What’s at stake?
Housing security for millions of Americans hangs in the balance as Congress finalizes the budget for the next fiscal year.
Among their budgetary discussions are whether to slash or keep funding for the housing voucher program , or Section 8, which subsidizes rent for many across the country, including Fresno County.
Dennis Jeppson did everything you’re supposed to do to escape homelessness.
He applied for rental assistance through the federal housing voucher program, known as Section 8. Though it took four years to hear back, he got the help he needed to afford a home in Fresno.
Now, following potential federal budget cuts to many services, including the housing voucher program, Jeppson is staring down the barrel of homelessness once again.
“It honestly scares the shit out of me,” Jeppson said.
The future of the federal housing voucher program is uncertain. The president last month signed a budget proposal that could gut funding for vouchers. However, Congress routinely engages in a reconciliation process ahead of the next fiscal year. The process allows senators and representatives to submit last-minute adjustments following scrutiny and feedback from constituents.
Congress’ appropriations process has no formal deadline, but the next fiscal year starts on Oct. 1, and legislation can be passed to extend negotiations, if needed.
If Congress opts to maintain, or even increase, funding for critical housing services like the voucher program, it’d mean people like Jeppson get to stay in their homes.
However, if Congress chooses to follow the directive of the president, who wishes to gut funding and services for many federal housing programs and departments, then people like Jeppson may find themselves out on the street.
The federal government already announced an end to emergency housing vouchers – a pandemic-era program that was meant to get housing assistance in the hands of people highest at risk to land into homelessness, including domestic violence victims.
Made it ‘by the skin of my teeth’
Jeppson, 26, said he’s never really known life without housing insecurity.
He and his family were forced to move out of their hometown of Visalia following a foreclosure on their home during the 2008 housing crisis. His time away from home, as he described it, involved many nights inside of camping trailers, motels and sleeping outside of friends’ properties. He eventually returned to the Central Valley in 2018 after traveling as far away as Vancouver, Washington.
“I kind of came down here, like, essentially with a backpack and a duffel bag after couch surfing for a few months,” Jeppson said.
As most applicants usually do, he spent years toiling on a waitlist thousands of entries long before getting his voucher. But to him, it was well worth the wait. It also began a frantic rush to find an apartment.
Voucher holders are only guaranteed 60 days to find a home, but some housing agencies extend that deadline. The Fresno Housing Authority provides their voucher recipients with 120 days. While the length varies across the country, almost all voucher recipients agree on one thing: the time goes by fast.
Failure to find housing within the given time limit can cause recipients to forfeit their voucher, and pass it on to somebody else — a move that would nullify the years it took for them to get one in the first place.
Jeppson said he also had difficulty finding an apartment. He recalls finding his the day before his voucher expired.
“It was essentially by the skin of my teeth,” Jeppson said.
On paper, voucher holders only need to worry about finding a home that they can afford. But many recipients also have to consider finding housing close to their job, to public transit, or in an area that is considered safe and desirable.
The added criteria can quickly limit options for voucher holders and lead them to cluster in select neighborhoods — unintentionally segregating them.
But Jeppson was just happy to find a home, and begin building a new life for himself.
“It was really a sense of relief,” Jeppson said. “It kind of means that I’m able to take those next steps in my evolution.”
The Fresno Housing Authority, the local agency that distributes vouchers across the county, shared in a news conference in May that their data shows it takes up to 10 years for residents on rental assistance to achieve economic independence.
‘The hardest part is the stigma’
Raye Michelle, 39, also struggled to find housing after applying for a voucher. She said she got close to being homeless and had to work three jobs in the interim to afford rent, all while taking care of her four children as a single mother.
She applied for her voucher in 2018 before winning the waitlist lottery and moving into a home in 2019. She said getting her voucher — which, like it did for Jeppson, came unceremoniously and abruptly over email — provided her with some much-needed relief.
“My immediate thought was, ‘wow, I’m not going to become homeless,’” Michelle said.
Michelle had a hard time finding an apartment for her family, too. She said she felt like property managers discriminated against her.
It is illegal for landlords to discriminate against rental applications from voucher holders, but it can be difficult to prove in court.
“I think the hardest part was finding somebody to accept you as a voucher holder, instead of rejecting you because of it,” Michelle said. “That’s the hardest part to get through … the stigma.”
Michelle said that feeling was hard to shake off even after finding an apartment. She said people would look down on the first home she was able to rent with a voucher because it was in a “bad part of town.”
