Low-income renters face difficult search for housing in Sonoma County
The notice to vacate was taped to Rotha Rice’s Rohnert Park apartment door the first week of May. She was expecting it, given she’d heard from neighbors that Americana Apartments was terminating the leases of every tenant enrolled in a federal housing subsidy program.
Rice, 74, was given 90 days to leave the place she has called home since 2006, when she moved into the complex on the city’s northeastern edge with a single cup, a plate and a lamp. In the dozen years since, she accumulated a bed, furniture, a variety of books and other belongings. For the first time in a long time, she felt stable.
The location of the apartment was ideal, situated only a mile and a half from her job of 26 years working graveyard shifts at a Shell gas station. It’s also not far from the city’s senior center where she grabs lunch daily, as well as a longtime network of friends who help get her to and from doctors’ appointments to manage her delicate health.
Now that’s all been thrown into disarray as Rice struggles to find another landlord willing to accept her housing voucher.
“On May 3, I called 27 places,” said Rice. “There’s nothing out there, because of the fires.
“It’s plenty of time,” she added of the period to relocate, “but for me it’s no time if there’s nothing available.”
Finding rental housing in many parts of Sonoma County is increasingly difficult for people like Rice, who rely on the Section 8 program to afford rents in Sonoma County. The waitlist just to get into the program for low-income renters can take up to six years, and those who have finally made it in are seeing the number of landlords who accept the housing vouchers shrink by the month.
More than 4,700 people throughout Sonoma County are enrolled in the federal Section 8 program, which provides vouchers up to $1,633 per month for single-bedroom housing. The money available increases with the size of the rental.
Admission is based on income. A single person who makes up to $34,400 annually is eligible to apply, while a family of four can make as much as $49,100. Once accepted, people in the program are required to spend 30 to 40 percent of their own income on housing, excluding the value of the voucher.
Fires made it harder
Section 8 recipients had difficulty finding landlords willing to accept their vouchers before the October wildfires, which erased nearly 5,300 homes in Sonoma County. Now it is even harder, housing advocates confirm.
A Press Democrat analysis of housing data found 440 renters countywide - or 9.4 percent of the people in the Section 8 program on July 1 - have not been able to secure housing.
The problem has worsened since the fires. Last October, 313 renters, or 6.7 percent of the people in the program, were unhoused, the Press Democrat analysis found.
At the same time, more Section 8 voucher holders are being forced to leave their rentals. County officials said an average of 21 households a month have moved in the first half of 2018 - the highest total in the past eight years. Last year, an average of 13 households moved every month.
Santa Rosa, which operates its own Section 8 program, is experiencing a similar increase. Displacement of Section 8 renters since the fires is on pace to reach a six-year high, city officials said.
Opting out of program
The reasons vary. In some situations, landlords who lost their primary residence in the fires have needed a place to live and asked their tenants to leave. Other voucher recipients saw their units go up in flames. Some saw their leases terminated by landlords who wanted to put the rental back on the open market in pursuit of greater profits and fewer restrictions.
The Americana Apartments decided to leave the Section 8 program for business or economic reasons, according to a 90-day notice served to one tenant enrolled in the program. As a result, at least five tenants in the 100-unit complex who use a housing voucher had their leases terminated.
FPI Management, which oversees the apartments, would not comment on its reasons for opting out of the Section 8 program, said Kathy Rosales, senior portfolio manager for the Folsom company.
Americana charged $1,300 per month for a one-bedroom apartment last year before making renovations, according to tenants. Rent went up to $1,450 this year, and the same apartment now goes for $1,750 after the remodel.
Such rents are within reach for many Section 8 renters. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development increased the housing subsidy in Sonoma County late last year in response to rising rents. The average voucher is now worth $951 a month, although renters can receive up to $1,633 a month. The amount varies by location, based on average rents in the surrounding area.
UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy: