Mansfield Metro Housing reintroduces landlord incentive payments

MANSFIELD — A federal housing assistance voucher isn’t worth much if you can’t find a place to rent.

It’s a real struggle for residents with a voucher from the Mansfield Metropolitan Housing Authority.

“There aren’t many units like this,” said Steve Andrews, executive director of MMHA.

“Right now we have 130 people with vouchers in their hands who are looking for a place to live, but they are having a really hard time finding one.”

In response to this challenge, MMHA is introducing a financial incentive for property owners who sign a one-year lease with a Section 8 voucher holder.

New owners will receive $500 for the first unit signed into the program. Owners who already rent to a Section 8 voucher holder will receive $300 for each additional unit signed into the program.

To be eligible for support, units must not have been rented to a Section 8 voucher holder in the last 18 months.

The incentive will be valid until November 30.

Andrews said the incentives will pay for themselves because for each voucher MMHA distributes, the agency receives $840 annually from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

MMHA has offered similar incentives in the past using COVID-19 funds.

“It was effective,” Andrews said during Tuesday’s board meeting. “I remember our numbers going up significantly.”

The board approved up to $20,000 in incentive payments. This time, the incentives will be paid from the MMHA general fund.

“Our assets are quite large, between $1.6 million in the management general ledger and just over $1 million in our Section 8 fund, we have $2.6 million available to use,” Andrews said.

What is the difference between Section 8 vouchers and Mainstream vouchers?

MMHA administers the Housing Choice Voucher program, also known as Section 8, on behalf of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

The aim of the program is to help very low-income families, the elderly and disabled people to provide themselves with decent, safe and sanitary housing.

General purpose vouchers work in the same way as other housing vouchers, but are limited to households where at least one non-elderly family member is disabled.

Voucher redemption rates have fallen since January

MMHA is authorized to administer a maximum of 1,833 housing choice vouchers and 78 general housing vouchers per month.

Once a housing voucher is received, applicants have up to 120 days to find housing. If a voucher holder does not find housing within four months, they must wait for the waiting list to reopen and reapply.

Andrews said the county’s voucher take-up rate was higher than the national average, but had been steadily declining since the start of 2024.

In January, the agency used 1,670 housing choice vouchers and 65 universal vouchers — meaning voucher holders had a guaranteed home and paid for it using the vouchers.

As of 27 August, the office had 1,640 free-choice housing vouchers and 63 universal vouchers, and the annual voucher utilization rate was 90 per cent and 82 per cent, respectively.

“The industry average nationwide is about 86 percent,” he said. “We want to get to 95 percent, so there’s still room for improvement.”