Housing voucher pause sparks fear of ‘more homelessness’ in Michigan

• Michigan stopped issuing new housing vouchers for the state’s biggest low income rental program in 2024, citing a funding shortfall
• The waitlist for Housing Choice Vouchers has remained closed since July 2024, though nearly 60,000 people remain on the list, awaiting help
• Rising rent and an in flux federal budget may see pause continue through 2025, which could have serious implications for Michigan

LANSING — When Nichole Gibbs-Risner first learned that Michigan was pausing a housing voucher program to assist the state’s lowest income earners, she thought it was a joke. 

Not because it was funny — but because she’d already been on the waitlist since 2021 and was teetering on the edge of losing her home. 

More than three years later, she’s still waiting but now has less income, a larger rent payment and four maxed-out credit cards after the Denny’s she worked at in Ypsilanti closed.

“I don’t want free stuff, I just need help,” said Gibbs-Risner, 38, who now makes about $10,000 as a part-time gas station clerk, plus about $7,000 in Social Security benefits for her 4-year-old son with autism.

She’s one of nearly 60,000 low-income Michiganders still on a waitlist for the Housing Choice Voucher program — previously known as Section 8 — a key tool in the country’s ongoing fight against homelessness. 

The state closed its program to new applicants eight months ago, citing a federal funding gap caused by rising rents and stagnating incomes. 

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It was expected to resume this month, but uncertainty over federal funding has prolonged the pause. And officials fear demand will continue to far outweigh supply when — and if — they are able to continue. 

“There’s a lot of concern out there, because the voucher program is one of the tools in the toolbox to prevent and end homelessness,” said Lisa Kemmis, director of rental assistance and homeless solutions at the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA). 

MSHDA stopped issuing new vouchers in July and closed its waitlist, pausing access to a program meant to help the state’s lowest income individuals find housing. 

The state was not alone: Maine, Montana and Texas also stopped issuing vouchers last year. And just this month in California, the Los Angeles Housing Authority paused its program as well, attributing the stoppage to uncertainty around the federal budget.

The future of those programs remains in flux as federal lawmakers intent on slashing government spending debate future funding for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which distributes money to states.

Nationally, it’s estimated the Housing Choice Voucher program assists more than 5 million people in 2.3 million families, according to a 2024 study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Experts say the program is needed in Michigan, where average rents rose nearly 12.5% last year — the third highest year-over-year increase behind New Hampshire at 12.8% and Mississippi at 14.7%, according to a 2024 study from Rent.com.

The program is one of the largest and most sought after housing aids at both the state and national level, which makes a pause impactful. That’s especially true in Michigan, Kemmis added, where an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 applicants remain on a waitlist with many more expected to join when it is reopened. 

The last time Michigan opened its waitlist, in 2023, the state was able to issue around 29,200 vouchers. Michigan is not currently issuing new vouchers, but it’s continuing to pay for about 28,000 existing vouchers, Kemmis said. 

The ongoing pause has created uncertainty for local advocates like William A. Willnow, who serves as the housing navigator for the nonprofit Housing Help of Lenawee in Adrian and helps people without housing seek vouchers.

“I talk to multiple people a month who are like, ‘Hey, do we have any news? Are the vouchers reopened’?” Willnow told Bridge. He added: It’s “really, really hard,” to break it to them — that there is no news. 

Effects of a pause

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development funds state voucher programs on a calendar year basis, which means officials like Kemmis were first made aware of the funding gap at the end of 2023. 

While the state spent $270 million on existing vouchers through 2024, it went $20 million over budget because rents had increased without a similar boost in federal funding, she said.

Such was the case with Gibbs-Risner, who said rent was $700 a month when she first moved into her apartment in 2020. It was affordable, even when the Denny’s she had worked at closed, because she was able to claim unemployment and still lived with her son’s father at the time. 

But now, he’s gone, and Gibbs-Risner said she is paying $848 a month in rent, not including utilities. She struggles to cover the bills because she can only work limited hours while her son is at daily therapy. 

Family has chipped in to help, she said, but they live 45 minutes away and are financially reaching their limit as well. She’s considering a move to near Jackson, where they live, but fears moving might mean she’ll get booted to the bottom of the voucher list if she changes counties. 

The freeze, Gibbs-Risner said, “has really changed my whole life.”

