Connecticut families who rely on state and federal housing vouchers to pay their rents are often forced to live in racially and socioeconomically segregated communities, according to a new study on the voucher programs’ flaws.
The federal Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCV), also known as Section 8, and the state’s Rental Assistance Program (RAP), have long histories of leaving recipients in racially segregated urban areas.
Civil rights organization Open Communities Alliance (OCA) recently released the report after about a year of research, according to OCA Executive Director Erin Boggs.
Housing vouchers only pay for a fraction of the rental cost. This is why many of the apartments that fit within the voucher budget are in urban areas with a disproportionately high number of Black and Brown residents, according to Boggs.
Voucher values are based on the Fair Market Rent, set by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, for geographic areas rather than specific towns, Boggs said.
“A number is provided by HUD that is supposed to gain voucher holders access to 40% of the rental housing in a region, and that region is very widely defined,” Boggs said.
The rent amount suggested by HUD is then relayed to a local housing authority, which can increase or lower the number by 10%. The number to which the housing authority commits is the cap for the voucher amount, according to Boggs.
This leaves renters, who are majority people of color, limited in where they can afford to live. Oftentimes the neighborhoods that are available to them based on the cost of the housing vouchers have high crime and poverty rates.
Voucher accessibility also impacts more than just the cost of housing, Boggs said.
“We wanted to highlight what it meant for access to high performing schools. What the way the program is run now means for the environmental conditions where families are living,” Boggs said. “This is government money we're spending, and we are spending it in a way that doesn't create the opportunity to have the most impactful effect on the lives of the families that are participating.”
Families receiving housing voucher assistance often live in urban areas leading to higher rates of asthma and access to lower-performing school systems, according to the report.
Half of all HCV and RAP recipients live in Connecticut's five largest cities, which are Bridgeport, Stamford, New Haven, Hartford and Waterbury. These cities make up less than 3% of the state’s total land area, according to the report.
The voucher programs don’t work as intended, OCA Policy Director Hugh Bailey said.
“It's supposed to not have these outcomes, it's supposed to offer people a chance to live in any town, in any neighborhood. There's not supposed to be these limitations,” Bailey.
The group offered several recommendations to improve the voucher system, including changing how the vouchers are valued. Another recommendation is to change the program to make it easier for voucher recipients working with their local housing authorities to move to different municipalities without jeopardizing their voucher status.
“It shouldn't be nearly as hard to move from one town to another as it is,” Bailey said. “There shouldn't be a disincentive for housing authorities for someone to move out of that jurisdiction. That doesn't work in anyone's favor.”
