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1. What does the Housing Authority do?

Primarily, the Housing Authority oversees Federal and local funding that promote affordable housing opportunity like HUD Section 8 Rental Assistance, Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) and HOME Programs.

2. What is HUD Section 8 Rental Housing Assistance?

The Section 8 Rental Assistance Program was enacted as part of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974. The Act provides funding to local jurisdictions to sponsor a free choice approach to assisted housing. There is no publicly owned housing in Santa Rosa. Rather, property owners retain property rights and tenants pay a portion of the rent to the landlord. The Housing Authority pays the rent difference directly to the property owner. These rental assistance payments help approximately 1,600 households in Santa Rosa live in decent, safe and sanitary housing while providing $13 million annually of federal funds to the local economy.

3. How does one qualify for Section 8 Rental Housing Assistance?

To qualify, a household must have an annual income of less than 50% of the median income for Santa Rosa, adjusted for the size of the household. The Department maintains a waiting list of households that would like to obtain this rental assistance. The waiting list is closed until approximately May of 2018. The majority of clients is elderly, single parent families, and people with disabilities.

4. What is the Santa Rosa Housing Trust?

The Trust is a mechanism by which affordable housing revenue is passed through a Trustee (Housing Authority) for the housing benefit of very low and low-income beneficiaries. Revenue comes from a variety of sources including the federal Community Development Block Grant and HOME Program, and local sources such as the City's General Fund, and loan repayments. These resources are used for Housing Production, Housing Conversion & Preservation, Special Needs Facilities, and Homebuyer Programs.

5. Is there any money available to help me develop new housing?

In the Trust category of Production, the Department of Housing & Community Services provides funds to assist the development of new housing that is affordable to households earning less than 30-80% of the median income. Rents must be restricted to affordable levels for at least 55 years. Most of the funds are provided as low interest loans to non-profit developers of affordable rental housing.

6. What does affordable housing mean?

Housing and Urban Development guidelines state that housing is affordable to a household if they do not pay more than 30% of their monthly income, adjusted for family size, toward the rent or mortgage payment, plus basic utilities.