Waiting for Subsidized Housing in Illinois: New Study Highlights Increasing Backlog

The demand in Illinois for public housing units is more than double the supply, and more than half of the state’s public housing authorities that offer Housing Choice Vouchers have closed their waiting lists to needy families, according to a recent study by the Heartland Alliance. The study, entitled Not Even a Place in Line: Public Housing & Housing Choice Voucher Capacity and Waiting Lists in Illinois, evaluated the Illinois housing authorities’ waiting lists for public housing and Housing Choice Vouchers and found that most are closed to new applicants.

The backlogged, closed waiting lists can be traced to the reduction in Illinois’s public housing units, the insufficient number of new vouchers approved for use in the state, and drastic federal budget cuts, according to the study. These cuts, dropping from $94.4 billion in 1979 to $28.8 billion in 2006, are partly due to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) experiencing massive declines in budget authority. In turn, HUD has been unable to fund adequately the nation’s key housing assistance programs, including public housing and vouchers.

In 2006 Illinois had approximately 63,810 units of public housing, and 92,521 Housing Choice Vouchers were approved for use in the state. But 65,184 Illinois households are on waiting lists for public housing—more than double the available units of public housing—and 52,969 households remain on voucher waiting lists. These long waiting lists actually underestimate, as the study notes, the need for subsidized housing since public housing authorities often close their lists and do not allow new people in need to apply.

Despite backlogged waiting lists, the demolition of distressed housing projects throughout Illinois has increased, with a loss of 5,000 units of public housing since 2003. While housing authorities have issued more vouchers, more than two-thirds of the new vouchers are simply conversion vouchers compensating for the loss of public housing.

For example, the study found that Chicago’s supply of public housing units fell by 11.16 percent between 2003 and 2005 (from 31,536 units to 28,016 units). The Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) has increased the number of vouchers by 39.13 percent, but, in keeping with a statewide trend, more than 66 percent of these vouchers are conversion vouchers. Then, too, CHA’s waiting lists—already more than 9,700 households for vouchers and more than 42,000 for public housing—are closed to new applicants.

Even housing authorities with open waiting lists struggle to keep up with the demand for subsidized housing. While the St. Clair Housing Authority, covering one of the poorest counties in the state, has kept its waiting lists open, the study found that households languished on lists for both public housing and vouchers. From 2001 to 2006, available public housing inched up from 1,016 units to 1,023 units in the county. Meanwhile, the public housing waiting list jumped from 1,999 households to 3,655 households (an increase of 82 percent). The St. Clair Housing Authority issued the same number of Housing Choice Vouchers in 2001 and 2006 (1,909 vouchers). But the waiting list for these vouchers rose from 3,207 households to 5,101 households (an increase of 59 percent).

As the study notes, the problems of subsidized housing must be understood in the broader context of market forces, long-standing neglect of distressed properties, and policy changes. Since 2004, when HUD adopted a “dollar-based” funding structure for the voucher program, many housing authorities have faced additional financial difficulties. Under the new formula, HUD allocates voucher funding based on the previous year’s amount (adjusted for inflation), rather than the housing authority’s current need, and prohibits housing authorities from maintaining sufficient reserve funds to cover unexpected increases. This funding formula and reserve funds cap also limit housing authorities’ ability to support rent levels, which often rise faster than inflation, in job-rich, economically thriving parts of the state.

Recommendations: Solutions that Can’t Wait

The study recommends several policy changes, including the creation of a national housing trust fund and reforms of Illinois’s real estate transfer tax to expand the supply of affordable housing. Federal and state governments must provide incentives and expand resources to preserve affordable housing.

Emphasizing the government’s vital responsibility to provide funds for available housing, Doug Schenkelberg, one of the study’s authors, noted: “The findings of this report clearly show that both the federal and state governments need to increase the financial resources for the preservation and creation of safe, decent and affordable housing for the most vulnerable people in our society.”

For more information, contact Doug Schenkelberg, dschenkelberg@heartlandalliance.org. The study is available online at http://www.heartlandalliance.org/maip/documents/NotEvenaPlaceinLine2007.pdf