Philadelphia reopens Section 8 waiting list, could ease strain on Johnstown

Jan. 28—JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — For the first time in almost 13 years, the Philadelphia Housing Authority is accepting applications for its Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program, a decision that could affect the Section 8 situation in Johnstown.

The PHA's previous waiting list was so long that the agency stopped adding new names in March 2010.

But from Jan. 23 through Feb. 5, qualified low-income people can apply for the rental assistance program, operated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which helps tenants by paying portions of their rents to private property owners.

The PHA, which administers more than 19,000 vouchers for rental assistance, expects to receive at least 55,000 applications, according to its website. It will then use a random lottery system to select 10,000 individuals or families to add to its waiting list.

Philadelphia's backlog has impacted the Johnstown Housing Authority (JHA), which has more than 900 Section 8 vouchers, with about 750 currently in use.

HUD vouchers are portable, meaning that a person can move to a municipality such as Johnstown, get a voucher and then return to their hometown or go anywhere else in the country. Or they can come to Johnstown to get rent assistance, with no real desire to become part of the community.

Area officials have said that plays a role in creating a transient population in Johnstown that negatively affects the education system, the poverty level, the crime rate and the economy.

In some cases, the JHA remains responsible for paying the rent of voucher recipients who leave the Johnstown area.

Philadelphia's addition of 10,000 applicants to its waiting list might reduce the number of individuals or families coming to Johnstown only to get a voucher and then quickly returning to their hometown, leaving the JHA responsible for paying their rent.

That process is known as a "port-out" — when someone gets a voucher, then moves somewhere else and uses it there.

"Their actions and resulting decisions in portability can affect us in different ways, and we can try to make some assumptions based on this news," JHA Executive Director Michael Alberts said in an email interview.

The JHA's Philadelphia-related costs were down in 2022, when it paid $10,705 to cover the rent of six voucher recipients living in that city. The totals were $352,988 for 62 families in 2021 and $647,196 for 42 participants in 2020.

"Prior to 2021, Philadelphia Housing Authority was billing us for all port-outs from JHA to PHA," Alberts said.

"After their decision in 2021 to absorb everyone they were billing us for and take the financial burden off of us," Alberts said, "they continued absorbing future port-outs. As of November 2022, they started billing us again for new port-outs to Philadelphia.

"If they are reopening their wait list, I assume their plan is to use their funding for housing residents off their own wait list, instead of for absorptions from other housing authorities, and that they will continue the current trend of billing us."

Philadelphia Housing Authority leaders did not respond to a request for an interview.

Portability and costs

More than 180 recipients who got vouchers through the JHA in 2022 exercised portability, including more than 40 who moved to Philadelphia. But that number could include as many as 30 recipients who ported out more than once, Alberts estimated.

As of Dec. 31, 760 of JHA's vouchers were in use — 734 in Cambria County and 26 outside the region, including seven in Philadelphia.

JHA spent $301,956 in portability expenses in 2022 for 28 voucher recipients living in 15 other housing authorities in Pennsylvania or elsewhere in the country.

The previous five years' total portability costs were:

—$866,845 in 2017

—$895,688 in 2018

—$1,520,457 in 2019

—$1,791,360 in 2020

—$789,297 in 2021

The Delaware State Housing Authority, with many properties near Philadelphia, was a major contributor, costing the JHA $1,042,553 for 82 families in 2020 and $190,886 for 73 families in 2021 before that total dropped to $6,954 for one family in 2022. That authority absorbed the JHA voucher payments in the spring of 2021, according to the Johnstown Housing Authority.

Alberts said that those costs "can affect the ability to assist additional residents locally."

"We typically receive monthly funding to cover rent assistance based on the number of vouchers we had leased five to six months ago," he said. "Since we have been getting increased lease-ups every month since the 2021 absorption, and they are funding us based on old numbers, every month we have to request additional funding to cover currently leased-up participants' subsidized rent.

"Depending on HUD's own funding availability and other situations, HUD could instruct us to stop issuing vouchers and even retrieve recently issued vouchers from participants that didn't lease up yet. This last happened in 2017, and then we had to be careful and not issue vouchers to new participants until others moved out of the program."

Local utilization rates fluctuate daily, monthly and yearly.

"At the end of 2020 we had an 83% utilization rate with a closed waiting list and were not issuing many vouchers because we had so many port-outs billing us," Alberts said. "Fast forward to today, when we have a utilization rate of 80%, but with almost 120 more vouchers leased up locally than we had two years ago. We are happy to be assisting many more families in Cambria County."

