Countywide : Low-Income Housing Applications Top 6,300

More than 6,300 low-income Orange County residents filed applications for federal housing subsidies during a special enrollment period the past two weeks, but most will receive only spots on a waiting list that could last as long as five years.

Friday marked the deadline to submit Section 8 subsidy applications that were first distributed March 1 by the Orange County Housing Authority. The housing authority, which had not accepted new applications for the housing subsidy since November 1991, distributed more than 16,000 applications to 25 city housing departments throughout the county.

Only 1,000 of the new applicants--16%--will receive a subsidy within the next year, officials say.

The response, officials say, illustrates Orange County’s acute need for low-income housing. “We have known for years that the need is there,” said Manny Manzo, manager of the housing assistance division for Orange County.

The numbers do not surprise people familiar with housing needs in Orange County.

“There was no greater indication of the need in Orange County for low-income housing than seeing the streets blocked off and police directing traffic the first days applications were handed out” at the Santa Ana housing authority office, said Scott Wylie, director of the Public Law Center, a nonprofit legal service provider for low-income clients.

About 6,500 Orange County households currently receive Section 8 subsidies, housing officials say. Under the program, households earning less than half their community’s median annual income can qualify, and would spend no more than 30% of their income on rent, with the federal government picking up the rest.

Orange County has more than five times as many low-income renters as affordable apartments, according to a 1995 study by the Washington-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The study also found that 76% of Orange County’s poor spend 50% or more of their income on rent.

Housing officials do not know when the next application opening will be.