More than 2,500 applicants to the Lucas Metropolitan Housing Authority are awaiting housing, and LMHA can’t meet the demand.
As a result, in less than a week, the LMHA will close its public housing waiting list for all bedroom sizes and locations, according to the LMHA. The waiting list will close Feb. 18. When it reopens again, LMHA will give notice to the public.
Currently, approximately 780 applicants have been accepted and are waiting for vacant properties through the LMHA referral process. LMHA has more than 1,820 applicants that have not been processed and who are still awaiting interviews, which means approximately 2,600 applicants are awaiting housing.
“LMHA does not have the current inventory to accommodate this demand,” according to a statement from LMHA. “We feel that it is a disservice to individuals and families if we keep accepting applications when there is no real potential of them being housed in the immediate future.”
The agency has 2,633 public housing units, 4,657 Housing Choice vouchers, 322 low-income housing tax credit units, 198 market rate units and 107 homeownership properties. Approximately 17,500 people reside in LMHA properties.
On Monday, LMHA officially opened Collingwood Green Phase III near downtown, a mixed income community of 55 new two-, three and four-bedroom family units within eight buildings, of which three are still under construction and due to be completed in the spring. The development replaces the demolished Brand Whitlock and Albertus Brown developments.
First Published February 13, 2020, 10:24 p.m.
