The waitlist for affordable housing vouchers is reopening soon and that waitlist could be shorter than before.
Last fall, the state’s five housing voucher providers combined part of their operations, putting applications for all five housing authorities onto one centralized website. Officials say that move made it easier for people to apply for rental assistance because they could visit just one website - delaware.affordablehousing.com - rather than five different sites.
As part of the process, people already on the list were required to update their applications. The waitlist opens for all applicants on February 3. Elana Davis is with the Delaware State Housing Authority, which operates in Kent and Sussex Counties.
“With the update happening for the waiting list, we were able to remove names of people that either are no longer interested or did not reply to us, and that does give people who are now applying the ability to get a better position on the list," she said.
Davis says only about 13% of people who were on the list updated their applications, even after the deadline was extended by more than a month. An appeal process is open for people who needed to update their application and didn’t.
The Housing Choice Vouchers are targeted towards low-income families, seniors, and people with disabilities. They are funded by the federal government and administered locally.
