PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — For the first time in two years, Pinellas County Housing Authority leaders reopened their waitlist for section 8 vouchers this week. From Tuesday through Thursday, they invited people to apply for a voucher who make at or below 50% of the area median income. That means Pinellas County residents who make $28,750 as an individual or $41,050 as a family of four.
From those that apply, the Pinellas County Housing Authority staff will choose 3,000 using a lottery system that will be added to the waitlist for a voucher.
The vouchers cover a large portion of rent costs for low-income individuals and families.
Yet, ABC Action News found out demand is too high for Pinellas County Housing Authority leaders and nonprofits to keep up as the price of paradise skyrockets.
Cynthia Calleia has spent days on end searching online endlessly for an affordable place to live.
She’s been on a waitlist for a section 8 housing voucher for 19 months and counting.
“I assumed it would probably be no more than a year on a list, but I’m still waiting. I was added to the wait list in February 2021,” she explained.
With her rent set to go up next month, she’s now facing the inevitable: moving out of state.
“I have to leave my 11-month-old grandson and my daughter just to start over and hopefully survive,” Calleia said while pushing away tears that fell down her cheeks.
Even when families receive a section 8 housing choice voucher, Karla Correa at the St. Pete Tenant’s Union said it’s not a golden ticket for housing because you have to find a landlord that will accept it.
“We’ve seen that a lot of people they have the vouchers and they have a certain amount of time to find a place or they’ll lose the voucher and often times they’re not able to find that place and they have to settle for something like a hotel or motel,” Correa added.
She said it’s a growing crisis across Tampa Bay.
“There’s not much relief left, there’s no more federal funds left, there’s no more eviction moratorium left. So, people are in serious trouble,” Correa elaborated.
Kirk Ray Smith at Hope Villages of America said they just converted their shelter space into affordable housing, and they’re constantly on the hunt for more units to add.
“It’s a race. We’re trying to purchase as many affordable housing units as we possibly can to make it available. Many of our families are voucher based. We don’t want that to be their reality for generation after generation. We’re trying to put them in a position to be self-sufficient, self-contained, independent, so we provide life skills and financial literacy,” Smith explained.
Nationally, just one in four households that qualify for rent assistance actually receive it.
Pinellas County Housing Authority’s voucher waitlist opened for just three days this week, and leaders with the agency (which operates as a seperate agency from the Pinellas County Government/Pinellas County Commission) expect to be flooded with applications for people needing help.
“It’s not the hunger games. We are supposed to be a community and work together and strive for each other, and this is pulling a lot of people down,” Calleia said.
If you applied for assistance through Pinellas County Housing Authority’s housing choice voucher program, you can visit WaitListCheck.com or call the agency’s hotline at (727) 450-2111 to check on the status of your application.
You can also check out these housing and rental assistance programs:
- Pinellas Eviction Diversion Program: No-cost virtual legal services for tenants impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and landlords in eviction-related disputes.
- Bay Area Legal Services: Free legal help and resources for low-income individuals.
- Gulfcoast Legal Services:Legal assistance for low-income individuals
- Pinellas County Housing Resources page information on first-time homebuying assistance and other rental resources.
