Why finding affordable housing in Pueblo is 'draining,' even for providers

May 28—Prolonged unemployment, stagnate wages for those who have work and rising housing costs are putting a painful pinch on Pueblo residents' ability to find, and keep, their apartments and homes.

As the end of the federal moratorium on evictions looms June 30, the U.S. Census Bureau's Household Plus Survey data analyzed by quotewizard.com concludes 40% of renters in Colorado fear eviction in the next two months and nearly 5% of homeowners fear foreclosure.

Pueblo is no different from the rest of the state in experiencing the alarming housing trend.

"We have got to find a way in Pueblo — some way, somehow — to build affordable housing," said Frank Pacheco, executive director of the Housing Authority for the city of Pueblo, whose agency offers 818 public housing sites.

The agency's number of public housing sites are dwindling as the demolition of the old Sangre de Cristo apartments at 2619 Crawford St. continues. The 212-apartment complex was built in the 1950s.

"They were getting so old that we had to find a way to replace them, so we found a way through various HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) programs, rental assistance programs and Vectra (Bank) to demolish them and rebuild new. They will convert from public housing to project-based vouchers," Pacheco explained.

He said the agency is moving away from public housing and converting to different programs like site-based voucher where tenants will pay a portion of the rent and HUD pays the rest to the landlord.

The recent rise in lumber prices could make the housing replacement project more expensive.

"We are done with the first phase and nearly done with the second phase. We have two phases to go," Pacheco said. "We hope to start our third phase of 48 units in January. That phase, and maybe the fourth phase of 49 units, could be costly for us.

The price of lumber is going way up. We are going to face that issue of trying to get lumber we can't find or can't afford."

Section 8 vouchers are another way the housing authority helps low-income residents find housing.

Section 8 is a common name for the Housing Choice Voucher Program, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The Section 8 program allows private landlords to rent apartments and homes at fair market rates to low-income tenants who qualify for the rental subsidy.

"We have around 1,300 vouchers that are issued right now and we could issue more, but the problem is there is no housing available, so we are stuck," Pacheco said.

The demand for the vouchers "has been growing for some time. We ran out of units — both private sector and public housing — so we had to close off our wait list. We couldn't take any more people — we couldn't provide housing.

"So recently, I am not sure what has happened — either people getting jobs or people moving out or COVID chased them away — I don't know, but we finally reopened the wait list on Section 8 Housing on a couple of bedroom sizes. Maybe there are more landlords saying they don't mind doing this program, so some of them are open to it," Pacheco said.

Melissa Perez helps find housing resources for clients experiencing homelessness. She works with Catholic Charities Nurturing Parenting Program and many of those parents are staying at the Posada shelter.

She has done the work for nearly three years and is frustrated by the challenge.

"A lot of these people who are getting vouchers — whether it is through the housing authority or the Tenant Based Rental Assistance program with Posada — there is either not enough housing, or from what I have witnessed, they are being discriminated against. So, they will have the voucher and nobody will want to rent to them," Perez said.

"They don't meet the criteria, they don't meet the price range, they don't have good enough credit or they have an eviction or something criminal in their background. A lot of the times too these are very good families, but they (landlords) just have that stigma of, 'Oh they have a voucher so we don't want to rent to them," Perez said.

There are only a few landlords in Pueblo who accept the vouchers, Perez said.

Colorado House Bill 20-1332 prohibits landlords with larger numbers of rental properties from discriminating based on source of income.

"Families who receive public housing assistance can't just be turned away," Perez aid.

"It kind of seems there are loopholes to this bill when people are going to apply for these apartments they are being told they need a certain credit score, so it defeats the whole purpose of the bill because they are not giving them the opportunity."

A lot of Perez's clients are told by landlords that they have worked with voucher holders in the past and it wasn't a good experience so they don't prefer to do that anymore.

"A lot of these families they just need a chance. They've had a complete turnaround in their lives and it is just harsh that nobody will give them a chance," Perez said.

Much of the assistance available is short-term to help families get through an immediate crisis, but "when it comes to long term housing, for some reason it just seems like it is impossible for these families to get that," Perez said.

According to Perez, what often ends up happening is a lot of people are forced to live in hotels or sleep in their cars, Others are living in travel trailers.

"A lot of these hotels are not wanting to accept hotel vouchers from Catholic Charities, so it seems like they are kind of practicing the same discrimination at the hotels at this point, too," Perez said.

Even getting help with short-term rental assistance such as one month rent from Catholic Charities, is "like winning the lottery" because there is so much need and not enough assistance available. There also is a two-month deadline to use some vouchers.

"It is just frustrating because families can't find a place in the time they are supposed to and then they don't have the voucher anymore. It is just terrible and I don't know what to tell them," Perez said.

"It's a bad cycle and it is draining for me."

Chieftain reporter Tracy Harmon covers business news. She can be reached by email at tharmon@chieftain.com or via Twitter at twitter.com/tracywumps.