Four years ago, the Albuquerque Housing Authority made a controversial move. The department stopped taking applications for rent vouchers and public housing, saying its wait list had grown so out of control its method for processing those applications was no longer effective.

"Our wait list was five years for any type of housing services. It was inefficient because sometimes we'd contact them five years later, and they were no longer in need, or we didn't have updated info," said Linda Bridge, the executive director of the authority.

The authority owns and operates 953 public housing units that are rented to low-income families, the elderly, survivors of domestic violence, those with disabilities and those involuntarily displaced due to emergencies. They never pay more than 30 percent of their household income toward rent and the average renter in those units stays for 3.6 years, according to the authority's website.

The authority also operates a Section 8 program, which provides 4,000 vouchers to Albuquerque residents, to help families pay their rent at privately-owned apartment complexes and houses. That funding comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Bridge said the authority has been processing those on the wait list and there are about 600 people still on a list, and the Section 8 housing voucher request list is down to a year or less wait time.

Bridge said for her department to truly be successful, there needs to be more affordable housing in Albuquerque. Based on the city's demographics and looking at those who are spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing, the 953 public housing units and 4,000 Section 8 vouchers can only serve about 10 percent of those who would qualify for the program.

To create more affordable housing, the agency is in the process of applying to HUD for a new designation, one that will allow it to act more like a developer.

Called the Rental Assistance Demonstration Program, it allows public housing agencies "to leverage public and private debt and equity in order to reinvest in the public housing stock," according to HUD. Click here to read the full article.