The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, recently informed local housing officials not to expect any additional funding for an emergency housing voucher program that in Orange County helps hundreds of households afford rent.

HUD officials, on March 6, informed agencies that the final finding allocation of emergency housing vouchers should support the program through most of 2026, but it would not continue to be funded in the future.

The Orange County Housing Authority is the largest recipient of the emergency vouchers in the county, but the cities of Anaheim, Garden Grove and Santa Ana, which have their own housing authorities, also have allocations.

The county program currently serves 522 households totaling 812 individuals, of which 204 are minors, 153 are younger than 10 years old and 184 are seniors, Julia Bidwell, director of OC Housing & Community Development, said in a March 18 memo to county leaders. Because of natural attrition in the program, the county’s estimate is about 440 households will ultimately be affected.

Most of the households were homeless before receiving the vouchers, Bidwell said. The average household income is $15,171.

“This was a surprise to housing authorities including the Orange County Housing Authority as funding was initially authorized through 2035,” Bidwell said in her memo.

The emergency housing vouchers are a rental assistance program that came from the American Rescue Plan Act signed into law in 2021. It was intended to be supplemental to the traditional Section 8 housing vouchers that can help qualified recipients pay for rent.

ARPA originally allocated $5 billion for the creation and administration of the voucher program designed to serve people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, as well as domestic violence and human trafficking survivors.

“These particular vouchers impact the most vulnerable residents in Orange County,” Fifth District Supervisor Katrina Foley said. “This is a real hit to our system of care and our diligent efforts over the last five years to improve access to housing for individuals experiencing homelessness or on the verge of homelessness.”

There was no initial end date established for the emergency voucher program, Bidwell said, but it was understood among participating agencies that the program would end when no families were under a lease, the $5 billion were fully allocated by September 2035 or when the funds were legally obligated to be canceled.

“At this time, (the OC Housing Authority) does not have any additional information regarding the HUD options for the estimated 440 families no longer being served by the EHV program in 2026,” Bidwell said.

“We’re trying to solve homelessness here,” Foley said. “This is going to set us back. Orange County is working diligently to get people housed and reduce the cost to the taxpayers who are caring for these individuals on the street. To now just push people back on the streets, that makes no sense to me.”

Fourth District Supervisor Doug Chaffee said the county doesn’t have the funds to continue the emergency vouchers on its own.

“It’s really horrifying that, all at once, people will be turned out on the street,” Chaffee said. “I don’t know how else to solve it unless more funding becomes available.”

“The shelters would be bursting at the seams if we had this number of people all at once,” he added. “We need to prepare for it.”

Anaheim received a similar notice earlier this month about the winding down in the next year of funding for emergency housing vouchers, city spokesperson Mike Lyster said.

The city has 278 of the vouchers, he said, adding to its pot of traditional Section 8 housing vouchers that support about 6,000 households each year.

“They knew that housing agencies are strained,” Lyster said, adding that while the emergency vouchers represent a small portion of the city’s housing support program, “It will have an impact.”

City housing officials will have to figure out if the individuals or households using the emergency vouchers can be absorbed into the main program or if the city can use vouchers that would have helped offset the cost of constructing future affordable housing complexes, Lyster said, adding the city already has 40 such complexes.

“These are all the types of things we will have to look at,” he said.

“We also realize that funding can fluctuate, programs can fluctuate,” Lyster said about the decision to end the funding earlier than agencies expected. “We also understand they are looking at efficiencies.”

Third District Supervisor Don Wagner said the county is also in the early stages of looking at how to deal with the impact.

“It’s unfortunate. We’re working with our legislative team in Washington to try to get more of understanding and to see if maybe there are some funds … some way of getting this funding reinstated,” Wagner said. “What I am unclear about is whether the program is out of money … or is this part of the Trump administration putting a stop to a lot of federal spending to re-evaluate it and decide what to keep going with and what to stop.”

What is clear though, Wagner said, is that 440 families who are receiving the rental assistance today will not be receiving the help by October of next year.

“There’s a little bit of time,” he said, “but a lot of uncertainty at the moment.”

Staff Writer Heather McRea contributed to this report. 

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