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e e e $150,000 for its winter program and this amount was deducted from the fund of $750,000. He said he had raised the issue of replacing the $150,000 to the fund at almost every meeting of the Housing Policy Board since that time, as well as at Board of County Commissioner meetings. Mr. Roberts said that due to budgetary limitations, it seemed doubtful that the County would be able to replenish its share of housing development moneys back up to the original sum of $750,000. He said this commitment might be renewed in the coming year through the Intergovernmental Human Services Com- mittee. Ms. Bascom said the County had allocated $522,000 for homeless shelters. She said there were so many programs dealing with housing that it was difficult to compare funding among the various jurisdictions. She pointed out that HAC SA spent about $10 million on Section 8 and low-rent public housing. Mr. Weinman explained that Section 8 certificates and vouchers are issued to qualified low-income tenants. This guarantees that no more than 30 percent of their income will be spent on rent and utilities each month. He said that if the Housing Authority finds that a person is living in a unit which is "rent-reasonable" the authority pays the difference between what the tenant can afford and the total cost of rent. In response to a question from Mr. MacDonald, John Van Landingham, a member of the Housing Policy Board, Social Goals Committee, Eugene Planning Commis- sion, and the former Lane County Housing Task Force, said the waiting list for the Section 8 program is usually about two years. He said the list is only opened to new applicants about twice each year. Ms. Bascom added that there are about 2,500 people in the Section 8 program. Mr. Roberts pointed out that many people without permanent housing are not living in a shelter but are living with someone else or are paying from half to 75 percent of their income on rent. He said 2,000 people called last summer during the first week of the biannual opening of the waiting list for Section 8 moneys. He said this meant that providing homes for those people living in emergency shelters would not begin to cover the whole problem of affordable housing. Mr. Roberts said national policy has moved away from supporting new construc- tion to supporting voucher programs. He said this has some merit in those parts of the country which experienced a real estate boom in the early 1980s, but that the Northwest had instead experienced a recession. He said there was not always a way to match vouchers to housing in this area. Mr. Roberts pointed out that landlords may be prejudiced against persons with vouchers and, in addition, HUD rules are often extremely stringent and there- fore disliked by landlords, especially in tight market conditions. Mr. Weinman described completed housing projects, including the Uhlhorn Apartments, Laurel Grove, and six new units at the Family Shelter House, and showed their locations on a city map. He listed several proposed projects MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 25, 1991 Page 2