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About the Housing Voucher Program
The housing choice voucher program uses federal funds to subsidize the rent of low-income households.
The voucher holder pays 30 percent of their income towards rent, and the voucher is supposed to cover the remainder. Congress created the program with the goal of enabling low-income families to live in high-opportunity neighborhoods, but red tape, wait times, security deposits, discrimination against voucher holders, and other factors have prevented progress.
Over 600,000 people in 300,000 low-income households are currently leasing properties through the housing choice voucher program in California, yet tens of thousands of federal housing choice vouchers are left unused each year because the system needs to be improved.
For the Housing Choice Voucher system to work for everyone, we need to:
- Make sure that vouchers are accepted by removing barriers to securing a unit before the voucher expires.
- Use data and accountability to strengthen what’s working and take care of what’s not.
- Pair voucher recipients with services to find and secure housing.
- Incentivize landlords to accept vouchers.
- Encourage public housing authorities with the lowest voucher utilization rates to follow evidence-based practices for improvement.
- Create greater housing opportunities for BIPOC community members and address historic racial and housing discrimination.
We are leaving tens of millions of federal dollars on the table instead of using them to house Californians! With over 171,000 Californians experiencing homelessness, this is unacceptable!
- Fight housing discrimination
- Access more federal funds
- Make vouchers easier to use
- House people who need homes now
It’s time
… for higher standards, more data, and greater accountability!
… for a better way to distribute vouchers and get people housed!
… for increased rent payment standards!
… for a better formula for calculating rent and increasing voucher payments in pricey zip codes!
… for us to make the case for increased investments in housing and services to prevent homelessness!
… for us to fight for racial justice and against housing segregation!
… for us to ensure equity and dignity for families who use vouchers – the majority of whom live in high poverty neighborhoods!
… for us to improve our housing choice voucher system in California!
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