Housing Authority reviews project-based vouchers and family self-sufficiency program

The Santa Rosa Housing Authority on May 19 held a study session explaining how project-based vouchers (PBVs) and the Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) program operate, how families are placed into PBV units, and how FSS uses escrow accounts to encourage employment and economic stability.

The presentation, delivered by Annette Anthony, Housing and Community Services Manager, summarized PBVs as a component of the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program that the housing authority contracts to reserve vouchers for specific units at a property. Anthony said the PHA manages separate waiting lists for each PBV site and provides property owners a set of household names (for example, 10 names for one vacancy) rather than direct access to the waiting-list software. Owners screen and select tenants but must document outreach attempts and submit a tenancy approval form that triggers the PHA’s income verification, inspection, and rent-reasonableness review.

Commissioners pressed staff on how applicants sign up for PBV waiting lists, whether applying to a PBV site removes someone from the main HCV list (it does not), and how special-population set-asides work. Anthony said the authority manages 12 active PBV sites…