Housing Choice Voucher Program

CALIFORNIA STATE AUDITOR 4 Report 2024-104 | March 2026 Table 2 When the Housing Agencies Most Recently Opened Their Waiting Lists, They Did So for Varying Time Periods MOST RECENT LENGTH OF TIME AGENCY’S METHOD FOR OPENINGS OF WAITING LIST AGENCY’S REASON FOR LENGTH OF ADDING APPLICANTS HOUSING AGENCY WAITING LIST WAS OPEN TIME WAITING LIST WAS OPEN TO WAITING LIST Orange Alignment with the duration the housing agency understood to be industry best 2023 12 days Random selection practice through conversations with other housing agencies. Riverside 2015–2025* Display large housing need in hope of (stayed open 10 years obtaining additional HUD funding. Accepted all applicants during this period) Sacramento Planned for two weeks, but extended the waiting list opening period to four 2022 29 days Random selection weeks to address fair housing concerns from HUD. Sources: Orange and Sacramento public notices, Riverside administrative plan and website, staff interviews, and HUD. Note: We did not identify a requirement for how long housing agencies must open their waiting lists in HUD HCV regulations. * Riverside closed its waiting list in 2023 to applicants that did not meet certain preferences. In 2025, Riverside closed its waiting list to all applicants.