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Housing authority trying to avoid deep cuts in voucher program
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Published: July 1, 2009
Two federal housing officials are in Winston-Salem this week, trying to work with the Housing Authority of Winston-Salem to avoid possible deep cuts to the HAWS housing voucher program.
HAWS officials say they have to plan to cut as many as 1,800 people from its Section 8 voucher program, which provides vouchers to help people who qualify as low-income afford housing. There are 4,100 total vouchers that HAWS gives out.
The cuts were caused by a mistake made by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, which provides the money that HAWS administers, HAWS officials say.
HAWS executive director Larry Woods said that HUD notified him in late May that HAWS was getting less money, and that the cut was retroactive to January — meaning that for five months HAWS had unknowingly been spending money it didn't have.
"It's devastating," Woods said.
Woods said HUD officials have admitted to him that they made a mistake in figuring out how much money HAWS had available in a local reserve that would make up for lost federal funding. But so far, they haven't undone the mistake.
A HUD spokeswoman wouldn't answer questions about whether they made a mistake, instead saying that HUD officials were in Winston-Salem trying to work on the issue.
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