not necessarily begin receiving a subsidy immediately. You are usually placed on a waiting list. You can be on that waiting list for one or two years.
The amount of your subsidy is based on two factors: your income and the “fair” market value for your basic housing needs in your area. Basically, you are expected to pay 30% of your income for a modest rental unit. If you’re single and making $1,200 a month and a basic studio or one bedroom apartment in your area costs $600 a month, you would be expected to pay around $360 a month and your subsidy would pay up to $240.
However, the subsidy comes with strings, so it’s not as if you’re being given cash to spend on your unit. You must find a landlord willing to take the subsidy, and this can be difficult because the housing authority will insist on inspecting a modestly priced unit, and they might make certain demands regarding upkeep. These maintenance issues are sometimes over and beyond what would be expected if the landlord were renting to someone without a subsidy. So most landlords simply prefer not to deal with housing subsidies.
When you are approved for a subsidy, you are given a limited amount of time to find a unit. You have about two or three months. It doesn’t matter if it’s difficult for a renter to find a unit that fits their needs at the low cost set by the housing authority. It doesn’t matter if most landlords refuse the subsidy. You are given a few months, and that’s it. If you do not find a place that will accept the subsidy in that short amount of time, you loose the subsidy, and the whole process starts all over again. You’ll have to reapply. If the housing authority is no longer accepting applications, you will have to wait until they do. Maybe a year or more. When they do begin accepting applications, and if you still qualify, you might be placed on a waiting list. That might take a year or more.
If you’ve gone through all of that, and you’re lucky enough to have found a landlord willing to accept the subsidy who has a modestly priced unit that fits your needs as determined by the housing authority, you’re not yet home free, so to speak. The housing authority will send someone to inspect the unit. They will do this in their own time. If they decide they will inspect the unit sometime next Monday, both you and the landlord are expected to be at the unit when the inspector arrives. Failure to comply might result in the lose of your subsidy. After looking over the unit, the inspector will either give the unit a pass or give the landlord a list of improvements that must be made before the subsidy will begin. If the landlord agrees to make the improvements, another appointment will be made, and the unit will be inspected again. The landlord is not obligated to agree to make the improvements. If the landlord doesn’t, you have to start looking for another unit, and the clock is ticking. When and if the unit passes inspection, both you and the landlord will be expected to sign a one year contract.
At the end of that year, you have to reapply for the subsidy, and the unit will have to pass inspection again, and the landlord will have to agree to make necessary improvements and sign another one year contract. After the year is up, the landlord is not obligated to deal with you and your housing subsidy bullshit for another year. The landlord can tell you to hit the road. If that happens, you have to find another suitable place in a few short months, or you will lose your housing subsidy.
If you are the recipient of a housing subsidy, you are not allowed to have guests staying at your home for more than a few nights within a given year. And you are not allowed to leave your home for more than a few days at a time in a given year. So if you meet someone, and the two of you start spending your nights together either at your place or his, you run the risk of losing your subsidy even if there is no guarantee that the relationship will work out. If you’re sick, and you’re sent to a nursing home or a rehabilitation hospital for a few weeks or a couple of months, you run the risk of losing your subsidy.
Imagine being in this situation if you’re old, or frail or if you’re disabled in some way. Those who receive housing subsidies obviously don’t have a lot of money, but what some might not realize is that those getting the subsidy may not have a lot of friends willing or able to help them find another place to live, or help them move, or give them a place to stay if they suddenly find themselves homeless.
I have a number of friends that I keep in contact with online. I greatly appreciate them, especially considering how hard it is for me to make friends given my PTSD and extreme social phobia. I don’t know anyone here in the area, and I don’t have a car or savings. I used to have one friend here, but he, too, was disabled, and he sadly died last spring. If I could no longer live in this apartment or if I could no longer afford it, I would be in a lot of trouble. That sometimes worries me, and I know I’m not alone. A lot of marginalized people in this country are living right on the edge, and many foolishly believe they have it made in the shade.
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