Need help paying for housing in SLO? Here’s how to apply for Section 8 vouchers this week
The Housing Authority of San Luis Obispo (HASLO) will open its summer interest list for housing choice vouchers — also known as Section 8 housing vouchers — to applications this week.
The application period runs from 9 a.m. Tuesday, July 19 through 4 p.m. Thursday, July 21.
The interest list will randomly select 250 applicants for the voucher lottery.
Elaine Archer, HASLO’s director of housing management, said the program anticipates anywhere between 1,800 and 2,500 applicants for this opening.
“Your chances of being selected, we figure, are about 1 in 7 or 1 in 8 — could be as low as 1 in 10,” Archer said.
This opening is the second this year. In March, 150 spots on the interest list opened because HASLO anticipated getting more emergency housing vouchers from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“150 was not enough for a year,” she said. “We have about 2,800 vouchers for this county and our turnover rate is around 10%. And so we would need that many names to process for the next year.”
Income limits are restricted to 30% or less of the area median income, and also depend on the number of people in the household.
SLO residents and veterans will be given priority listing for the vouchers, and applicants will be selected randomly from the interest list pool for the final waitlist lottery process by the week of July 25.
Archer said assuming funding from last year stays the same, wait-listed applicants can expect to be housed within 12 months.
Interested applicants can apply online at haslo.org or by calling 805-543-4478 for assistance.
This story was originally published July 18, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
