1,200 Applicants Selected Out of 4,883 for Tacoma Housing Authority’s Low-Income Housing Assistance
Tacoma, WA – Nov. 12, 19– During two weeks in October, Tacoma Housing Authority invited people to apply for the wait list to receive housing or housing assistance. We invited only households with three or more people because our waitlist for smaller households is already long. We received 4,883 applications representing 18,979 people. They applied on-line, by phone or in person. Their data paint a somber picture:
- 33% of the applicants work full time
- 93% of the households have children
- 43% of the applicants are currently homeless
- 12% of applicants slept in a homeless encampment, car, abandoned building or outdoors the night before they applied
Of the 4,883 eligible applicant households, we randomly chose 1,200 for the wait list. This is about the number of households we can serve within the next two years. In early November we notified applicants if they were or were not selected for the waitlist.
These wait list openings are always a somber reminder of the unmet need in Tacoma and Pierce County for affordable, safe and stable housing. These applicants are parents who cannot afford rent on a full time wage. and certainly not on disability income or public assistance. Their children struggle in school because their families must move often. These applicants are college students who struggle to balance parenthood, work and homelessness. The ones THA randomly chooses for assistance are the lucky ones.
Michael Mirra | THA Executive Director