By Christine Dunn Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — More than 13,000 people applied for housing vouchers in less than a week in November, when Rhode Island Housing and the Providence Housing Authority jointly opened their waiting lists, the Rhode Island Housing Board of Commissioners was told Thursday morning.
The online application process was a success, and most people were able to apply on their mobile telephones, according to Barbara Fields, Rhode Island Housing’s executive director. By the end of the year, each agency will notify the 5,000 people selected to join the lists, as well as those not fortunate enough to have made the cut.
The voucher subsidy allows the renter to pay 30 percent of their income toward rent, and the government pays the rest, up to a “fair-market” level set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The housing voucher program is the federal government’s main form of assistance to low-income individuals and families.
The last time the PHA opened its voucher waiting list was in 1998. It took until 2016 to work through that list. The authority grants about 300 vouchers a year, “leaving most of today’s list intact for another decade,” said Nicolas P. Retsinas, who chairs the board and the PHA.
According to Retsinas, who is also director emeritus of Harvard University’s Joint Center on Housing Studies, more than 3 million households nationally have vouchers, “but they reach only a quarter of the low-income population.”
“ P r o v i d e n c e i s n o t unique. Nationally, more than 53 percent of the voucher waiting lists are closed,” Retsinas wrote in a Dec. 5 article for Housing Wire. “Applicants typically wait at least three years.”
Retsinas’ article, titled, “Paying the rent: America’s crisis in the shadows,” added that the plight of 10.5 million households in economic desperation because rent consumes more than 50 percent of their extemely low incomes, “did not capture headlines in this long political campaign.”
The Rhode Island Housing board also approved several financing packages for the purchase and/ or renovation of several existing affordable housing developments, including:
■ Charlesgate North, 670 North Main St., Providence, acquisition, rehabilitation and interior repairs for 200 apartments, preliminary approval of tax-exempt financing of $13,424,100, total development cost, $26.84 million.
■ Hagan Manor, Hagan Street, Providence, moderate rehabilitation, 80 Section 8 apartments, firm approval of taxable refinancing of $8.5 million, total cost $8.96 million.
■ Greenwood Terrace, Warwick, 53 Section 8 apartments for elderly residents, extensive renovation and upgrades, revised approval of $4.68 million loan, total financing, $7,002,618.
■ Cathedral Square I, Providence, 100 Section 8 apartments built in 1978 serving elderly and disabled individuals, significant interior and exterior i m p r o v e m e n t s , f i r m approval of $10.5 million tax-exempt construction loan; Rhode Island Housing will underwrite and service a HUD loan; total financing, $20,660,675.
■ Colony House Apartments, Providence, 101 elderly and disabled elderly apartments, preliminary approval of $14,461,000 tax-exempt private placement back-to-back loan with CitiBank; total financing, $20,346,893.
— cdunn@ providencejournal.com
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“Providence is not unique. Nationally, more than 53 percent of the voucher waiting lists are closed. Applicants typically wait at least three years.”
— Nicholas P. Retsinas, written in a Dec. 5 article for Housing Wire.