SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – Homelessness is a crisis in San Diego and the rest of the country.
“We were homeless on the streets of San Diego for about almost three years,” Natalie Raschke, an Emergency Housing Voucher holder, said.
Raschke told ABC 10News that she, her husband, and four children been in a Mission Valley apartment for three years after living out of an RV and then later a van they purchased.
Their escape from homelessness came in the form of an Emergency House Voucher (EHV).
“They have been a critical resource uh keeping these families from ending up on the streets,” Lisa Jones, President & CEO of San Diego Housing Commission, said.
Jones told ABC 10News the federally funded rental assistance vouchers were supposed to last until 2030. She said there are 417 voucher families in the program currently.
“You don't breathe at first because you have all that anxiety of, is it going to be taken away?” Raschke said.
The federal funding for the EHVs is going away for Raschke and other families about five years early.
“It was made very clear during the last appropriations process and during sort of the discussions around what a formal budget will be when we have a formal federal budget, which of course gives us our HUD, Housing and Urban Development, budget, that this program is going to end early,” Jones said.“We will not be getting any more funding than is sort of allocated to us already, which means that we anticipate running out of funding fall of next year.”
Something that is bringing back that feeling of anxiety for Raschke.
“I'm feeling frustrated, overwhelmed. It's like living in bizarro world, you know, it's a constant back to waiting on the edge,” Raschke said.
Jones told ABC 10News the Housing Commission is working on solutions to account for the federal funding cut.
One is asking HUD for a waiver to designate all EHV holders as homeless so they can be put back into the system to be placed into new housing.
“Let's get them connected to that resource now. They're stable. Let's keep them stable. That would be hugely beneficial. We are also putting people on a project-based voucher waiting list, so we have our EHV families are put onto our project-based voucher waiting list,” Jones said.
The Housing Commission said it’ll continue to help EHV families pay their rent until the funding runs out and keep them connected to resources after the rental help ends.
