By Jake Kincaid | Casa Grande Dispatch
The options for affordable housing in Pinal County are drying up.
The pool of available low-income housing is shrinking as rents rise, leaving the Pinal County Housing Department and affordable housing complexes with a demand that has outgrown the supply.
This year, the Housing Department was able to fund only 444 of the 584 Section 8 vouchers allotted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or 76 percent, according to an occupancy report presented to the Pinal County Board of Supervisors this month. Section 8 is a rental assistance program that can be used by applicants in privately owned housing.
Pinal County Housing Director Adeline Allen said that in the past, the department typically has been able to fund between 82 and 92 percent of the needed vouchers. As the pool of rent-controlled affordable housing shrinks and rents rise in Pinal County, the housing department has been able to fund less and less of its vouchers, despite spending all of the money given to it in federal grants. There are now 709 people on the Section 8 waiting list.
