Houston’s housing authority, Housing Alliance HTX, opened its public housing waitlists for the first time since 2023 this summer. Within two weeks, roughly 56,000 households had applied, it said in a release.
The waitlists are now closed. The volume of applications underscores Houston’s dire shortage of housing affordable to its extremely low-income residents. Houstonians who earn either below 30% of the area’s median income or the poverty level, or approximately $22,750 for a two-person household, face one of the worst housing shortages in the country, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
“The sheer number of applicants demonstrates the broad need for affordable housing across Houston,” said Kelly Haines, the authority’s senior vice president for asset management, in the release.
Next, the housing authority will use a random lottery to select 10,000 of the 56,000 applicants to add to the waitlists. Those who are already on a waitlist had to take action by the end of June to stay on the list, and their spot on the list will be determined on the date and time they created a RentCafe account and clicked “Save My Spot” to submit a “consent form” on the housing authority’s website.
Haines said those with questions about their applications or waitlist status could reach out to the authority at (832) 446-1611, by email, or in person at the Housing Alliance HTX office at 2640 Fountain View Drive.