Public Service Clinics Topics
King County Housing Authority
Agency/Program Overview
Since 1939, the King County Housing Authority has played a key role in providing affordable housing options for the residents of King County, Washington. Through partnerships with local communities and nonprofit organizations, KCHA delivers affordable housing and related supportive services such as education, job training and social services to more than 18,000 households.
Specific Research Question
How long do various populations stay in subsidized housing?
Additional Project Background
Over 2,600 people without homes live in King County each night. Many of these people likely applied for a Section 8 voucher when the waiting list opened for a two-week window in June 2007. During that short time frame, the King County Housing Authority received over 10,000 applications. Because of the extraordinary response, most of those who applied were denied a spot on the wait list – even if they were eligible for the program.
Unfortunately, federal subsidies, such as Section 8 and Public Housing, have not kept pace with the demand. To maximize those limited resources, the King County Housing Authority is seeking solutions to find out how it can help its residents move toward a more stable future.
The first step in answering this question is finding out how long various populations currently stay in Public Housing and Section 8 programs. This information will give us baseline data from which we can determine if future policy changes, such as implementing a ‘right of return’, will have made a significant impact.
Key Steps
The student will have a great deal of both autonomy and support. The student will develop a work plan; conduct outreach to various stakeholders including the Department of Housing and Urban Development, other Public Housing Authorities and tenants; perform data input; and analyze the results.
Additional Research Resources
This project will include a statistical analysis of Public Housing and Section 8 data. Specifically, KCHA would like to gather a statistically significant sample of specific characteristics about the households who have recently left the Public Housing and Section 8 programs. Demographic information will include employment, education, language, ethnicity, and household type. This information will be gathered by the student through various sources of data, including internal databases, client files, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and other Public Housing Authorities.
If you have questions about this topic or would like more information please contact Megan Hyla, Director of Policy and Intergovernmental Relations.