GHURA addresses impending March end of Emergency Housing Voucher Program

It was back in December when KUAM first reported on the looming end of the Emergency Housing Voucher Program—the Covid-19 era initiative designed to support families and individuals who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. This week, the Guam Housing and Urban Renewal Authority’s board of commissioners revisited the issue, as final notices of the program’s termination are expected to be sent to participants by February.

As KUAM previously reported, the national budget for the program is expected to run dry in March, after Congress did not appropriate additional funding to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development to sustain it.

“The original intent, what HUD put out, was that funding would run until about2031. But nationally, the funds that Congress allocated to EHV were spent nationally far before that timeline ended," said GHURA deputy director Fernando Esteves. "So, HUD said, here’s the last amount you’re getting–there’ sno money left.”

As a result, the program is set to end sooner than anticipated for an estimated 69 families on Guam. Still, Esteves emphasized that the program was always intended to be temporary, adding, “The families who were put in by EHV always knew it was a temporary program. It’s not a regular voucher–the entitlement wasn’t going to last forever. The only downside is that it ended sooner than it was initially projected. Those were not projections we gave to the families either. It was always until the money…as long as we could to keep them housed under EHV. But coming into the program, every EHV family knew it was a temporary program.”

Esteves adding that participants were consistently encouraged to prepare for a transition out of the program. GHURA executive director Elizabeth Napoli also addressing the issue, noting that some participants had hoped to move into the regular voucher program.

She said, “I think they were hoping at some point that they could be absorbed into the regular voucher program–but because of all the funding cuts and then guidelines from HUD that we cannot issue vouchers anymore, that is the reason why for the past six months, our section 8 staff has really been working diligently to inform all those EHV participants that the program is ending, and these are the only ways we can try and help you."

As previously reported, GHURA is offering participants preferences for public housing, as regulations do not authorize a direct transfer in. In the end, the board of commissioners moved the issue forward, ultimately passing the resolution at hand.