Families wait for more than a decade for affordable housing | ABCNL

as rent prices rise across the country more people are struggling to make ends meet every month when they turn to affordable housing many are met with a new set of problems weightless than in some counties are nearly two decades long it's forcing some families to take Extraordinary Measures to keep a roof over their heads a goal that they can't always achieve as they struggle for years not knowing if or when they'll ever get approval ABC News has collaborated with our ABC owned television stations for the past six months investigating just how deep this affordable housing crisis goes our Stephanie Ramos has the story about San Diego the beaches are lovely it's usually pretty sunny you usually could wear flip-flops pretty much year round I ended up in San Diego I was married my husband was stationed here and I moved here from the Bay Area and I think 1996. and I stayed here after divorce because I loved it here when I signed up for Section 8 and low-income housing my kids were very small at that time I did not feel that I will be on that list for 12 years for Tanya Frazier finding long-term housing within her budget has been an uphill battle a bolt she's taken care of her three children and has been waiting 12 years to be granted affordable housing by the San Diego Housing Commission I'm just gonna check myself on the waiting list and see where I am here we go this is the waiting list portal August 9 2011. at 5 19 PM Tanya says she's been checking on her status every month for the past decade calling waiting for a letter in the mail still no one has been able to tell her where she is on that list or how long she'll have to keep waiting frustrated sad sometimes hopeless that I'm never going to come up on that list the eighth biggest city in the U.S San Diego's real estate business is bustling and growing however public housing complexes are not a common sight ABC News in collaboration with ABC owned television stations has spent the last six months investigating the public and affordable housing crisis affecting cities and towns across the country we found that for housing vouchers which are local subsidies helping renters find homes on the private Market the average weight in San Diego county is eight years and for public housing it has the longest wait time of any large Metropolitan County in the entire U.S in San Diego County the wait list for public housing is over 18 years we're just not building public housing like we used to we're not providing enough housing vouchers for people to use on the private market today what we're seeing is a housing crisis unlike one that we've seen since the mid 20th century the average rent in San Diego County increased by about 54 percent between 2011 and 2021. like I do have a roof over my head but rent is expensive it's 29.49 for this little house [Music] with more than 90 of her income going to rent Tanya has to share this house with her grown children and her friend Rosa when I I tried to apply for low income the way release is close and they tell me to keep calling and I do and I keep calling but the waiting list is still close this hard reality has pushed people in San Diego to find desperate Solutions some of them not finding a solution at all we're seeing rates of homelessness steadily increase we're seeing shelters filling up we're seeing folks struggling with massive amounts of debt as they try and pay their rent we're seeing evictions rise and stable housing is a solution to those problems I have a bad habit of love looking in people's windows because I just like to live see how they live you know because I don't have that steady it it sucks seeing how many buildings that are brand new being built and me not being able to get not one [Music] Brunel Whitfield has lived in San Diego her entire life she joined the housing voucher waiting list right after having her first son 12 years ago it's like I feel like there's like somebody and they're just nope Bernal Whitfield we're not getting you nothing Burnell says she has struggled every single day during these 12 years taking care of her four children I've done miracles to keep us off of the streets I experience homelessness a couple times you know unfortunately I believe me and my kids lives will be different if San Diego's waitlist was like a couple months or a year it would open doors where I'll be able to put my daughter to a gym my son doing you know soccer or something I can't even you know do extra things for them like that [Music] people lining up overnight to apply for affordable housing in New Jersey by noon today 1500 applications were submitted housing officials are set to talk about the opening of the waitlist lottery for Section 8 housing vouchers for the first time in more than a decade the Philadelphia Housing Authority opened its housing Choice voucher waiting list but the website couldn't keep up with the demand Christian the lack of public and affordable housing is a widespread issue for instance ABC's data analysis shows that public housing wait times exceed 17 years in Suffolk County New York nine years in Meeker County Minnesota and six years in Hinds County Mississippi right now in America how big of an issue is public housing we haven't built any large-scale public housing since Richard Nixon put a moratorium on that construction in the 70s but the demand for affordable housing has only increased recently as you know housing prices have increased and wages have stagnated there isn't a state in the country where someone working at minimum wage with 40 hours a week can afford a typical two-bedroom apartment when you went to house what did they tell you well they didn't tell me anything they just told me to fill out the application and just leave it they gave you a receipt so and there's nothing you can do from there but wait wait it out Don Adams was raised in Philadelphia eventually settling in Atlanta four years ago her life was shattered when she lost her daughter to gun violence she decided to return to a place that held her most precious memories she's been waiting on the public housing list for four years living with a friend and not making enough to afford a place of her own it gets stressy to get depressing sometimes I I just be like oh boy should I just go back to Atlanta you know sometimes I said be days like that but it's it's rough last year Dawn was selected in a unique pilot program that provides monthly stipends to people from the bottom half of Philadelphia's housing wait lists she having those allowances so she can eventually use that money to rent a home how does that make you feel to just for a number of years now to not really have a place to call home and be able to put your stuff and and still waiting that's frustrated sometimes but I figure since I came this far and I made I got I got picked from that it's supposed to be I figured it won't be long before I find somewhere to go this pilot program will only last two and a half years during that time Dawn is unlikely to reach the top of the housing wait list according to estimates by the Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation in the meantime average rent prices in the area increased nine and a half percent between 2019 and 2021 according to the latest census data but who is supposed to fix this is it each state the counties or the federal government in the 1990s Congress passed the fair cloth Amendment which effectively froze the amount of public housing units that were in existence at that time and said we're only going to fund up to this many units Nationwide so that effectively banned the construction of any new public housing units and that bill is still in effect HUD is a bit between a rock and a hard place they want to sustainably and affordably house residents across the country but Congress simply isn't allocating enough money for them to do that if we made it a priority we would find the money for it ABC News reached out to the Department of Housing and Urban Development several times but the agency did not grant our requests for an interview in a statement the agency said HUD recognizes that the country faces an affordable housing shortage and that in this year's budget proposal the Administration has requested additional resources to address this issue I don't think we're doing enough and I think that there is um the will but we need to find the way in order to build bipartisan support to get it done it's important to understand that the housing market in this country has always been a public-private partnership and the federal government and state and local governments need to do more to build that partnership so that this terrible shortage of housing can be fixed [Music] there isn't isn't one specific cause for this deeply complex issue and Advocates say there isn't one simple solution but more Federal funding they say could go a long way for millions of Americans still waiting for a place to live 12 years that's a long time to be on the list waiting for Section 8 and sometimes I feel like giving up but then I think okay well I've been waiting for this long so why not wait any longer I feel as though it's going to happen I mean I'm not the one to give up so I believe it's going to happen I just got to be patient just be patient I want security for my kids that's all I want I don't care what kind of place it is I don't care if I have to start in a hut I will start in a hut hi everyone George Stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the ABC News YouTube channel if you'd like to get more videos show highlights and watch live event coverage click on the right over here to subscribe to our Channel and don't forget to download the ABC News app for breaking news alerts thanks for watching

Channel: ABC News

Views: 142,645

Keywords: abc, abcnl, affordable, crisis, families, housing, news, p_cmsid=2494279, p_vid=news-99059618, prime, states, united

Id: fxkn2WzRY9k

Length: 12min 6sec (726 seconds)

Published: Thu May 04 2023