Tenants applying for financial assistance have until noon June 28 to put themselves on a waiting list for federal Section 8 vouchers that help pay for housing.
Minnesota’s Housing Choice Voucher program rarely opens applications for its waitlist because demand is much higher than the number of Section 8 housing vouchers available. The last two times the program opened applications were in 2019 and 2015.
“It only happens every couple of years,” said Terri Smith, director of the Metropolitan Council’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority, the regional government agency that administers federal Section 8 housing. “So we really want to encourage people, if they think they’re eligible, to take action and apply.”
To be eligible, households must not earn more than 50% of the median income of the region in which they live. For a family of four, the income limit for eligibility is $58,650 in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.
Tenants admitted to the waiting list could potentially receive a Section 8 voucher. Each beneficiary receives a different amount of financial assistance for their housing costs depending on their income and rent. People with a voucher will pay no more than 30-40% of their income for rent, and the rest of the rent will be paid by the federal government.
The Housing Choice Voucher Program covers housing in approximately 100 communities in the northwest suburbs of the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area, including Anoka, Carver, and the suburban counties of Hennepin and Ramsey. The program excludes Minneapolis and St. Paul, which have their own Section 8 voucher programs.
The federal government pays Section 8 money directly to the private landlord from whom the coupon holder is renting. Private landlords must choose to participate in the Section 8 scheme. Smith said 1,800 landlords in the metropolitan area are accepting the vouchers and the Met Council is working to recruit landlords into the scheme.
Currently, 70% of people using Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program vouchers are people of color.
Ninety-five percent of applicants on the waitlist will need to work, live or attend school in the seven-county Twin Cities metropolitan area, Smith said, with the remaining 5% coming from the outside of Minnesota.
Request “much larger than what is available‘
It can be difficult to get on the Housing Choice Voucher program waiting list and get a Section 8 voucher.
The Met Council is making 2,000 waitlist places available for this application window and expects many more applications. In 2019, over 17,000 people applied for a similar number of openings on the waitlist. The Met Council uses a random number generator to determine which applicants are added to the waiting list.
Places on the waitlist open up when people leave the Section 8 program, usually because their income level increases and they are no longer eligible. People stay in Section 8 for an average of eight years, Smith said, and the Met Council reviews their eligibility every year.
The Met Council distributes 7,200 vouchers under the scheme; the total number of tenants using the vouchers remains the same from year to year. Limited federal resources are why the number of vouchers is so small and the waiting list is hard to come by, Smith said.
“The demand is far greater than what’s available,” Smith said. “That’s true not just here, but across the country.”
Still, she and other members of the Met Council want people to apply. This goes for people who are interested but unsure if they are eligible. The Met Council begins to check applicants for eligibility when a voucher is available to them, which may be several years after they were first added to the waitlist.
Renters who are unsure if their immigration status prevents them from accessing Section 8 are also encouraged to apply. Immigrants with permanent resident status, asylum and refugee status are eligible for the vouchers.
Undocumented immigrants are not eligible, but families with mixed residency status may receive part of the voucher. For example, if a family includes two undocumented parents and two children who are US citizens because they were born in the United States, that family could receive half of the grant.
Either way, Housing and Redevelopment Authority deputy director Stephanie Paulson said people shouldn’t worry about whether their immigration status affects their eligibility, as it’s up to the Met Council to review each applicant. The Met Council does not report applicants’ immigration status to federal immigration authorities and is not required to do so, Met Council spokesman John Schadl added.
“I would encourage people to just apply,” Paulson said. “When they are selected, we will go through the verification process to determine if they meet the eligibility criteria.”
Immigration status can change over time, meaning tenants could be ineligible when they first apply, but become eligible the moment they are selected, she added.
Here’s how to join the waitlist online and by phone:
- Renters interested in applying for the Section 8 voucher can do so by click here to apply online on the Met Council website.
- The app is available in English, Spanish, Afrikaans, Amharic, Araband Azerbaijani.
- Interpreters are available on request to assist you with the application process over the phone. They can be contacted at the Housing and Redevelopment Authority at (651) 602-1428 during weekday business hours.
- Applications are open until Tuesday, June 28 noon.
The Met Council is holding in-person information sessions on the application process:
Friday, June 24:
- Minneapolis Central Library, 300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
- Hennepin County Sumner Library, 611 Van White Memorial Blvd, Minneapolis, 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
- Hennepin County Brookdale Library, 6125 Shingle Creek Parkway, Brooklyn Center, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Al-lhsan Islamic Center, 955 Minnehaha Ave, St. Paul, 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Saturday June 25
- Oromo Resource Center, 6875 Hwy 65 NE, Fridley, 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Sunday June 26
- Oromo Resource Center, 6875 Hwy 65 NE, Fridley, 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.