December 17, 2014 Section 8 Update Video and Transcript

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_PqQdRMMqA   Hi, I’m Dave Layfield with Affordable Housing Online welcome to our weekly section 8 update today is December 17th, 2014. We’re changing it up a bit by doing a live broadcast via Google Hangouts. You Can access the hangout from our Google+ page and it’s also embedded on our website. If you want to ask any questions of me, you can ask on any of our social media channels. So let’s get started. Right now we’re tracking 105 housing authorities across the country that have open waiting lists. Those housing authorities vary in size from the very small to the quite large. Many of those stay open all the time. For a complete list you can visit our Open Section 8 Waiting Lists page on Affordable Housing Online. It’s a very complete list with all [housing authorities that are open, opening soon, or closed.] I want to highlight two of those 105 that recently opened and will be closing soon. The first one is the CMHA in Cincinnati. They opened for the first time in three years on December 16th, yesterday and they close on December 19th at midnight. It’s an online only application. It’s a random lottery and we have full details on our website on our Cincinnati pages. The CMHA has a really great FAQ document that you can access that will answer plenty of the questions you have. You can view that document by clicking through from our Cincinnati pages. The other Housing Authority that is open right now that I wanted to highlight is the City of Tyler in Smith County, TX. It opened On December 15th, this Monday, and it remains open until December 30th of this year. For the first time since June of 2009 it is opening up. It’s an online only application and this is the first time the housing authority has taken applications online. There is a waiting list preference for those who are 62 years old or older or disabled. It is a random lottery where 500 applicants are chosen. And this week only there will be several local organizations that will be open to provide computer and internet access to those who do not have it. You can find out more on our website at the housing authority and Tyler, Texas pages. Moving on to a few that are opening soon. There has been several new opens that have been announced. Let’s start with Lexington, KY. Opening for the first time since 2010 the LHA will be opening it’s waiting list from January 5th to January 9th. It’s an online only application. There is a link to the application website on our LHA pages. I will note that the application form is live, but it is a test form. If you apply, remember that it is just a test form and the submission will not go through. This is not first come first served. This is a random lottery. They will be selecting 500 folks from the application list that applied between the 5th and the 9th [note: the video incorrectly states the 14th and 15th] and they will be announcing those selections sometime around the end of February. On to the next one on the list, Spokane, WA. This one is an online only application and it is opening from January 26th at 10am to January 30th. It’s a random lottery drawing. There are only 600 applications that are going to be selected in that lottery. We could not find any explicit preferences listed, but you may want to call and confirm that with the Housing Authority. If you applied for the 2014 lottery and were not selected you’ll have to reapply for the 2015 lottery. On to a new one we’ve found. Boulder, CO. Boulder has an online only application on Wednesday, February 11th at 9am MST and closes on February 13th at 4pm. it’s also a random lottery. They’ve stated a pretty strong primary local residency preference. The opening also prioritize Elderly or Disabled persons as well as families with children. On to DeLand, FL. Located which is approximately 30 miles from Orlando and Daytona Beach. It’s an online only application. It opens January 16th at 8:00am and is open through January 18th. The Housing Authority will accept 1,000 applications and we have not seen where this is a lottery. We think they are just taking the first 1,000 applications but we’ll track that issue and update our DeLand pages. And then the last opening soon on my list, and perhaps the most exciting, is Atlanta, GA. They haven’t opened their waiting list since 2001. They’re opening again on January 6th at 9:00am and closing again on the 13th. It’s an online only application. Atlanta has a specific work requirement, so all members of the household 18 to 61 must be working full time, going to school full time, or have a work/school split of at least 30 hours a week. The head of household must be legitimately employed full time. Heads of Household with a disability or aged 62 and older are exempt from the work requirement. There will be 10,000 registrants added to the list. We expect far more to apply for the list. The AHA has provided us with additional resources for those who need special assistance. We have plenty of links on our Atlanta pages. That’s all I’ve got for today. If anyone would like some questions answered, we’ll try to answer them in the next hangout. Thanks for watching, Thanks for using Affordable Housing Online, and we hope we’ve brought you a little closer to home.