Pulaski County housing agency takes 250 requests for voucher waiting list

Hundreds of Pulaski County residents flooded through a gate at the State Fairgrounds on Thursday for a chance to receive housing assistance, eventually.

Slots opened up to get on the Pulaski County Housing Authority's waiting list for its housing choice voucher program, commonly known as Section 8.

The program gives very low-income families, the elderly and the disabled access to safe, clean housing through long-term rental assistance. There's no time limit for how long people can receive Section 8 help, so long as they qualify. It's federally funded through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

A majority of people who get help through Pulaski County's housing voucher program are employed, officials said.

No housing vouchers were given out Thursday. Rather, 250 people were given appointment dates to follow up with community services staff members, so that they might qualify for a Section 8 voucher in the future when a space opens up.

The housing authority has 315 total vouchers, which are currently being used, and around 100 people were already on its waiting list before Thursday, said Fredrick Love, the county's community services director.

The attrition rate is about four vouchers a month, though it varies, he said. The agency issues available vouchers every three to four months.

People wearing sweatshirts, wrapped in blankets, carrying folding chairs and children arrived at the fairgrounds parking lot before the sun rose. Shortly after a sheriff's deputy unlocked the chain-link gate, letting people through, law enforcement officials were told to turn additional people away. Hours later, cars with hopeful drivers were still pulling into the parking lot.

"It's really desperate times," said a woman who left church Wednesday night to wait at the gate until Thursday morning.

"You can see all the pent up demand that people are experiencing," Love said. The agency originally said it would accept 150 requests to be put on its waiting list. On Thursday, Love expanded that number to 250.

Though the temperature hovered in the 40s, Reginald Hall's hands couldn't feel the cold. He'd lost two fingers to progressive systemic sclerosis, a rare chronic disease that harms and contorts the skin, joints and internal organs.

"It just eats up your bones," Hall said.

Hall worked as a cook at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock before his diagnosis, before he had to move back in with his mother.

After getting his number in line -- 31 -- Hall observed the swelling crowd from a distance. A housing voucher would mean a lot less stress, he said.

"I think every man should have his own place," Hall said.

For Angela Flowers, a place of her own would bring a similar sense of independence.

"I've been living from place to place between my kids. It's time to be on my own again," Flowers said, seated on her rolling walker.

She's diabetic and is anxious to take back control over her food. When living with other people, "whatever comes into the kitchen becomes everybody's," Flowers said.

A lack of affordable housing in Pulaski County is, and has been, on the minds of homelessness advocates and county administrators, alike.

A forum recently was held so county office candidates could say how they'd help the homeless and near homeless. County Judge Barry Hyde said in March that his office would examine the possibility of a supportive housing program geared toward the chronically homeless.

For Arkansans on the brink of homelessness, the state is unique in that is has no warranty of habitability requirement, which, in essence, requires landlords to keep their properties livable. A Pulaski County judge ruled in August that because minimum standards of safety and habitability are set by Little Rock code, those standards are implied in city lease agreements.

A decent home is why Wilma Crutchfield showed up to try to get on the waiting list Thursday. She lives with her husband, though they're separated, in a rundown house. The roof is falling in, the locks don't work properly and the landlord doesn't answer her calls, she said.

"I've got a lot to tell about my house," Crutchfield said.

Though 250 people were assisted Thursday, about 30 people who had lined up were turned away.

Ashley Colwye thought she'd be one of them. After being jostled out of line, she stood near the curb with one of her daughters while her other daughter waited at a hotel. Check out time was 11 a.m.

After that, "we don't have anywhere to go," Colwye said. "Anywhere."

She maneuvered her way back into the throng of people. About an hour later, she and her daughter left, still with no place to go, but with a number -- 95 -- and an appointment date.

Metro on 04/20/2018

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