Ruth Hancock has a glow
you can't help but notice.
I am truly grateful. Grateful
for her bird, crystal, her dog.
And an apartment they can all call home.
I actually lived up under the
bridge in the West End area.
That was five years ago before
moving into capital View.
It's an apartment complex that
accepts housing vouchers,
a rental assistance program
for those in poverty.
For Ruth, that means she only
pays 30% of her income on rent.
The government picks up the rest,
but not everyone gets that chance.
Is this like a waste of time we
might have on Sims and Vincent
Dillard at Athens City?
Sanctioned encampment,
though you could
technically be in an apartment
right now if you could find one
that would accept the voucher. Yes,
both have been approved for
the rental assistance program,
but neither can find a
landlord that will accept it.
I have my vouchers in December.
Yvonne was approved more than a year ago.
Both say they were given outdated
lists of potential properties to try.
It is up to them to make coal
after coal and pay application
fees that get them nowhere.
What's the use of a voucher?
And I can't do anything with it.
Nikita Blank is getting her masters in
sociology at Georgia State University.
As part of the program,
she spent a year working at the
Marietta Housing Authority. I who
I've been, you know, I've.
I've seen the desperation
in a lot of people's faces
when they can't find a place.
Moved by her experience,
she is working with other students to
figure out why landlords are locking
out tenants on Section 8. We just
want to know, did you not get paid on time?
Was the relationship with the
tenant bad? The federal government limits?
How much it will pay in rent.
Landlords are subject to
Housing Authority inspections
and must be willing to take
rent payments from two sources,
the tenant and the government.
In a hot rental market,
they could all be reasons.
Sometimes it's like an unspoken thing.
We're not going to tell you we
don't accept it, but we want you
to make three times the rent.
And your credit score needs to be XYZ.
All barriers landlords know someone
using a voucher can't achieve.
In Cobb County, the Housing Authority
says in the past two years,
the number of landlords
actively participating in
their program has dropped 20%.
And according to our open Records request,
housing authorities across the
state report less than half of the
families who get vouchers use them.
What would you say
is at stake if we don't figure this out?
You're gonna see a huge increase
in homelessness. Women, children,
the elderly are most vulnerable,
shouted to cry. Our most vulnerable
populations will be suffering.
Ruth still goes out to the
bridge where she once lived,
but now it's to pass out food and
offer hope. You are honest, three.
I believe that we get comfortable,
it becomes home. You know,
and you forget about the relaxation
that you maybe could have,
like sleeping in a regular bed. That's
why, Ruth says, if the community
wants to help the homeless,
it must find ways to get more
places like capital view,
places willing to take
those on rental assistance.
She says stable housing is the door
to a stable job and mental health. You
got to remember the things you
forgot. That's why. That's why.