Section 8

Mansfield- For the first time in 13 months, the Mansfield Metropolitan Housing Authority (MMHA) has begun pulling names from its waitlist.

The waiting list remains closed but the use of Section 8 vouchers has dropped enough to reach out to people at the top of the list.

MMHA Executive Director said, “We still have over 2,200 on the waitlist. We will open the waitlist when the total number on it drops below 500 or so.”

At present, MMHA has allocated 1833 housing choice vouchers widely known as Section 8 vouchers per month.

The funds given with these vouchers do not cover the full cost of providing housing. The monthly voucher utilization has dropped from 98.85% to 93.18%. Every month some people leave the program. The reasons behind this are that they are not financially eligible or they move.

Still, the authority has spent more than its Section 8 federal funding amount for 2023. The MMHA remains financially stable by utilizing prior year reserves from 2022. As of October, MMHA has utilized 98.29% of its total funds allocated for Section 8.

MMHA clients used 1730 vouchers only out of the 1833 available vouchers in September. The Executive Director further said that the staff felt comfortable allocating more Section 8 vouchers with a monthly utilization rate of 94.38%.

This is why the staff began pulling names from the waitlist about three weeks ago and to complete it as fast as they can. The Director also revealed that the authority can easily add 40-50 vouchers without going over the annual budget.

Also, there is little chance that 50 people having the housing choice vouchers will be able to find affordable housing by the end of the year.