The waitlist for Section 8 housing vouchers in San Diego has been closed as federal funding grows increasingly scarce, leaving local officials warning of a bleak outlook for affordable housing in the region.
The vice chair of the San Diego Housing Commission, Ryan Clumpner, told NBC 7 that federal dollars have not kept pace with rising housing costs for years, particularly after the pandemic, when the agency saw significant increases in rent from private landlords for those with little to no income.
“So we’ve been supplementing our federal funding with local funding sources even before we started seeing cuts,” Clumpner said. “Even if we don’t have a direct cut, if it’s not keeping up with our costs, that’s effectively a shrinking of the program.”…