But it was there where Michelle found safety. She said she managed to find a home after a property manager offered her a chance, and accepted her as their first ever voucher-holding tenant.
She recalls her first apartment quite fondly and with much detail, partly because she said there weren’t many details to speak of. She did not have much furniture inside the apartment, and she had her mattress on the ground without a bed frame. For her, those possessions were luxuries she couldn’t afford.
How real is the threat of losing vouchers?
The loss of funding would not entirely wipe out the voucher program, but it would significantly reduce the number of people who are able to get rental assistance, leading to people being taken off the service.
The Fresno Housing Authority estimated in May that if the president’s proposal was approved, about 15,000 people could lose their homes in Fresno County.
The House of Representatives’ proposal doesn’t do much for voucher holders, as it’s aligned with the president’s goal of gutting funding for HUD and housing services.
The Senate’s proposal, however, is a different story.
Their proposal asks for funding for many housing programs to remain consistent, if not outright increased. For vouchers, they’re asking for about $1.8 billion more in the next fiscal year — an increase of about 5%.
Amid the uncertainty of what’s to come, every bit of news helps relieve stress for voucher holders. But there is precedent for them to feel weary about budget discussions.
Earlier this year, it was announced that the Emergency Housing Voucher program would likely shutter at the end of this year. Citing a lack of funding, the pandemic-era federal program is looking like it’ll shut down its services well ahead of its originally scheduled 2030 sunset date.
Emergency vouchers peaked locally in April 2024 when the county recorded 300 vouchers in circulation. As of Aug. 14, that number is now 229.
The FHA told Fresnoland earlier this year that their funding allows for current emergency voucher holders to remain on the program until at least the end of the calendar year.
“While alternatives such as transitioning EHV participants into other programs are being considered, these options come with funding and capacity challenges and are not guaranteed,” a spokesperson for the FHA told Fresnoland over email in April.
‘I’m about to face-plant on concrete’
Until Congress reaches their final decision, life keeps marching on for people like Jeppson and Michelle.
Jeppson plans to graduate from Fresno City College in the spring and then transfer to Sacramento State. He said he wants to pursue a career in urban planning — a path partly inspired by the struggles he faced trying to find an apartment with his voucher. Jeppson doesn’t own a car and said he was frustrated to see the limited housing options available that were both centrally located in the city and also near public transit.
He said, however, that losing his voucher likely means dropping out of school and putting those dreams on hold.
“I’m this close to reaching that next step,” Jeppson said. “I’m on this stool, teetering just to reach for it and grab it. But it feels like that stool is getting pulled away from under me and I’m about to face-plant on concrete.”
After sleeping on her mattress on the ground for six years, Michelle finally got a bed frame recently. She said she thought the new purchase would help signal a start to a new chapter in her road to economic independence. Instead, she said it’s hard to focus on anything but the potential of losing her voucher, and having to start over.
“That’s why we can’t rise, that’s why we can’t gain,” Michelle said. “Beause as soon as we start to pick ourselves back up, and get to a place where we’re steady, we get dropped back down again.”
Other housing authorities across the country have also begun to address potential funding cuts. In Los Angeles this month, the local housing agency reduced the amount of rent vouchers can cover by 10%.
An alternative like that is more digestible for Jeppson. It’d allow somebody like him to make some cuts financially to cover the difference.
But it’s not like he hasn’t already done that. In an effort to save on energy bills, he said he lets his house reach the 90s before considering turning on the air conditioner.
“I’ve already made as many cuts as I can just to be able to have some level of comfort,” Jeppson said. “At some point, you kind of just run out of fat to trim.”
And Michelle said that in spite of now having a position on the Fresno Housing Authority’s City Board of Commissioners, life for people like her is still a struggle. It especially frustrates her to hear people say voucher holders “chose that life” simply because they are not outwardly struggling people.
“Makeup is a thing that hides peoples’ true expressions,” Michelle said. “People laugh because they don’t want others to know how stressed they are. They put on a presentable face, but behind that is often tears. It’s often people going to sleep wondering how they’re going to get through tomorrow, because today was hard enough.”
She later added, “If you’re wondering why you don’t know people’s stories, it’s because it’s so easy to fake it.”
Williams and the FHA have publicly said their policy going forward will focus on transparency and on making sure their residents get the most up-to-date information about how the process is going. However, he also told Fresnoland that there is only so much work he and the authority can do at this stage.
“We are at the total mercy and discretion of the president and the Congress of the United States of America,” Williams said. “We are.”
