Missoula Housing Authority navigates wait list, vouchers
Martin Kidston
(Missoula Current) Housing vouchers provided by the Missoula Housing Authority are nearly fully utilized and the wait list for subsidized housing continues to grow, officials told members of the Missoula City Council this week.
But the organization is working to update that list in preparation for the U.S. Housing and Urban Development's new funding season, and it expects the numbers to drop – a pattern housing experts see each year.
The current wait list stands at 2,468 unduplicated households, according to Gwen Rafuse, director of HUD programs for MHA.
“When we do our wait-list update, it cuts our wait list in half,” said Rafuse. “Having it over 2,000 is pretty typical at this time of year.”
Rafuse said MHA is currently utilizing 992 Housing Choice Vouchers from an allotment of 1,042, marking a 95% utilization rate. Its mainstream program, which is reserved for non-elderly disabled individuals, is using 64 of 66 vouchers for a 97% utilization rate.
HUD's budget process is based on unit-months leased, a formula that can be challenging for MHA. Under the formula, Rafuse said MHA leases as much as possible early in the year, though at times the figures can be misleading as the year wears on.
“The more units leased at the start of the year and maintained at the remainder, the better the outcome of funding the following year,” said Rafuse. “HUD bases its funding off what you did the previous year. The result is a small but manageable funding gap.”
The housing authority also works with the Dept. of Veterans Affairs to house homeless veterans or those at risk of becoming homeless. The authority currently has 52 HUD-VASH vouchers and is utilizing 42 of them.
But qualifying for the vouchers has strict guidelines, Rafuse said. Veterans who don't qualify may gain assistance through the City of Missoula's Built for Zero program. That effort is currently seeking landlords willing to lease to veterans.
“Finding housing without the subsidy attached is a challenge,” said Rafuse. “But the Built for Zero program is really a group effort between the city, all of the veterans' case managers, and all the housing providers as well.”
Sam Oliver, direct of MHA, said the organization is working to streamline several areas of operation, including the leasing of its affordable housing properties. On that front, he said MHA has increased its number of open houses and now posts which properties have vacancies and at what size.
MHA's affordable properties, which number around 1,200, currently have a 94% lease rate and 97% are occupied. But MHA also sees as many as 300 people vacate a property each year, and the agency is working to expedite its turn rate, said Oliver.
“We hired a dedicated turn team and this year alone, we completed 330 unit turns,” he said. “Our leadership team is really turning its eye toward retention. We really want to do a deep dive and explore retention further.”
Oliver said MHA will also begin renovating its Wildflower Apartments property. The property, built in the early 1990s, includes 96 housing units which are home to several hundred people.
“Any time you do an occupied rehab, you want to minimize the impact to residents,” Oliver said. “We'll maintain six vacancies. It's a collection of two-story buildings with six to eight units per. We'll renovate units at a time and move people one time from their current unit into their new unit.”