ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – The head of the St. Louis County Housing Authority says there just isn’t enough housing for all those entitled to it. There are still thousands of people on the waiting list for housing and they’ve been there for years.
Shannon Koenig says part of the problem is money, but there’s also an issue with getting enough landlords willing to rent to those with vouchers. A lot of families are left struggling as a result.
“We have two challenges. We’ve already talked about one, which is discrimination against residents. But number two would be that we have been chronically underfunded in both of our primary programs,” she said. “We operate the Housing Choice Voucher Program, also known as Section 8. It’s underfunded for the amount of people who would qualify for assistance based on their income in St. Louis County and nationwide. One in four people who would be eligible for the problem based on their income actually receive assistance. This is a significant demand and something that’s underfunded through HUD.”
Koenig says there were 6,000 people on the waiting list for housing back in the pandemic. Right now, there are still 2,000 people waiting for a place to live. She says COVID slowed down the process because people had a hard time looking for housing during the pandemic. The St. Louis County Housing Authority would give them three-month extensions until they found something.
“The authority is even having maintenance troubles with the properties that it owns and manages,” she said. “We’re chronically underfunded through years and decades, to the point where the public housing that we own and manage has this tremendous backlog of capital improvements.”
Koenig hopes for additional funding from HUD to narrow the gap and find housing for more folks in need. The program primarily exists for low-income working families and the disabled.
Comments are closed.