More
- Classifieds
- Cars
- Deals
- Real Estate
- Rentals
- Photos
- Find&Save
- Obituaries
- Archives
- Topics
- Blogs
- WP Wine Club

For many, D.C. housing waiting list offers little more than hope

By Candace Wheeler,November 04, 2012

(Page 2 of 2)

For the Housing Choice Voucher Program, the homeless make up the most needy population and are given preference over residents who have housing, even if it is unstable, Michaelson said. New applicants without a home move in front of others such as Lewis on the wait list. Nearly 50 percent of applicants for a housing voucher identify themselves as homeless, according to DCHA data.

For public housing, the elderly, disabled and working families receive priority on the list. This preference model is why the housing authority can’t provide applicants with numbers, as their spots are constantly shifting on the list, based upon need, Michaelson said.

Mary Hordge has been in need of housing for more than a decade. Hordge, 71, is homeless and disabled. In 2000, she signed up for all three housing programs after retiring from her job as a managing assistant for housing and environmental regulations with the city seven years earlier. At the time, Hordge needed more space than her one-bedroom apartment could provide for her and the two grandchildren she was raising.

Ten years later, her grandchildren no longer live with her, but Hordge’s need is more urgent. In summer 2010, she became homeless, and the past two years of bouncing between the homes of friends and relatives have been stressful, she said.

She’s now hoping to move into a one-bedroom apartment. In February, she visited DCHA for a preliminary interview. After months of not having her calls to the housing authority returned, she found a pro-bono attorney and was scheduled for a client placement interview, she said.

Hordge is cautiously optimistic.

“It’s been really rough, and no one can believe it has taken this long. If I do finally get housing, it will be a big relief,” she said.

‘I really need housing’

Ceola Lewis’s 37-year-long wait for a housing voucher might have been shorter if she were homeless. But she’s not, a fact that is both good and, given the system, frustrating.

“I really need housing, and I believe that somebody will make a way for me and my family. All I can do is put my name on the list and hope that one day I’ll get that letter in the mail,” Lewis said.

But the wait list was never intended to function as a mechanism for hope, Todman said.

“I have staff that are dealing with clients on the wait list, who are managing hope instead of managing eligibility. I’d rather have people managing a process into housing,” she said.

She said the false hope created by the list has even caused some homeless people on the wait list to turn down transitional or temporary housing.

“Having a voucher does improve the life of someone because it stabilizes their housing,” Todman said. “The hope of having a voucher does not stabilize your life, and that’s a profound difference.”

Continued1

2