Perla Cortez EDINBURG– South Texas College and Hidalgo County created a program intended to award 25 housing vouchers per city to eligible applicants who were previously in foster care.
Foster Youth to Independence Initiative is a program under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that provides housing to foster individuals.
Olivia Gomez, director of External Affairs explained the voucher is very flexible, and the recipient can choose where they want to live.
“The housing authority is really the vessel that the federal government uses to issue out the vouchers,” Gomez said. “It’s a choice voucher which means the aged-out foster youth or person is able to use the voucher anywhere they want, what the voucher is, is money for rent.”
For a living space to be qualified for the voucher, housing authorities must approve of the newly established program’s requirements and process first.
Housing authorities are organizations in counties or cities that provide homes for low-income families looking for affordable housing.
Gomez said Hidalgo County has 14 local housing authorities and explained the money used for the vouchers does not interfere with Section 8 housing.
Aside from the collaboration, she said many organizations such as Child Protective Services, Foster Angels and the Hidalgo County Commissioner Precinct 2 Eddie Cantu were involved to sign off the program to provide the housing vouchers.
Jesse DeLeon, a Preparation for Adults Living specialist, elaborated on the difficulties it took to convince the housing authorities to accept the housing vouchers toward foster youth.
“Getting the housing local authorities to want to participate in this program,” DeLeon said. “Like everything else, it is additional work for them to do a program like this. Depending on what kind of work they have, so convincing them that they can do this is where the challenge lies.”
To apply for the voucher, an individual must be between 18 and 25 years of age and have been in foster care. \For more information on how to apply for the voucher, visit dfps.texas.gov or contact Jesse DeLeon and Zenaida Polanco at Jesus.DeLeon@dfps.texas.gov and Zenaida.polanco@dfps.texas.gov
