Posted
For Immediate Release: Thursday, April 23, 2015
The Housing Authority of Washington County (HAWC) will accept applications for two housing assistance program waitlists between May 2 and May 9, 2015. HAWC is funded through the Federal office of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and administers several housing assistance programs that can help low-income households secure decent, safe and affordable housing in Washington County.
HAWC will accept applications for its Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher (S8HCV) and Public Housing waitlists beginning at 12:01am on Saturday May 2 and ending at 11:59pm on Saturday May 9. Applications will not be prioritized by date, and people may apply at any point during the opening.
A random lottery will be used to select 2,500 households for the S8HCV waitlist and 2,500 households for the Public Housing waitlist. Households may apply for the S8HCV waitlist, the Public Housing waitlist, or both waitlists. Only one application per household will be accepted for each waitlist. Duplicate applications will be removed before the lottery. All applications received between May 2 and May 9, 2015 will have an equal chance of being selected for a waitlist.
Applications can be submitted online at https://www.waitlistcheck.com/OR945 from May 2 to May 9, 2015. Households who are already on the waitlist do not need to re-apply—HAWC plans to exhaust the current waitlist before serving clients who submit applications in May.
Many Washington County library locations have computers with internet access available for public use during regular library hours. Information on library hours and locations with computer labs is available online at www.wccls.org. In addition, HAWC staff will be available to answer questions and provide assistance in submitting online applications at many Washington County library and PCC locations during the week.
Please go to www.co.washington.or.us/housingpreap for more information and a complete list of locations.
Video PSA (English) Video PSA (Spanish)
The Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program and the Public Housing program are HAWC's largest housing assistance programs. These programs assist families that earn less than 50% of median income, which amounts to approximately $25,750 for a single individual, or $36,750 for a family of four.(In Washington County, the median income for a family of four is about $73,900.) In both programs, participating families pay about 30% of their income towards their housing costs, and the Housing Authority pays the rest. The Housing Authority receives enough funding to serve about 3,000 low-income households through these two programs.
There are many more low-income households in Washington County than these programs can serve. The 2009-2013 American Community Survey estimated that approximately 52,000 households, or about 25% of the households in Washington County, earned less than $35,000 a year. As a result, the waiting list for these programs was very long. In 2011, HAWC closed the waitlist in order to serve households on its existing waitlist before accepting additional new applications. Since 2011, HAWC has been able to remove inactive applications and serve many waitlist clients, so the current waitlist will soon be exhausted.
REASONABLE ACCOMMODATIONS
If you need special accommodation to submit an application, write to HAWC at:
- Attn: Waitlist Opening
Housing Authority of Washington County
111 NE Lincoln Street Ste 200-L MS 63
Hillsboro OR 97124
Requests for special accommodation should be made before the opening window if at all possible. The application window may not be extended.
There is never a fee to apply for HAWC assistance. If someone asks you for money to apply for housing, please report it to the Housing Authority.
HAWC is committed to providing assistance without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex/gender, sexual orientation and gender identity, national origin, disability, age, source of income, and marital status, and familial status.
Media Contact:
Kimberly Armstrong, Program Coordinator503-846-4757
[email protected]