I know how hard applying for low-income housing can be. RentBetter.org is a website for Chicago families trying to apply for the housing. This is a innovative idea from the Chicago Housing Authority that is designed to help low income families apply for the waiting list for the Chicago housing choice voucher program. In Chicago, there is a waiting list that is often over 5 years long, for housing assistance. Until May 15, 2008 Families can apply on-line to be in a lottery to get in the wait list.
When I lived in California, I was having a very hard time financially. I was barely making enough money to support my son and me. I am a young mom, and I was trying hard to make it on my own. I felt like I should be able to support my family without any help. I didn’t apply for housing help for a long time because of pride, but when my son and I were being evicted because we couldn’t pay our rent I knew I had to do something.
When I first started to apply for assistance I had to go in in person and apply at the local public housing authority. When I first started reading the information I thought I might have waited to long to apply. I found out that there can often be long waiting lists that you must get on before they can provide any assistance. If the waiting list is longer then a year they stop accepting applications. I was lucky and I was able to get on the waiting list, but I knew I had to do something that would help me immediately or my son and I would be living on the street. I was able to borrow money from one of my family members until I could get the Section 8 housing help from the state.
The Section 8 housing was helpful, but was a huge pain. Once I was accepted I had to fill out more paperwork, then I had to find Section 8 approved housing. I understand that they want to make sure that the people applying for the housing assistance are really in need, but they make it very hard for the people that are in need to get the assistance. Most landlords that I talked to did not want to rent to me since I was using section 8 housing. When you look in the paper for places to rent, a lot of ad’s actually say “no section 8”. I was finally able to find a landlord that was very helpful, and willing to work with me and the public housing authority.
I knew that this was a temporary situation. I did not want to rely on the government for help with housing forever. I decided that I was going to buy a house so my son and I would have a permanent place to live, and so I could start building equity in a house. I started saving as much money as I could right away. I also starting doing research on any assistance that California provides for low-income first time home buyers. I found many different programs that were very helpful. After a while I was able to save enough money for a down payment, and I started to looking for a house. I found a house to buy and I used the California Housing Financing Agency to help. Through CalHFA I was able to get a loan for the house I was purchasing. CalHFA offered a loan with 95% financing, I only had interest payments for the first five years and the loan also had a very low interest rate. I was very grateful to find this program that could help me purchase a house for my family.
I think that the different housing assistance programs are very important and help many people. I think that it is sad that there a such long waiting lists, and that it is so difficult for people who need assistance to receive it. I am grateful that I was able to get the help that I needed, but I know many people find that getting housing assistance is to difficult. It is really sad that when a family needs housing assistance they will often have to wait a year or longer. Most people that I know that need housing assistance don’t have a year to wait, they have to find something else to help them. I hope Rentbetter.org helps with the housing assistance in Chicago, then maybe other cities around the US can use similar programs to help families get the assistance they need
