About 16,600 people lost their place on the Houston Housing Authority’s (HHA) Housing Choice Voucher waitlist after failing to update their information in May and June, leaving less than 2,000 applicants in line for a federal benefit that pays a significant portion of rent for very low-income households.
The program requires residents to allocate 30% to 40% of their income towards rent, while HHA covers the difference. The years-long waitlist for the sought-after program last opened in 2016, when about 30,000 applicants joined the line.
Out of 18,246 people who remained on the waitlist earlier this year, only 1,599 responded to the “save my spot” initiative in May and June, a spokesperson for HHA told Houston Public Media. The “save my spot” campaign required applicants to update their personal household information on a new online portal.
Sheila Drake is a single, disabled grandmother with a five-person household waiting for a voucher. She told Houston Public Media she was unable to update her information during the window. Drake said she was told by HHA to come to the authority’s office in person, but she lacked transportation.
“I feel like the system just didn’t care about me,” Drake said. “The system didn’t care. Being on that housing list since 2016, and now it’s 2025, is just really pathetic.”
After Houston Public Media shared her information with HHA, Drake received several calls and was able to update her information and confirm she’s on the waitlist.
“I know that it was a blessing,” Drake said. “They are very difficult to get in touch with.”
Taylor Laredo, community navigator with the nonprofit Texas Housers, said the nearly 17,000-person reduction in the waitlist “does raise some red flags” about whether there was adequate communication about the urgency of the update.
“It is kind of alarming that that number of families will be one step farther behind from accessing that housing, and we have to ask ourselves why,” Laredo said.
A similar update in December 2023 garnered 2,300 responses. At the time, the housing authority kept everyone on the waitlist. HHA subsequently delayed additional updates, extended deadlines and undertook a public messaging campaign in an effort to gather more responses.
Kenneth Coles, senior vice president overseeing HHA voucher operations, emphasized the outreach efforts, but acknowledged the authority “would expect that some number of applicants who wanted to remain on the list got withdrawn because there was a disconnect” between contact information provided in 2016 versus now.
“I mean, who knows?” Coles said. “That’s really the reason why we have controls in place that should someone who was withdrawn from the list — either for cause or accidentally — we have a method to hear each of their individual situations, and there’s a path to being restored back to the list in the spot that you were withdrawn from.”
For those who may have been removed from the waitlist because they failed to update their information in May or June, a spokesperson for the HHA said they should follow these steps:
- Call (713) 260-0500 during business hours. You’ll either speak with a live agent or be prompted to leave a message about the waitlist. Leave your full name, along with your current phone number, email address and mailing address.
- Once your information is received, a waitlist administrator will follow up to confirm one of the following:
- If you were previously on the Housing Choice Voucher waitlist, you’ll be told whether your status is “on list” or “withdrawn.”
- If you were not previously on the Housing Choice Voucher waitlist, you’ll be notified that you are “not on the list.”
- If you’ve been withdrawn but still need assistance, contact the call center. Your information will be passed along to waitlist administrators, who will work with you to reinstate your position.
RELATED: Houston Housing Authority considers work requirements, time limits for housing vouchers
In an effort to get more people off the waitlist and into the program, HHA is considering imposing work requirements and time limits on households using vouchers. HHA officials said increasing household income would lower the amount of rent HHA has to pay, opening the door for more households to come off the waitlist. The program currently serves about 19,000 households.
The considerations come as the federal government pushes for work requirements and time limits of its own. HHA President and CEO Jamie Bryant told Houston Public Media’s “Houston Matters” talk show on Friday that the authority is attempting to “craft rules that actually would work and that wouldn’t displace people,” like senior citizens, single-parent households or those who have disabilities.
Bryant said the authority remained in “initial conversations” about the potential change, which officials previously said would take at least a year to implement.
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