Addressing 'loophole'

Along with the Section 8 vouchers, Johnstown Housing Authority also has approximately 1,500 public housing units that are usually filled nearly to capacity.

That has contributed to a poverty rate that's now well over 30%, as the city's population has plummeted from 42,476 in 1970 to 18,411 in 2020, per U.S. Census counts, and to a projected unofficial total of 18,238 in 2021.

"I don't want to deny anybody housing," said state Rep. Jim Rigby, R-Ferndale, whose 71st Legislative District included Johnstown until this year's redistricting. "I don't want to sound like I'm hard. But do we need this many units in this town? I think that's what needs to be addressed.

"And for the number that we have here now, based on what the population is, why not tear it down here and let's build it in Philadelphia or build them in a (New) Jersey (community) where they need it and eliminate the loophole?"

Local elected officials have recently tried to draw attention to the impact of Section 8 and public housing in Johnstown.

Last year, Rigby held a private meeting with legislators, law enforcement officers, JHA officials and Greater Johnstown School District representatives. State Sen. Wayne Langerholc Jr., R-Richland Township, hosted a public hearing with the same organizations involved.

State Rep. Frank Burns, D-East Taylor Township, called upon the federal government to change its policies regarding voucher portability.

"It appears the Johnstown Housing Authority's hands are tied when it comes to this nonsensical policy, which has siphoned millions of dollars away from Cambria County residents," Burns said in a statement.

Burns added: "Why should the JHA be at the financial mercy of a whim from the Philadelphia Housing Authority, or any other housing authority? It should be a HUD rule that if you leave Cambria County, the obligation of subsidizing your rent leaves with you."

Looking for 'remedies'

Other proposals are being discussed.

Rigby mentioned exploring the possibility of a requirement for voucher recipients to live in the footprint of the issuing authority for a period of time.

"Maybe they'll plant roots," Rigby said. "Maybe they'll become productive residents of our area, get jobs, raise their families, start businesses, whatever the case may be. But, right now, there's nothing (in place) to do that."

Elected officials, including Rigby, are trying to gauge whether other municipalities are being affected by the policies too.

"There are similar concerns in other communities by other legislators that I've spoken with. ... I don't know of other communities that have that issue of porting, per se, at the moment," Langerholc said. "I'm focused on the city. I'm focused on Cambria County and stopping what's happening here."

Langerholc recently introduced a bill that would provide more oversight, including from people with legal backgrounds, of who is approved to live in public and Section 8 housing.

"I want to put this in the hands of people that do that for a living," Langerholc said. "That's one area that we took a look at after all the testimony was elicited (at the public hearing). We looked at what potential state remedies we could offer. That was one that we felt confident in."

JHA does screen its applicants, Alberts said.

"In 2022, we made 207 applicants ineligible out of 1,277 total Section 8 applicants," Alberts said. "I do not have a report available that shows a breakdown of how many of the denials were for criminal, over-income, debt owed to JHA or other housing authority, etc."

Elected officials, JHA representatives, law enforcement officers, school administrators and Johnstown residents have called for changes.

But none of them are in position to enact policies regarding Section 8 portability and the level of public housing in the city. Only HUD can.

A case can be presented to the federal agency, though.

"We want to pull data — strong, hard data — facts," Rigby said. "Everybody seems to know what the problem is, but knowing and not having the supporting documentation behind that isn't going to change anything. We are working on and getting the numbers we need."

The local state legislators have been in contact with U.S. Rep. John Joyce, R-Blair, whose 13th Congressional District includes Johnstown.

"It's going to take multiple different solutions, working shoulder-to-shoulder with not only federal, but state and local input together to solve this," Joyce said. "We look to discover all the contributing factors, and we need to find solutions that benefit the Johnstown community at large."

Joyce recently sent a letter to HUD asking for an examination of Section 8 policies. He has been gathering information about how portability affects Johnstown.

"It does start to give us a clear picture of how to address the challenges that we're facing," Joyce said. "The next step is to find out the total number of vouchers that are being used by those who are not from Johnstown or Cambria County and moved to the community and stayed. That's the information that we're pressing HUD to continue to be able to find."

When asked about how HUD is handling the issue, Joyce said, "I think they're on alert that this concern has been raised."