USA Today, August 13, 2024, Voucher Program Is Supposed To Help Poor Families Rent A Home. Nearly Half The Time, It Fails.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which oversees the voucher program, does not require that the thousands of local authorities around the country who administer the vouchers track or improve these high failure rates.
Instead, the federal government incentivizes housing agencies – above all – to use all their funding. So, like airlines overselling seats to ensure a full flight, the agencies often hand out more vouchers than they have funding for to compensate for the many families they know won’t be able to use them.
