What are housing vouchers, and what did The Dispatch investigation uncover?
A new investigation by The Dispatch found numerous problems in the Housing Choice Voucher program after CGI Federal Inc., a private company, took over administration from the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) last March. Read the full story here.
What are housing vouchers and why is the administration being privatized?
The Housing Choice Voucher program is an anti-poverty program administered federally by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and locally by public housing agencies like CMHA. To qualify, households must earn less than 50% of the local median income ($42,200 for a family of three in Greater Columbus). Voucher holders pay a third of their income in rent, while the federal government pays the rest.
Over recent decades, public housing authorities across the country have subcontracted more and more administrative responsibilities to private companies to cut costs and improve efficiency.
CMHA initially projected it would save $1.2 million by contracting with CGI, though it has yet to assess whether that goal was reached.
What did The Dispatch uncover?
Tenants, Legal Aid lawyers, and social workers described serious problems in CGI’s handling of new unit processing, tenant recertification, and communications with clients.
The Dispatch found tenants who were mistakenly dropped from the program, sent the wrong person’s voucher, and whose paperwork went missing.
Data that The Dispatch obtained from CMHA show that 388 vouchers were terminated in 2022, the highest number in at least five years.
What does CMHA have to say?
CGI refused an interview with The Dispatch, but CMHA representatives said that despite initial transition hiccups, CGI is performing well in paying landlords, and that rising terminations are a natural consequence of ending pandemic-era restrictions that protected tenants.
But Stan Harris, CMHA’s board president, acknowledged tenants have been upset.
“We certainly recognize and regret any frustration with the transition,” Harris said. “We think we’ve made tremendous progress over past seven months.”
Peter Gill covers immigration and new American communities for The Dispatch in partnership with Report for America. You can support work like his with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America here:bit.ly/3fNsGaZ.
pgill@dispatch.com
mferench@dispatch.com
@MarkFerenchik
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Explainer: Section 8 housing choice vouchers, privatization and CGI
