The City and County of Honolulu will next week open its waitlist for the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program.
With funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Anton Krucky, director of the city's Department of Community Services, said in a statement Friday that the program provides rental assistance to expand housing options for eligible low-income and vulnerable families.
“We recognize the need for rental assistance is great and that families are anxious to apply. With the online application system, applying is quick, easy and free.”
Pre-applications will be accepted online here from 7:45 a.m. Monday, July 14, to 4:30 p.m. Friday, July 18. They'll be randomized and 3,000 will be selected through a lottery and placed on the waiting list.
"There is no first-come, first-served advantage, and only one application will be allowed per household," the city noted in an announcement Friday. "There is no guarantee for eligibility or housing assistance after applying."
"In the one week that the waiting list is opened, we received well over 11,000 applications," a city spokesperson told Aloha State Daily in an email. "The city uses a lottery process to then select 3,000 to be on the waiting list. Historically, it has taken a little over three years to get through the 3,000 households on the list."
The waitlist last opened on Feb. 6, 2023, they said.
While there are a number of factors that affect how quickly the city gets through the waitlist, the spokesperson says that for this cycle, "we have been fortunate to have recently received increased funding from HUD to expand the number of vouchers that we can support and therefore finish the current list sooner than it's tracking and open up a new list."
The city's Section 8 website details eligibility requirements and notes that the program provides rental assistance for eligible families at or below the "very low" income limits set by HUD, or 50% of the area median income. No less than 75% of new admissions must have incomes at or below HUD's "extremely low" income limits, or 30% AMI.
According to income limits shared on the site, 30% AMI for a four-person household is $45,600, while 50% AMI for a household of that size is $76,000.
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Stephanie Salmons can be reached at stephanie@alohastatedaily.com.
