Housing authorities around the country will have a shortfall of $400 million by the end of this year.
The Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency is facing a budget deficit for the second year in a row, forcing the agency to keep its waitlist, suspended since October 2023, closed to new applicants, reports Maddy Keyes in The Frontier. The number of people on the list is the highest since 2018, and 800 applicants are listed as having ‘priority’ status.
According to Keyes, “At least three other housing agencies in Oklahoma are in a budget shortfall or expect to have one by the end of the year, including Norman and Oklahoma City.”
The problem isn’t limited to Oklahoma, Keyes notes. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) estimates that housing authorities across the country will have a budget shortfall of roughly $400 million by the end of 2024. “The Department of Housing and Urban Development is offsetting some of the budget gap by giving agencies with additional reserves less funding and using that to pay more to agencies that have a shortage of funds.”
FULL STORY: Oklahoma state housing agency faces an $8-million shortfall
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