MANSFIELD — It’s been nearly 18 months since the Mansfield Metropolitan Housing Authority (MMHA) closed its Section 8 voucher waiting list.
Now, MMHA director Steve Andrews sees a reopening date on the horizon.
“In the next three to four months, we should be down to a number where we might be ready to reopen the waitlist,” Andrews told MMHA board members this week.
What is Section 8?
The MMHA administers the county’s Housing Choice Voucher program on behalf of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
The program aims to assist very low-income households, the elderly and the disabled to afford decent, safe and sanitary housing.
When the MMHA closed the Section 8 waiting list in January 2022, there were more than 2,000 applications. The authority finally began pulling names from the waitlist in October.
“At the end of last year, we were at 2,300 people on our waitlist,” Andrews said. “We are now down to 1,100 people on our waitlist.
“This month, (the MMHA staff) pulled 275 people off the waitlist.”
Despite this, the agency’s voucher utilization rate is down from 2023. Andrews said it’s still above the “industry standard” at around 90 percent.
This doesn’t include people who have been approved for vouchers but haven’t yet secured housing.
Once an applicant is approved, they have up to four months to find housing per HUD policy.
Andrews said more than 200 approved voucher applicants are currently seeking a place to live. Private landlords aren’t required to accept Section 8 vouchers.
Many waitlist applications have out-of-date information
On the other hand, many of the waiting list applicants don’t end up qualifying or taking advantage of the program.
Andrews said that for every 200 to 300 applications, about 40 people actually end up getting approved for vouchers.
In order to be approved, a person has to meet certain income requirements and have no evictions in the last three years. No one in their household can have a history of sexual or violent crimes.
Applicants through the MMHA must also be willing to live in Richland County.
Since the waiting list has been closed for so long, some applicants may have moved or their financial situation may have changed.
The MMHA’s legal counsel, Matt Dooley, said out-of-state residents sometimes file Section 8 housing applications but have no intent to move to the area, which further clogs up the waitlist.
“When we reopen the waitlist, we’ll start getting more accurate information because it’s going to be much more recent information and our success rates will grow a little higher,” Andrews said.
Turtle Creek resident meeting scheduled July 1
Turtle Creek Apartments, a senior housing complex managed by the MMHA, will have a resident meeting on July 1 at 5 p.m.
Andrews said one purpose of the meeting is to talk residents through recent changes and clarify the process for reporting maintenance issues.
The MMHA began providing onsite maintenance with its own staff last year, rather than contracting out maintenance work. Andrews said some residents have struggled with the transition to a more formalized process.
Residents with a maintenance issue should call the MMHA and leave a message or use the drop box outside the community room, Andrews said. After that, MMHA staff will create a work order to get the issue resolved.
“Right now, we have a little bit of a broken system. It’s ‘let’s grab the maintenance guy while he’s walking from this building to this building.’ But then a work order doesn’t get created,” he said.
Andrews said residents must report their own maintenance issues. He also said residents shouldn’t be afraid of any negative repercussions.
“Your lease tells you (that) you have to make us aware of maintenance issues,” he said. “We want to know about maintenance issues.”
MMHA seeks interested residents for Turtle Creek resident council
The meeting will also provide an opportunity to recruit people interested in serving on the Turtle Creek resident council.
Andrews said the purpose of the resident council is not to deal with individual maintenance issues, but bring larger concerns and suggestions to the MMHA on behalf of residents.
The resident council will also be charged with creating events for Turtle Creek residents to bolster a sense of community.
Andrews said the three council members will be appointed by himself and a couple other MMHA staff members, but the opinions of Turtle Creek residents will be taken into consideration.
“We need to find people they’re going to feel comfortable with, otherwise it won’t work,” he said. “It’s got to be people they’re suggesting and people who are comfortable doing that kind of stuff.”
The goal is to launch the resident council by Aug. 1.
