Subsidized Housing
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has a rental assistance program, known as Housing Choice vouchers (formerly known as Section 8) that provides low-income, elderly and disabled persons with decent, safe housing in the private rental market. An individual or family that is issued a Housing Choice voucher through this program is responsible for finding a suitable housing unit of the family's choice where the owner agrees to rent under the program. A lack of available units accepting Housing Choice vouchers is leading to less than optimal outcomes for the program.
While the wait lists to secure an Housing Choice voucher from one of our local housing authorities or the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority are years long (more than 1000 individuals are on the wait list locally), nearly 50 vouchers awarded by those same housing authorities expired in 2018 due to an inability to find housing within the 120-day (average) time frame allotted.
Every day an average of more than 20 individuals and families holding Housing Choice vouchers via our local housing authorities are seeking housing locally, and another 145 are holding vouchers awarded via the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority.
Due to stigma and a lack of understanding of the program, outside of public housing or subsidized developments, there are a limited number of private landlords willing to accept these vouchers and those individuals holding them.