ATLANTA — For some struggling Georgians, housing assistance may seem far-fetched — even as the Georgia Department of Community Affairs plans to open its application portal for the Housing Choice Voucher Program from October 17- 20.

Formerly known as Section 8, the HUD-funded program aims to assist low-income families and individuals to afford decent, safe and sanitary housing in the private rental market.

It will be the first time since 2021 that the HCV wait list has been opened to more applicants.

“Rent checks are often the first and largest payment families across Georgia make each month. As housing costs continue to rise at all income levels, the Housing Choice Voucher program is a critical tool to ensure thousands of Georgians all around the state can maintain safe and stable housing,” said Philip Gilman, DCA deputy commissioner for Housing Assistance and Development.

In Georgia, the rental subsidy through the HCV is generally calculated as the difference between 30 percent of the household’s adjusted gross income and the applicable payment standard, or the maximum amount of rental assistance that the program will provide for a particular unit size in a given county.

For example, according to the DCA’s 2023 payment standards, the max voucher amount in Lowndes County for a two-bedroom rental is $984, compared to a $893 voucher max amount for a two-bedroom unit in Baldwin County.

To qualify for the voucher, which is available to 149 of 159 Georgia counties, applicants must have an income limits less than 50 percent of the median income for the county in which you live based on family size, be a Georgia resident, and U.S. citizen or eligible immigrant.

An automated lottery system will randomly select from the pool of 5,000 potential participants and randomize their order on the wait list after applying their preference selection.

Metro Atlanta resident and social justice advocate Stacey Hopkins said the lottery system presents false hope, especially to those who have been waiting on the list for decades.

Hopkins said her best friend has been on the wait list since 2009 and has yet to be selected for a voucher. She said her daughter and grandson recently moved in with her and her husband, and her daughter has plans to apply for the voucher program as there are now four people in her two-bedroom metro Atlanta apartment that she calls substandard.

“My daughter’s thinking, ‘OK, I’m gonna apply for this. My voucher is going to come through,’ and I’m like, you know, chances are, your son will be in middle school before you get a voucher,” Hopkins said.

Another challenge, Hopkins said, is finding adequate and affordable housing to use the vouchers— especially as many of the complexes are opting out of the HUD-funded vouchers.

“Handing out vouchers is great, but until we address the supply-and-demand problem that we have, we simply do not have enough units,” she said. “When you have 10,000-plus on a waiting list, you know, it then becomes a housing Hunger Games.”

She suggested government funding would be better suited to fund additional public housing or affordable housing units.

“We’re seeing luxury housing being built, but they don’t accept the vouchers, and then you have problems with NIMBYs (an acronym for ‘Not in my Backyard,’ or people opposed to certain developments in their neighborhood) who don’t want Section 8 developments in their neighborhood,” Hopkins said. “So people end up with funding something that will become obsolete because people can’t use it. Putting more money into expanding it would be great, but we have no where to put people.”

According to DCA, families will be notified by first class mail when they have been selected from the waiting list.

DCA encourages applicants to have the following information available for all household members to apply: names, dates of birth, social security numbers, annual income and assets. Once an applicant’s name is selected for the top of the wait list through the lottery system, DCA will contact the applicant to complete additional information and attend a briefing.

More information on the Housing Choice Voucher program can be found at www.dca.ga.gov, https://www.waitlistcheck.com/GA3236, or by emailing dcawaitlist@dca.ga.gov.