Odds in housing lottery: Lots of hope, lots of disappointment

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Saturday, Nov. 17, 2007 | 7:18 a.m.

Efrain Sanchez had a job laying cable but started fainting in the ditches.

It was the diabetes, getting worse. His drinking didn't help. He wound up on the streets. Now, with help from a local organization called Straight From the Streets, Sanchez takes medicine, doesn't drink and lives in a downtown motel.

If there has been little good fortune in his recent past, that might have changed Wednesday when the 44-year-old became one of 3,000 people lucky enough to get through on the phone during this week's Section 8 voucher lottery.

Theron McNeil, on the other hand, dialed the Clark County Housing Authority number at least 250 times from Wednesday through Friday and was one of thousands who never got through. Aged 63 and living on $890 a month in Social Security disability, he said of the lottery: "It just seems like a hope - like it's not for real."

This is where you can trot out the tired Vegas cliches - rolling the dice, drawing the ace and so on. Except this lottery - anyone could call the agency until 3,000 names were put on a list - was for some of the valley's poorest, and the prize was housing.

That's what made the event so surreal, said Linda Lera-Randle El, director of Straight From the Streets. She spent five hours calling on behalf of Sanchez and others.

"It's so typical of Vegas," she said. "Even the most basic needs ... are met by luck. It's like, 'Spin the wheel - you might get housing!' "

But you might not. Sanchez and 2,999 other people are now on a list that the housing authority will take at least a year to review. By calling back everyone, the agency will identify those eligible for the program and will discover that some people have found housing elsewhere or given up and left town.

Federal money pays for the vouchers, which cover most or all of the rent, depending on a person's income and a rental's cost.

The vouchers are a large chunk of the budget at each of the valley's three housing authorities and account for nearly half of the Clark County agency's $43 million annual budget, said Nancy Wesoff, executive director.

This means the vouchers are one of the few solutions to the valley's affordable housing shortage, which was identified by the 2005 Clark County Growth Task Force as one of the region's top problems.

"Unfortunately, there will be people who will not get through - thousands and thousands of families need rental assistance," Wesoff said.

Though figures weren't available Friday on this year's effort, it's clear the demand outstrips supply.

Dolores Sawyer, who works with the Section 8 program at the Las Vegas Housing Authority, said 40,000 people called her agency the last time it opened the lines. Of those, 2,500 people made it on that agency's list.

Wesoff said her agency took 2,000 names on Clark County's list a year ago. Of those, 780 people got vouchers and 370 didn't, either because they weren't eligible or they no longer needed housing by the time the agency called them back. Of the 850 people remaining to be called, Wesoff anticipates about half will no longer need help.

When the list was opened up again this week, Wesoff said, her entire staff pitched in during the three days, with about 30 people rotating through six-person shifts.

She filled in Wednesday afternoon and was impressed by how emotional callers were when she picked up.

"One guy said, 'I don't believe it! I got through! I'm going to have a heart attack!' I told him, 'Let me get your name first.' He had been calling since 8. It was about 4. He was 77."