Rescue money may be coming to the Northwest Oregon Housing Authority from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

If a $795,000 request from NOHA is fulfilled, the agency will have enough cash to cover rent through the end of the year for the hundreds of Clatsop, Columbia and Tillamook county families whose vouchers were initially slated to be cut July 1.

HUD recently announced that it asked “troubled” housing authorities to apply by Aug. 14 for $41 million in help to prevent cutting families from their Section 8 voucher programs.

But even HUD officials aren’t sure when local housing authorities will find out if they’ll get the cash, so voucher holders are in limbo again about how they’ll keep their homes.

The Housing Choice Voucher Program pays for a portion of rent for low-income residents, using federal Section 8 funds. For many, the vouchers pay the majority of the monthly housing bill, including utilities.

NOHA has applied for the relief funds, requesting a total of $795,000 – $30,000 of which would be used for technical training.

A number of housing authorities throughout the country have had problems similar to NOHA’s, said HUD?Assistant Secretary Sandra Henriquez in a recent letter to 2,400 public housing agencies. Henriquez explained that budget shortfalls have plagued about 15 percent of the organizations. HUD is responding with $11 million for agencies on the verge of terminating families and $30 million to agencies that are eligible to receive extraordinary administrative fees for technical assistance.

Carol Snell, NOHA executive director, said with the additional funding NOHA can keep about 200 participants through the rest of the year that would otherwise have to be cut. Even though HUD isn’t making promises about when they’ll notify NOHA if the money is coming, Snell remains optimistic about the timing.

“Hopefully, the funds will be approved in time to keep those families on the program, who remained in their subsidized units, Sept. 1,” Snell said. Families who left the program and are being subsidized through other rental assistance programs will be brought back on Jan. 1, she said.

In both July and August, NOHA took reserve funds from other projects to pay for rent vouchers – with just days to spare before the end of each month.

George Sabol, executive director of Clatsop Community Action, recently pledged to cover rent for the 44 families in Clatsop County needing rent help, using operating funds and federal stimulus money intended to be used over a number of years. But timing could be critical, because if HUD contacts NOHA in the first few days of September, he may already have needlessly written those checks. That’s a risk Sabol said CCA will have to take.

“Once we cut those checks, that money is gone,” he said.

Sabol is still planning on spending about between $20,000 and $25,000 on rent for the households each month, because the money from HUD might not come at all.