Section 8 Housing Voucher Application Closing Due To Excess Of Applicants

The Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency says it's closing the Section 8 waiting list temporarily to new applicants on Monday. 

The Section 8 waiting list is part of a housing choice voucher program that helps low income families with rental assistance. 

The Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency says they have enough funding to help around 10,000 Oklahoma families a month. 

“We’re getting around 1,100 applications a month,” Holley Mangum with the agency said.

Mangum says there’s about 17,000 people in Oklahoma waiting to be approved for rental assistance.

“The waiting list right now for people that have been waiting for rental assistance is over two years,” Mangum said.

They’re closing the list before they get even more behind.

“I think it would be good news for people who have been waiting for some time, because the list won’t be growing,” Mangum said. “We’ll be able to get through to their application.”

Dan Straughan, the Executive Director of the Homeless Alliance, says this could increase the number of people experiencing homelessness.

“If we don’t have those units available, there’s limits to the nonprofits and faith based communities' ability to fill that gap,” Straughan said.

He believes one issue is the lack of affordable housing.

“In Oklahoma City, 35,000 units, that’s how many units we are short of truly affordable housing,” Straughan said.

The Oklahoma City Housing Authority has almost 30,000 people on their waiting list.

Oklahoma City plans to address this issue by putting $55.76 million from MAPS 4 towards affordable housing options.

“We have a long way to go as a community,” Straughan said.

The application closes on Monday at midnight. For more information on the application, click here.