Offering People a Shot at Housing

In Los Angeles, families and senior citizens with low incomes have waited for three years to apply for scarce federal housing subsidies known as Section-8 certificates. At least 175,000 city households qualify, although federal funds meet but a tiny sliver of the huge need. Very few new certificates are currently available--only 3,500--but all who qualify deserve a shot at what may be their best hope for a truly affordable apartment.

The Los Angeles Housing Authority opened the eligibility list this week for the first time since 1986 and originally planned to close it today. But four days, during which the authority’s phone system was swamped with requests for certificates, proved too little time to give eligible renters an equal chance to get on the waiting list. In the first two days, only 10,000 reserved applications by going to senior citizens centers or by calling, according to housing officials, but more than 200,000 callers could not get through.

As the deadline approached, state Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), president pro tem of the Senate, asked the city to keep the list open, publicize the process more widely and accept walk-in applications at more locations. Then Mayor Tom Bradley intervened, and the housing authority commission agreed to reopen the registration list some time in January after a better telephone system is installed.

The demand is great because under the Section-8 program such tenants pay no more than 30% of their income for rent with the federal government making up the difference. Priority is given to families who are paying more than 50% of their income for rent, who are homeless, about to become homeless--as in the case of some battered women--or live in substandard housing.

Section-8 certificates make decent housing affordable in a very expensive housing market, but there are only 23,000 certificates to go around in Los Angeles. Despite the monumental need, there is little chance that Congress will expand the program. California should consider a state housing program patterned after those in New York and Massachusetts. And Los Angeles should see whether it doesn’t require a city program on the model of those in Boston and New York. The wait for a decent place to live should not take decades.