CLEVELAND — The Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority has been working to explain its Housing Choice Voucher Program through social media and videos, putting out information everywhere because the need is great.
The program, that used to be known as Section 8, allows residents to pay 30% of their income to landlords and CMHA will pay the rest.
"The Housing Choice Voucher Program is opening its waiting list and for tenant-based vouchers on Monday Nov. 9,” said Dorivette Nolan, the director of policy planning at CMHA.
The program is completely revamping. Instead of the waitlist stopping and starting, it’s opening Monday and staying like that.
"Once a family has applied, their application remains valid for 18 months,” said Jeffrey Wade, the chief of staff to the CEO of CMHA. "They have improved opportunities of actually being selected and being moved into housing through the voucher program.”
This program is not guaranteed and there’s so many folks in need of housing solutions immediately during this pandemic and economic downturn.
Abigail Staudt, the managing attorney of the housing practice group at the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, said there are some options if you can’t pay rent right now.
She said the first is to simply tell your landlord you're having issues.
"They should also attempt to pay whatever they can in rent, if they have half rent, they should offer that to their landlord and then they should seek out rent assistance,” said Staudt.
Staudt recommends clicking here for more information or calling the Legal Aid tenant information line at 216-861-5955.
To learn more about CMHA’s housing choice voucher program click here: cmha.net/apply. The link will be active Monday at 8 a.m.
