The Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority has not yet paid December rent for more than 13,000 tenants.
The public housing agency said the reason it had not paid as of Dec. 4 is that it has not received full funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for this month’s Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program payments.
It’s a nationwide problem, according to the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO), a housing provider member organization.
Vouchers allow low income renters to pay a portion of their income to rent in a unit of their choice and then CMHA uses federal funding to pay the rest.
Landlords aren’t allowed to evict CMHA tenants due to the rental payment delay and CMHA has given utility payments to residents so they can stay current, the agency said.
Tenants should pay their portion of rent as they normally would, and CMHA will make sure landlords get the full payment as soon as HUD releases the funds, the nonprofit said in a release on the topic.
CMHA will immediately make payments upon getting the funding, the release said.
“Our priority is protecting resident housing stability and ensuring landlords are paid immediately upon receipt of federal funds,” CMHA said in its statement.
HUD announced on Dec. 1 that payments would be delayed to housing agencies that have a funding deficit in their housing assistance payment budget, according to NAHRO.
HUD said it believed it could send the payments to banks by the end of this week or early the week of Dec. 7, according to NAHRO, though, it could take banks a few days to make the payments accessible to housing agencies. In the meantime, HUD told housing agencies to use reserves for the payments or delay them, as CMHA is doing.
HUD anticipates more of the same type of payments in January, NAHRO said.
This isn’t the first time landlords in Franklin County have not gotten expected rent payments from CMHA.
In April 2024, the agency ended its contract with a company that managed its Housing Choice Voucher program for three years. The program experienced issues under its management, including late rent payments, lost paperwork and communication difficulties. CMHA taking over the program on March 3 was met with approval from area landlords.
But landlords continued to wait for rent payments after CMHA took the program back in March and some tenants were evicted due to the delays. The problems were due to a change in CMHA’s software system at the same time as it brought vouchers back in-house, according to a statement from the agency in April.
Some rental payments remained unpaid by CMHA in July.
Underserved Communities Reporter Danae King can be reached at dking@dispatch.com or on X at @DanaeKing.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: CMHA hasn’t paid landlords December rent for vouchers due to HUD delay
Reporting by Danae King, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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