Is Section 8 closed in baltimore??

[Tony Vicente]

I called the section 8 office in Baltimore and they said that section 8 is not taking any new applicants.

I'm curious, is it because there aren't enough landlords to take on new applicants? Or is it because the program itself doesn't have the funding to take on new tenants?

In general, is the bottleneck basically the funding, and so both landlords and tenants have to wait for funding to become available? Is the program funded by the federal government? Or by states?

[Steve Morris]

"I called the section 8 office in Baltimore and they said that section 8 is not taking any new applicants."

Housing authorities get their money from HUD. If rents are going up, they face the decision of more vouchers at lower rents and hope they're close enough to qualify for market-rate OR fewer vouchers at higher-price.

They may have made one of these decisions and run out of money.  Happens in govt a lot.  In Portland, they have open app days couple of times a year and the line is around the block.