Hundreds in OC are at risk of homelessness as HUD ends funding for emergency housing voucher program
SANTA ANA, Calif. (KABC) -- People who depend on the federally funded Emergency Housing Voucher program to keep a roof over their heads will soon have to find another way to afford rent.
"Without these vouchers these people could be loose on the streets and homeless, and suffering," Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairman Doug Chaffee said.
The American Rescue Plan Act in 2021 established the voucher program during the COVID pandemic to help people at risk of homelessness.
"It enables people to spend no more than 30 percent of their income for rental help, housing," Chaffee said. "The voucher pays the difference between that amount and what the market rent is."
In March the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced it would make their final funding allocation to the program this month.
The Orange County Housing Authority was awarded 557 emergency housing vouchers but that number has shrunk to 522.
"As they exit the program we're not allowed to give the same voucher to anyone else," Chaffee said.
He said the remaining 522 households are made up of more than 800 people.
Also, 204 of them are children under the age of 18. The average income for those households is $15,171.
Chaffee said hundreds of people are now at risk of becoming homeless once the money runs out in October 2026.
"I know we're sometimes thought of as a rich county," he said. "Maybe they've visited the beaches or some of the resort areas and you get an impression that the whole county is that way. It is not."
Cities like Santa Ana, Anaheim and Garden Grove have their own housing authorities which also use the Emergency Housing Vouchers.
Families in those programs are also at risk of homelessness unless they find a way to get permanent funding for the program.
