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Families with Section 8 vouchers can access more money to live in safer neighborhoods

Many families live in areas with high crime and few opportunities, but a big change is offering them a chance to move to better neighborhoods.

SAN DIEGO — Families with Section 8 vouchers can access more money to live in safer neighborhoods

Over 16,000 families in the City of San Diego receive housing help from the Section 8 voucher program. Unfortunately, many of them live in areas with high crime and few opportunities, but a big change is offering them a chance to move to better neighborhoods.

“A child's zip code is the greatest determinant of their long-term outcomes and lifespan,” said Parisa Ijadi-Maghsoodi, an attorney specializing in poverty issues. 

Parisa is now pushing to get the word out that families in the city’s Section 8 program have access to more money this year, giving them more choices for better housing. 

“We want families with Section 8 vouchers to know that payment standards have been significantly increased in many neighborhoods with better performing schools, more job opportunities, better transportation,” Parisa said.

The San Diego Housing Commission’s (SDHC) Choice Communities initiative, developed under SDHC’s federal designation as a Moving to Work public housing agency, provides families that receive rental assistance with more flexibility to choose to live in neighborhoods that offer more opportunities for transportation, schools, and employment. To increase housing opportunities through this.

The initiative provides three different levels of funding that vary from neighborhood to neighborhood. In the city’s most expensive areas, Section 8 renters were given $2,196 a month in 2021 to rent a two bedroom apartment. This year, that number jumped to $3,023 a month, opening up more housing opportunities. “Moving from a low opportunity to high opportunity area increases a child's earnings by what studies show to be $300,000 over their lifetime,” Parisa said.

Several non-profits have fought for years to make the Section 8 program better, but there is still a long way to go. The San Diego Housing Commission's own website says the program currently has a waiting list and the average time to get off it is ten years. 

“I waited on the Section 8 waitlist for over 17 years,” said Tasha Williamson. She says she and her son used to sleep in a car. 

Now, on Section 8, she has more choices. But even someone as informed about the program as she is wasn't told she has more money at her disposal. “I have received no information on the increase of Section 8,” she said. “Not one letter.”

And that's the main message Parisa is hoping to get out to the community today - make sure families with Section 8 vouchers know now that they have more money available to them so they can move before the next school year starts in August.

WATCH RELATED: San Diego: It's a seller's market (April 2022).

    

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