350 Fort Worth homeless families have rent money but can’t find a landlord to accept them
There are 350 households in Tarrant and Parker counties that have rental assistance to pay for a place to live, but can’t find a landlord to accept them.
Tara Perez, who oversees Directions Home, a Fort Worth program that focuses on housing and homelessness, cited the number at a recent forum and said 78% of landlords in Fort Worth don’t accept rental assistance.
As Fort Worth grapples with a growing homeless population, leaders pointed to the challenge of trying to house people when landlords are unwilling to accept the housing vouchers that would pay their rent and get them out of homelessness and into a permanent home. Lauren King, the executive director the Tarrant County Homeless Coalition, said the majority of people who have vouchers but haven’t yet found a place to live are in Tarrant County.
After a dramatic decrease in homelessness during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the population of people without a permanent home has grown by 22% in 2023, according to data from the Tarrant County Homeless Coalition. Homelessness prevention groups got an influx of federal funding in 2020 and 2021, and a federal eviction moratorium helped protect some families from losing their homes. The homeless coalition wrote in their annual report that “the incredible influx of homeless prevention funding kept people housed and met a great need in our community.”
But now that those resources are no longer available and the eviction moratorium is no longer in place, more people are losing their homes and finding themselves without a place to live. In Texas, landlords are legally allowed to decline renters who have housing vouchers as their method of paying for housing. A law did pass the Legislature this session banning homeowners associations from prohibiting renters with housing vouchers from the entire neighborhood, although individual landlords can still reject renters with vouchers.
The Tarrant County Homeless Coalition has recruited more than 50 landlords who are willing to accept housing vouchers and to house people who might have former eviction on their record, according to the annual report, and is working on growing the number of landlords who will house people who have experienced homelessness.
There are multiple types of vouchers that can help people experiencing homelessness pay for rent. One type of voucher in particular has been found to be particularly effective in reducing homelessness: A study published in 2018 examined different types of interventions to address homelessness, and found that “long-term rent subsidies reduced homelessness and food insecurity,” according to the research. “The other interventions had little effect.”
This story was originally published July 13, 2023 at 12:09 PM.