“I thought we were on our way to stable housing, just for it to be ripped away.” 

Because rental prices differ across Michigan, there is no set amount for how much a Housing Choice Voucher will cost the state. 

In Macomb or Oakland, for example, a Housing Choice Voucher issued for a two bedroom rental costs about $1,120. The same size rental in Gratiot County, however, costs the state $817, according to state documents.

The program typically benefits individuals making at or below 50% of their area’s median income, though the bulk of people MSHDA serves through the program typically have even lower incomes — at or below 30% of their area’s median.

The average household income for someone with a Housing Choice Voucher is $13,919, according to MSHDA. Through the program, families contribute at least 30% of their income toward rent while public housing authorities give federal dollars directly to landlords.

“Housing vouchers are critical for people to get housing in Michigan, and they are also a critical component of property owners being able to provide good, safe housing to as many people as we can here in Michigan,” said Erika Farley, executive director for the Rental Property Owners Association of Kent County and Michigan.

“I talk about housing being a circle: Once there is a break in that circle, the whole thing starts to fall apart,” she said.

Reserve funding and additional HUD dollars allowed Michigan to continue to pay for vouchers last year, Kemmis said, but “right now, we’re still at a standstill because we have no reserves.”

That means “until we actually know what our funding is going to be for 2025, we’re just not in a position to start drawing names” from the waitlist, Kemmis said.

That’s an issue for Michigan, where already nearly one out of every three renters across the state are classified as “extremely low income” according to 2022 data from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a Washington DC-based nonprofit.

The organization additionally estimates that the average income limit for a four-person, extremely low income household is around $28,000. The annual household income needed to afford a two-bedroom rental home at what HUD considers a “fair market rent,” however, is estimated at just over $48,100.

Who’s impacted most by this pause, then? Mostly seniors and Michiganders with disabilities, according to officials.

“There are people who can’t find housing in our community because the rent costs are too high and Social Security doesn’t cover it,” said Willnow, the housing navigator in Lenawee County. “Without a voucher, they don’t have options.”

Future focused on federal funds

Voucher advocates are now awaiting action from the federal government, which is still in the midst of budget negotiations for the fiscal year. 

Congress is up against the clock, however. A temporary spending bill currently funding the federal government is set to expire March 14, meaning lawmakers will need to strike some sort of deal by then to avoid a government shutdown.

For the voucher program, “the outlook is pretty dire, unfortunately,” said Lisa Chapman, director of public policy with the nonprofit Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness.

There’s no expectation of a quick federal budget passage, either. That leaves Congress needing to pass a continuing resolution, or a stopgap to keep funding the government through late September until a final conclusion is reached on the federal budget. 

Bipartisan bickering, however, leaves the fate of that continuing resolution unclear. A US Senate-backed bill proposes a $2.9 billion increase to the Housing Choice Voucher program while a US House-backed bill proposes a much smaller $115 million increase. 

A budget proposal from President Donald Trump would boost the overall HUD budget from $72.1 billion to $72.6 billion. That would include $32.8 billion for the voucher program, though its estimated public housing agencies would still need to draw $963 million from the program’s reserve funding.

When it comes to HUD, a budget from President Donald Trump would earmark $72.6 billion for the department — a slight increase in funding from the $72.1 billion budget it currently boasts. 

An additional $241 million in discretionary funding — or funding Congress needs to appropriate — would go toward the Housing Choice Voucher program as well, which HUD itself notes will go toward helping “20,000 more low-income individuals and families find and afford housing.”

Wherever lawmakers land, Chapman says the funding for the program must increase, as flat funding or less will still see those on Housing Choice Vouchers struggle to keep up as rents are bound to increase again. 

“This could potentially impact people who currently have a voucher, which is devastating,” Chapman said. “It could contribute to more homelessness.” 

For Gibbs-Risner and her son, it’s a sincere fear. Even when the program resumes, she was told to not expect help “for a couple more years” due to her position on the waitlist.

She’s since tried to find new housing, but the only place she’s located that was affordable to her was infested with bed bugs and cockroaches, prompting her to back out prior to signing an agreement, she said. 

“I keep getting agencies tell me, ‘Oh, you have to be homeless in order for us to help you’,” she told Bridge. “So, you want me and my son to live on the streets, then you’ll help me? You can’t help me before I become homeless?”