The list of those looking for Section 8 housing in Newport is hundreds of people long, and the housing authority hopes for more funding.
Neighborhood Foundations, Newport’s housing authority, submitted its Section 8 Management Assessment Program Certification to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, which affects the agency’s funding.
The certification is a self-assessment to determine the performance of a public housing agency. HUD then reviews each category (14 total) and determines a score. Some categories out of the 14 reviewed are reasonable rent, a proper selection of applicants from the waitlist, and ensuring they are not steering people into poverty-concentrated areas.Â
The certification was approved and submitted at a Neighborhood Foundation special meeting on Wednesday.
According to Neighborhood Foundations Deputy Director Tracie Joyner, if an agency is not considered a high performer, they receive less funding.
Joyner said in her nine years with Neighborhood Foundations, they have received a high performance each time; however, she speculates that could change for the last fiscal year (ending in 2022) though they won’t have results for a while.
“This year, we may not make the high performer status because our leasing was low,” Joyner said. “Which I think is unfortunate because that was really out of our control. A lot of agencies are going to be in that same situation. So, I don’t know if HUD is planning on doing anything to offset that.”
There are currently 420 units leased through their Housing Choice Voucher Program Section 8 among roughly 200 landlords, out of a maximum possibility of 614 units. Neighborhood Foundations jurisdiction covers Newport, Bellevue and Fort Thomas.
“HUD determines the score by how much money you spend, by what your leasing percentage is, then your assessment so,” Joyner said. “If you don’t make a certain percentage of those first two, you’re not going to make a high performer regardless of the assessment.”
HUD requires that payment standards are at least 90% of what they suggest the fair market rent is yearly, but it can go up to 110%. Joyner said most years Neighborhood Foundations has its payment standards set at 110%.
“Our payment standards are made up of the rent due to the landlord and the utility allowance due to the tenant,” Joyner said. “Those together cannot exceed that payment standard amount.”
She said they have requested HUD to go above 110% but have yet to hear back.
Neighborhood Foundations offers landlords an incentive of a one-time payment of $500 per new unit they put in the Section 8 housing program. Joyner said they brought about 12 new landlords to their program in the last couple of months.
“We’re trying to do what we can, but the issue outside of the landlords is more so where are the units,” Joyner said. “We’ve had landlords that have said, ‘We’d love to put more units on the program, but I don’t have that kind of capital to keep buying stuff.'”
Joyner said their waitlist for housing that accepts section 8 has roughly 500-600 people on it. That number increased heavily with the vacancy notices posted at Victoria Square last year.
She said Neighborhood Foundations gets contacted at least 40 to 50 times a day regarding Section 8 Housing.
“It’s a lot,” Joyner said. “Our waiting list is open currently. We opened all of our waiting lists because of Victoria Square. We’re about to shut those down because our lists are getting so large that it would take years to help everyone.”
Joyner said Neighborhood Foundations has been utilizing a grant from Kentucky Housing Corporation to help individuals pay safety deposits, among other things.
“Housing is such a tight market that’s the problem,” Neighborhood Foundations Executive Director Tom Guidugli Sr. said at the meeting. “People are on the street; they can’t find units. It’s a slow process, and so many other things that happened in the community made it more difficult because it kind of pushed everything at the same time.”
