TEXAS, USA — The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded $138.5 million in grants for more than a dozen state housing agencies to expand the supply of housing and supportive services for low-income persons with disabilities across the United States.
The state of Texas will be receiving $8 million of that money to help with affordable housing in their counties.
It couldn't have come at a better time, as there have been issues with affordable housing not just in Texas, but across the country.
“Across the country, we're short at least three million, probably closer to five million, units of housing that's worked to rent, to buy absolutely everything," said Candace Valenzuela, the regional administrator for HUD Southwest. "So with a real shortage, there's going to be a real price increase.”
The funding made possible by the Section 811 Project Rental Assistance for Persons with Disabilities Program is hoping to reverse that.
“This one is very, very targeted money for folks that have disabilities and folks that are in need of supportive services, and for folks that are lower income," Valenzuela said.
Valenzuela said people with disabilities have a lot more hidden costs to deal with that people don’t know about.
“Not having the same choices that everyone else has not having the ability to pay for personally. Some of those things that might make their housing more accessible or the landlord might not be able to do that," Valenzuela said. "So this is a cost saving measure for both prospective tenants and for the landlord, so that they can make their housing more accessible to folks with resources they wouldn't have otherwise had.”
With an infusion of $8 million into the Texas Housing and Urban Development, the hope is that people with disabilities are given better access to those services and are keeping communities together.
“This grant money goes toward making those services more accessible and making the housing more accessible at the rental level, so that folks get to live where they want to live and get to participate and be members of their communities,” Valenzuela said.
Midland and Ector County are expected to get at least a little bit of that money sent towards them.
“That's exactly the community that this is the sort of funding is intended for," Valenzuela said. "If you want to live in Midland and Ector and you don't necessarily have access to accessible housing because that's not something that's broadly available, this money is supposed to create that that benefit and keep your community together.”
For now, it is unclear when or how that money will be distributed.
Valenzuela told NewsWest 9 that the decision to distribute money is up to the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs and how they determine the needs of local communities.