KSHB 41 reporter Olivia Acree covers portions of Johnson County, Kansas. Share your story idea with Olivia.
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Last month, KSHB 41 shared information about the Johnson County Housing Choice Voucher Program.
After the voucher waitlist opened, interest in this story spiked.
Reporter Olivia Acree followed up with the county to explain how in demand these vouchers are, how hard they are to obtain and how difficult they are to use.
More than 2,100 people signed up when the waitlist opened in July.
However, only 600 people will move on to the next steps of receiving a housing voucher.
“Johnson County is able to offer more rental assistance in the community than we have units available for those families to use their subsidy," said Johnson County Housing Service Director Heather McNeive. "So, the shortage of affordable housing is dramatically impacting Johnson County, and it's something that we're actively trying to work on."
To give some context to the likelihood of success with these vouchers, Acree pulled some numbers from last year.
In 2023, Johnson County accepted 1,000 applicants. The county helped around 110 recipients obtain a voucher, but only around 60 (5%) were able to find housing.
The county wants to keep offering landlord incentives using money from its budget, even though the federal funding ends this year.
“We really want to make sure that we're able to offer as much rental assistance as we can to the community,” McNeive said.
Johnson County says getting through the applicants will be a lengthy process.
The 600 that were accepted were notified last week by mail, email and phone about the next steps.
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