By Dr. John E. Warren, Publisher
With costs rising while federal funding remains insufficient, the San Diego Housing Commission is making changes to its program that helps to pay rent for about 14,500 families with low income in the city of San Diego.
To prevent some families from losing the assistance they currently rely on, SDHC’s updates would instead increase the amount every participating family in the program pays toward their contract rent, which is known as the family contribution.
The SDHC Board of Commissioners approved the updates on December 11.
SDHC will next submit the updates to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which would need to approve them before SDHC can implement the changes. If approved, SDHC would begin providing multiple notices to affected families over the ensuing months before the changes would be implemented, perhaps late in 2026.
“We are committed to continuing to serve as many families as possible who are currently in our rental assistance program,” SDHC President and CEO Lisa Jones said. “If the changes we have proposed are not approved and implemented, about 1,700 families—which include up to 6,000 individuals—would lose their rental assistance entirely. By increasing each household’s contribution toward the contract rent, we are reducing the risk of having to end rental assistance for some families.”
Generally, families in SDHC’s rental assistance program pay a percentage of their income as their contribution toward the full contract rent amount. Using federal funding, SDHC pays the rest of the contract rent amount to the landlord on the family’s behalf, this is called rental assistance.
In the city of San Diego’s high-cost rental housing market, the average amount SDHC pays each month to assist families in the program has risen 80 percent since Fiscal Year 2020 (July 1, 2019 – June 30, 2020). However, federal funding has not kept pace with these increases. That has produced a $26.6 million gap between allocated federal funds and SDHC’s costs for its payments on behalf of families.
Families made up of seniors or people with disabilities currently contribute 28.5 percent of their income toward their contract rent. Under SDHC’s updates, that would rise to 32 percent. If seniors or people with disabilities have no income, SDHC pays the full contract rent on their behalf.
For families deemed able to work, SDHC set minimum family contribution amounts based on what those families would earn working at minimum-wage jobs. The minimum family contribution amount for a family with one work-able adult would rise from $400 to $580 per month. For a family with two work-able adults, the minimum family contribution would increase from $650 to $1,155 per month. SDHC would also create a new category with a minimum family contribution of $1,735 per month for a family with three or more work-able adults. The new minimum family contribution amounts assume that each work-able adult works 25 hours per week at minimum wage, which will be $17.75 per hour on January 1, 2026. The minimum family contribution is about 30 percent of that income.
Work-able families with higher incomes would pay up to 40 percent of their income as their family contribution toward their rent.
SDHC will provide a hardship program to assist eligible families who need additional time to be able to pay the higher family contribution amounts. SDHC is also collaborating with community organizations to make sure families know about many resources available in the community for them. A list of resources is available in multiple languages on SDHC’s website.
“We want all of our families to remain in their homes with the financial help they need to pay their rent,” Jones said. “We’re taking the steps necessary to make that possible.”