The Orange County Board of Supervisors Tuesday authorized the county Housing Authority to apply for $880,200 in vouchers to provide housing for 75 homeless military veterans.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) already provides vouchers to house 295 veterans in Orange County, according to a county staff report.
Qualified government agencies, like the Orange County Housing Authority, are invited to apply for the voucher grants. Last summer the county received another 75 vouchers.
The latest voucher awards are expected as soon as next month and the county’s Housing Authority director, Karen Roper, said the county must be ready to quickly use them.
If selected for the vouchers, the county would have a total of 370 veterans enrolled in the program in which the vouchers are used to pay housing costs.
Qualified veterans can use the vouchers to rent an apartment, condominium or house. The veteran pays about 30 percent of his or her monthly income toward the rent, with the Housing Authority using the HUD grant to pay the rest. Each year the veteran’s income is evaluated to make sure he or she still qualifies for the program.
According to estimates last summer, at least 856 military veterans in Orange County had nowhere to live.