Why this matters:
The San Diego County Housing Authority offers rental assistance to nearly 11,000 households with nearly 124,000 applicants on a waiting list. It’s the second local agency to close its waitlist this year.
San Diego County’s housing authority will stop adding people to its massive waitlist for federal rental assistance on Feb. 20. The list had swelled to nearly 124,000 applicants last month with 27,000 people added to it in the last two years alone despite little hope they’d get benefits soon.
The announcement follows a similar one by the San Diego Housing Commission this month.
A county spokesperson said the decision was made because of “current and projected” federal funding levels that already mean yearslong waits for those awaiting subsidies on the list now.
“We don’t anticipate selecting new applicants from those waitlists for several years,” he said.
The funding problem is evident in San Diego County’s data: The average monthly rent subsidy per household has risen 15% since 2023 – from $1,567 to to $1,808 – while the number of households served has actually dropped by 247 to 10,984.
The Housing Choice Voucher Program, commonly called Section 8 after the relevant federal code, helps low-income households pay rent in the private market. The program was started in 1983 and provides rental assistance to more than 5 million people nationally.
The county waitlist also includes a public housing program that places people in county-owned units and not private rentals, and the Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS tenant-based rental assistance program.
People receiving the vouchers typically contribute 30% of their income to rent and utilities, and the federal government pays the rest. Local housing authorities, such as the Housing Authority of the County of San Diego, administer the program using funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
As a result of looming fiscal challenges, substantial rent increases starting at the end of 2026 are likely for those on Section 8 in the city of San Diego. The city’s Housing Commission has asked HUD to approve rent increases for those on vouchers to avoid having to kick 1,700 families – about 10% of the beneficiaries – off the program entirely.
Legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and sent to the Senate for its consideration last week contains higher funding levels for HUD. Earlier proposals to cut HUD and Section 8 raised concerns that the program would be underfunded and put hundreds of thousands at high risk for homelessness nationally.
The increase in the pending legislation might still not cover the increase in yearly costs in markets like San Diego where rents have risen sharply.
Type of Content
News: Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
