LOS ANGELES — In the heart of Skid Row, Anay Castillo is still holding onto the promise of a golden ticket — a federal Emergency Housing Voucher that will pay her rent.
If only she could find a landlord to accept it.
Castillo is waiting patiently while living at the Midnight Mission. She is currently separated from her daughter after being told there is no family housing available.
She’s been waiting nine months.
“I was jumping from hotels, staying with different family members, living in my car,” Castillo said, describing her life since she left home fleeing a domestic violence situation.
In March 2021, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development gave Los Angeles County about 7,000 Emergency Housing Vouchers through the American Rescue Plan, where it’s estimated there are about 66,000 people living on the streets and in shelters.
But only about 7% of those vouchers given to the city’s housing authority have led to leased apartments, according to HUD’s online dashboard. There are 19 different agencies distributing the vouchers to mixed success.
Meanwhile, thousands of homeless Angelenos are holding on to their vouchers while living on the sidewalks and interim housing, as frustration over LA’s broken housing promises boils over at City Hall.
“I’ve seen families in the streets with children because they can’t afford rent,” Castillo said. “It’s just too much. It’s just too much.”
Out on the campaign trail running for mayor, Rep. Karen Bass blamed federal regulations surrounding vouchers for the backlog.
“My father, for example, had an apartment building with Section 8… but he had to get out of having people with vouchers because of all the onerous requirements,” Bass said. “I think we need to examine the rules and regulations around vouchers to see: when you are in an emergency, can you have flexibility?”
Some housing authorities have been more successful than Los Angeles at matching vouchers with apartments. The Housing Authority of the County of Santa Barbara has used 81% of its vouchers.
“It’s still a very, very heavy lift to get a property owner to say ‘yes’ to a person who has been experiencing homelessness,” said Emilio Salas, executive director of Los Angeles County Development Authority, one of 19 different agencies distributing the vouchers in LA County. LACDA has so far matched 37% of its.
Salas blamed a tight rental market for the slow progress of matching voucher holders with apartments.
“Our households are in competition for units with other households that might have stable jobs and long rental histories,” Salas said.
Castillo has had her voucher for nine months and prayed she would find an apartment in time for her 9-year-old daughter to start school, but as LAUSD begins Monday, she’s still living in the shelter on Skid Row.
“For the last year and 8 months, it’s been really difficult to manage through all of this without her and her seeing all this and experiencing there’s really no help,” Castillo said.
She said she’s willing to move wherever she can find her safe space, hoping her voucher isn’t just a golden ticket to nowhere.