NEW ORLEANS — Tens of thousands of New Orleans residents are in danger of losing their spot on the waitlist for affordable housing if they don’t update information with the Housing Authority of New Orleans by this Friday.
HANO sent a three-page letter to those seeking Section 8 housing vouchers asking them to update and mail back information by Friday, February 12th, or they’ll be automatically purged from the waitlist with no further notice.
The letter is dated January 28th, giving New Orleanians just a two-week window to receive the letter, fill it out, send it back, and have it received by the department.
More than 17,000 families in New Orleans receive affordable housing vouchers, according to the Housing Authority of New Orleans. Another 20,000 people have been on the wait list since 2016.
“They’ve probably put an ad in the newspaper, but they should be using social media. They should be using mainstream media. They should be trumpeting this,” said Andreanecia Morris, the Executive Director of HousingNOLA.
She says although it is good news that the department will be updating its outdated data, housing advocates had no idea this purge was coming.
She believes that two weeks – during a pandemic, with postal service slowdowns, and with no widespread campaign to promote the data collection – is too tight a deadline.
“There’s better ways of doing this. I’m sure they checked all the boxes that HUD regulations require that they do. We will say that this wasn’t good enough, frankly,” she said.
“We applaud them trying to clean up the list. You’ve got to do better than what HUD requires you to do.”
A man who asked to be identified only as Renard said he’s been waiting for a Section 8 voucher since Katrina.
He got this most recent letter, threatening to purge him from the system, with just four days to spare. If he hadn’t checked his P.O. Box, he’d end up having to start the years-long wait all over again.
“Frustrated ain’t the word. It’s not the word,” said Renard over the phone. He worries others won’t be as lucky.
“If it was 20 thousand people on that waiting list, it’s a lot of people who won’t get that letter. It’s a lot of folks that probably have moved from their physical address, wherever they mailed it to, and they won’t get the letter. Nobody knows about it, and nobody’s talking about it.”
There is no information about the purge on HANO’s website, or any of its social media.
So just a few days without checking the mailbox could have dire consequences.
Morris hopes they reconsider.
“If they learn that they have been removed from this opportunity, it will devastate them. It will absolutely devastate them,” said Morris.
HANO officials defended their process in an emailed statement and encouraged anybody who has not been reached to contact them:
“This process is considered a routine procedure to maintain of our waitlist, and provides applicants with an opportunity to update their contact information. We encourage applicants to keep their information updated, and most have done so. However, If an applicant was not reached, they can contact HANO directly at 504-670-3300 and we will review their situation on a case by case basis. If an error occurs, we will certainly rectify the situation.”
If you need to update your information with the housing authority, you can call the main office at: (504) 670-3300. You can also send an email to info@hano.org. You can also mail your change in address or updated information to Housing Authority of New Orleans
Section 8 Waiting List
4100 Touro Street
New Orleans, LA 70122.
You are asked to include your name, social security number, former address, and new address.
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