Five Year Lease Assistance Program

About the Program

Category: Human Services (Best in Category)

Year: 2015

As the largest provider of affordable housing in the County of San Bernardino, the Housing Authority of the County of San Bernardino has strived to provide more than just housing - we are dedicated to providing families with the resources, skills, and motivation to transition out of our assistance programs and into economic independence. As a result, HACSB implemented the Five Year Lease Assistance Program. This unique program is designed to help families achieve economic independence while they receive five years of housing assistance through the Housing Choice Voucher program. Since January 2012, low income non elderly/non-disabled families who are newly assisted through the Housing Choice Voucher Program receive housing assistance through this program. Nationally, a program of this type is expected to have roughly a 25% success rate. In our program, the percentage of families likely to become self-sufficient increased from 12.8% to 30.3% within the past year. The anticipated success rate for our program now exceeds the expected outcome for similar programs nationally. This increase can be attributed to several positive changes over the last year for program participants: earned income increased by 12.3%, welfare income decreased by 13.6%, and 26% of unemployed families became employed.