Georgia officials say ‘no plan’ to reopen Housing Choice Voucher waitlist

Sam Sachs
·2 min read

The Georgia Department of Community Affairs confirmed it has no plans to reopen a waitlist for the state’s Housing Choice Voucher program.

Formerly called Section 8, the housing vouchers use federal funds and Georgia management to provide affordable housing to low-income families, among others.

The program briefly opened a waitlist in Georgia in October of last year, for just three days, from Oct. 17 to Oct. 20, 2023.

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The DCA said the goals of the housing choice vouchers are to:

  • Provide improved living conditions for extremely low and low-income individuals and families while maintaining their rent payments at an affordable level

  • Affirmatively further fair housing for individuals and families

  • Promote freedom of housing choice and integrate lower income and minority persons into mainstream society

  • Provide decent, safe, and affordable housing for eligible participants

  • Provide an incentive to private property owners to rent to lower-income persons by offering timely subsidy payments

After receiving applications for the HCV program last October, families were put on a lottery for the waiting list, according to officials.

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“The Georgia Department of Community Affairs does not plan to reopen the Housing Choice Voucher Waiting List. We continue to support those in our program and prepare to assist families selected from our 2023 waiting list lottery. Our services reach 11,276 families across 149 counties in Georgia,” the DCA said.

As far as eligibility, here’s what you need to apply for housing assistance through the program:

  • Meet the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) definition of a family (one or more individuals who live together).

  • Meet income limits specified by HUD (less than 50% of the median income for the county in which you live).

  • Be a citizen or eligible immigrant.

  • Be 18 years of age or older.

  • Be a resident of the state of Georgia.

In Fulton County, the median income is $86,267, while the state median income is $71,355, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That means residents in Fulton County need to make at most $43,133 per year to qualify.

For other core counties of the Atlanta metro area, median incomes range between $56,207 in Clayton County to $94,244 in Cobb County. That puts the income limit to qualify between $28,103 and $47,122, depending on where you live.

The U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development maintains a list of subsidized apartments and public housing properties that low-income residents may be able to rent or get assistance for. You can learn more here.

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