Colorado Springs halts housing vouchers, leaving nearly 3,000 people in limbo
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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Nearly 3,000 applicants were entered into the Colorado Springs Housing Authority’s lottery this year for Housing Choice Vouchers, formerly known as Section 8 vouchers.
But due to a directive from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, the housing authority will not be issuing the vouchers any time soon.
Salty, a 49‑year‑old woman who has lived on the streets of Colorado Springs for the past two years, received the news July 16.
Kristy Milligan, executive director of Westside CARES — a local nonprofit serving unhoused and low‑income residents — approached Salty with both hope and caution:
“The good news is you’ve been entered into the lottery for a Housing Choice Voucher,” Milligan told her. “The bad news is it’ll likely be a long time before you get one.”
Salty, who does not use a last name, lost her massage therapy business to bankruptcy in 2023 and has been unhoused ever since.
She’s now one of 2,978 people on a waitlist for a Housing Choice Voucher from the Colorado Springs Housing Authority. Everyone on the waitlist is stuck in limbo now that the housing authority paused its voucher program, which covers 70% of a person’s rental unit.
“We received a directive from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development that we would not be receiving funding from them and we needed to pause our vouchers,” said Paul Spencer, Colorado Springs Housing Authority deputy director.
The federal government administers money to local housing authorities for Housing Choice Vouchers. Housing authorities then open a lottery for folks under a certain income (in Colorado Springs, the limit is at 50% of the area median income). Once a person’s name is selected from the lottery, they meet with the housing authority to discuss their needs, income, previous housing, employment status and other demographic factors. The person is then issued a voucher.
Spencer said the process between winning the housing lottery and moving into a building can take about seven months to a year.
In a typical year, Spencer said CSHA receives about $2 million each month from the federal government to pay 70% of the tenants’ rents. The tenants are responsible for the remaining 30%.
CSHA opened its 2025 housing lottery July 15 to July 17. The housing authority won’t be selecting any recipients if, and until, HUD changes its course.
“We opened it because the community has come to expect that it’s open every July.” Spencer said. “And we don’t know when things will change at HUD.”
Rocky Mountain PBS did not find other housing authorities in Colorado that have paused their voucher systems, but other agencies in places like Los Angeles, Vermont and Richmond, Virginia, have paused their voucher programs.
“It’s really hard to get help out here and I’m tired of fighting” Salty said, minutes after learning she had been entered in the lottery but would not be chosen. “I’m not saying I want a handout, but I want a hand to help me up.”
Salty worked at O'Reilly Auto Parts for a few months in 2023 after her massage business shuttered. At that time, Salty was sleeping in her van, which was later repossessed in Woodland Park, where she was living at the time.
“I’ve been asking for help ever since,” she said.
Salty now camps near Fountain Creek with her boyfriend, Jeremy, and their two dogs, Princess and Spiderman.
“The streets are no place for a relationship and we’re lucky that we’re still going seven months in,” Salty said. “The only way we get through is by choosing to get over stuff and love each other more than we fight.”
People who are currently housed through Housing Choice Vouchers will not be affected, but those on Emergency Housing Vouchers, which are reserved for people experiencing chronic homelessness, domestic violence victims or those with severe medical conditions, are set to lose access by the end of 2026.
“That would be awful for me,” said Roger Forney, who is currently on an Emergency Housing Voucher in Colorado Springs. Emergency Housing Vouchers were created in 2021 as part of the American Rescue Plan Act.
HUD, who provided the EHV funding, stopped issuing funding for new EHV’s in 2023, and will stop paying for current EHV’s Dec. 31.
Forney, who is from Colorado Springs, has been in and out of homelessness since he was 15 years old.
His wife died of lung cancer in 2011. Before her passing, the couple lived in a house. Forney couldn’t afford the house on his own after his wife died. He ended up back on the streets.
In April 2024, Forney moved into an apartment on the northwest side of town with an Emergency Housing Voucher. He is 66 years old, and his social security benefits cover the remaining 30% of his apartment that his voucher does not.
“It’s nice to be able to go to sleep whenever I want and not have cops yelling at me,” Forney said.
When he loses his voucher, Forney said his options are limited. He can try to work again — his last job was repairing bikes — or live with his daughter. He would prefer his own space.
“I’m just kind of tired of all of this,” Forney said.
People who are currently using housing vouchers are not affected by the freeze.
The El Paso County 2025 Point-in-Time count found the number of unhoused people in the county increased by more than 50% in the last year. This year’s count recorded 1,745 people experiencing homelessness.
Becky Treece, chair of the Pikes Peak Continuum of Care, which administers the count, said in a press conference that the data is “widely understood to be undercounted.”
“The voucher situation is causing a lot of stress for people who are already under immense stress from experiencing homelessness,” said Nikki Flemape, a housing navigator at Westside CARES.
Flemape said those who are on Emergency Housing Vouchers are also scrambling before the funding is set to dry up.
“If they do get evicted at that point, you’re likely unhoused again,” Flemape said. “And having an eviction on your record, for whatever reason, makes it really difficult to get housing again.”
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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