A freeze on new housing vouchers that has been in place since the summer is expected to continue until at least the spring throughout much of Maine.
It’s not the first time the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has frozen new vouchers being issued, but housing directors around Maine say the shortfall in funding behind it is particularly bad. HUD expects 400 public housing authorities around the U.S. — including many in Maine — to face a funding shortfall in 2024, totaling $400 million in needed funding.
With Congress yet to settle on its final appropriations bill for the 2025 fiscal year, and President-elect Donald Trump coming in in a little over a month, HUD has told housing authorities to brace for cuts and not to rely on anything beyond renewal funding in the next year. It could bar some from accessing rental units that are finally coming on line in some areas.
Current holders will continue to receive aid. But MaineHousing, the state housing authority that issues a third of Maine’s vouchers, as well as authorities in Biddeford, Portland and South Portland all confirmed Tuesday that they don’t expect to issue any additional vouchers until a certain number are returned, or until HUD allocates additional federal funding. Those agencies are managing nearly 6,500 vouchers per year, according to the most recent federal data.
“Everybody’s operating under the conservative assumption that we’re not going to see any increases, and HUD is signaling that public housing authorities should probably be prepared to tighten further,” Scott Thistle, the spokesperson for MaineHousing, said.
Much of Maine exhausted its allotted budget in August and had to request shortfall funding from HUD to cover the cost of existing housing vouchers for the rest of the year. Officials were optimistic over the summer that the freeze would be lifted by the end of the year, but some have walked back those hopes.
The news that they have to tighten the belt around federal housing assistance is frustrating Maine’s housing authorities. They’re now unable to take advantage of the state’s softening rental market, nor are they able to make use of the landlord partnerships housing authorities have forged in recent years. It’s even more frustrating to low-income Mainers who often sit on the waiting list for this program for years, and are watching rents climb.
“The difficult part is that we know there are people that could benefit from a voucher. We know who the top three people are on our list, and it’s just that HUD makes the rules,” Mike Myatt, the executive director of BangorHousing, said. “It’s their money.”
There are available units in Bangor that people could move into with a voucher, Myatt said, though it’s not only people searching for a new affordable home that are impacted by the freeze. Many of those on the Section 8 waitlist, particularly seniors, already live in apartments where the rent has become untenable on a fixed income, he said.
“Many of our seniors live somewhere now; it’s just completely unaffordable,” Myatt said. “They’ve sold their home, they’re depleting their assets like crazy.”
Myatt and Chris Kilmurry, executive director of the Lewiston Housing Authority, said that though they are not issuing new vouchers now, they are hopeful that they will be able to in the new year. But they can’t know for sure so long as Congress hasn’t finalized its budget, and because a new administration is coming in next month.
“There’s a lot of unknowns right now: the federal budget only has 10 days left, what’s going to happen with the new administration, and we’re all still waiting to see what our renewal is for 2025,” Myatt said. “Here we are a third of the way through December, and we have no idea really what we’re going to get for funding in January.”
