MANSFIELD — The Mansfield Metropolitan Housing Authority (MMHA) has begun pulling names from its waitlist for the first time in almost 13 months.
The waiting list remains closed, but MMHA executive director Steve Andrews said Section 8 voucher use has dropped enough to begin contacting people at the top of the list.
“We still have over 2,200 on the waitlist,” Andrews said. “We will open the waitlist when the total number on it drops below 500 or so.”
The MMHA is currently allocated 1,833 housing choice vouchers, commonly known as Section 8 vouchers, per month.
What is a Section 8 voucher?
Housing Choice Vouchers, also known as Section 8, are federally-funded vouchers that provide housing assistance to very low-income households. The MMHA administers these vouchers to Richland County residents on behalf of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The MMHA also manages other HUD-funded vouchers reserved for specific populations like veterans or disabled individuals, which receive separate federal funding.
However, the federal funds allocated with those vouchers often don’t cover the full cost of providing housing.
Since January, monthly voucher utilization has slowly dropped from 98.85 percent to a preliminary estimate of 93.18 percent for October.
“Every month, a couple people go off the program,” Andrews said. “Either they’re no longer eligible financially, or they move, or there’s a lot of reasons why that can happen.”
However, the authority has spent more than its Section 8 federal funding amount for much of 2023.
The MMHA’s year to date spending from its 2023 funds exceeded budgeted amounts from February through August, with a year to date total of 102.98 percent.
Overall, the authority remains in the black, since the MMHA is allowed to dip into prior year reserves from 2022. After taking that account, the MMHA has used 98.29 percent of its total available funds budgeted for Section 8 through October.
“When we had decided not to pull from the waitlist, we were at 99.49% of the dollar amount, and so that was making us a little bit nervous,” Andrews said.
“Because we use almost a million dollars per month in (federal Housing Assistance Payments) funding, even that one half of one percent is a significant number of dollars.”
In September, MMHA clients used 1,730 of the 1,833 available vouchers.
With a monthly voucher utilization rate of 94.38 percent, Andrews said he and the authority staff felt comfortable allocating more Section 8 vouchers.
At a board meeting Tuesday, Andrews said MMHA staff began pulling names from the waitlist about three weeks ago and are doing so as fast as they can.
He said the authority could add between 40 and 50 new vouchers without going over the annual budget.
He also said he thinks it’s unlikely 50 people with Section 8 vouchers would be able to find affordable housing locally by the end of the year.
“It will be remarkable if that happened,” he said.
The MMHA closed the housing voucher waiting list in January. According to then-deputy director Stephanie Hartzler, there were more than 2,000 people on the waitlist at the time.
Updates on Turtle Creek apartments, new housing project
Andrews also updated the MMHA board on operations at Turtle Creek, an affordable senior housing complex managed by the authority.
Earlier this year, the MMHA transitioned from contracting out much of its maintenance work to hiring a three-person full-time staff.
Andrews said the new maintenance crew will allow the MMHA to more efficiently renovate units at Turtle Creek.
“When you only have one guy working out there, you get the (units) done that don’t need as much work because those are the easy ones to turn and you get cash flow again faster, but then the ones that need a lot of work never get touched,” he said.
“Last year I did a study and when we found out they were averaging 15 vacant units out there for the last four years prior. I was like, ‘We can’t be having 15 vacant units.’”
Andrews said in the past, most of the profits from Turtle Creek rents went into unrestricted funds to be saved for new development projects. He said more of Turtle Creek’s cash flow will be allocated for renovations going forward.
“We know there’s a lot of deferred maintenance out at Turtle Creek,” Andrews said. “The buildings are in good shape for their age and for everything else, but if you’ve got 45 year old countertops and cabinets, you’re looking for updates.”
Andrews said those updates probably should have occurred ten or fifteen years ago, but since they didn’t, the authority is “playing catch up.”
“With 158 units, if we’re getting 15 this year, we can get them all done in 10 years,” he said.
MMHA board member Barbara Fulton, who lives at Turtle Creek, asked how the authority would determine which units to renovate first.
“I’ve been there 14 years, nothing has ever been done,” she said. “But I don’t have problems. So am I going to wait another 15 years and be there for 15 years with the same carpet and walls?
“Ideally no,” Andrews responded. “Those are the conversations we want to have. It’s why we’re starting a resident Council.”
Andrews said units in “particularly bad” shape would be worked on first, along with vacant units.
He added that the authority’s knowledge of units’ conditions comes from resident reports and annual inspections of each unit.
Andrews said the authority is also seeking funding from the Richland County Foundation and City of Mansfield to help offset a projected cost increase of $300,000 for the Turtle Creek Extension project.
The Turtle Creek Extension project will add 120 new affordable housing units available to low-income renters of any age. Andrews said he hopes to finalize the purchase of land in January and begin construction in March.