The Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) program is available through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Through EHV, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is providing 70,000 housing choice vouchers to local Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) in order to assist individuals and families who are:
- Homeless
- Fleeing, or attempting to flee, domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, or human trafficking
- At risk of homelessness
- Were recently homeless or have a high risk of housing instability
Locally, HUD has provided a total of 212 vouchers distributed to the Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara and the Housing Authority of the County of Santa Barbara. The two housing authorities are working with the Continuum of Care Program and the County of Santa Barbara to lease up the vouchers.
All applications are being accepted by the Housing Authorities on a referral basis only, per HUD guidelines. In order to qualify a person must be literally homeless or at imminent risk of homelessness which is defined as an Individual or family who will imminently lose their primary nighttime residence within 14 days and has no subsequent residence identified and lacks the resources or support networks needed to obtain other permanent housing. If you (or your client, friend or relative) meet the criteria, you/he/she can go to a Coordinated Entry System site for an assessment. For this information, go to www.homeforgoodsbc.org for countywide Regional Entry Point locations).
For more information:
Email: leasing@hacsb.org
Phone: (805) 897-1010
