OCEANSIDE — Oceanside leaders are considering closing the city’s nearly 5,000-person waitlist for Section 8 rental assistance under the Housing Choice Voucher Program, due to the growing gap between rental costs and available federal funding.
Oceanside is one of two housing authorities in the county, along with National City, that still have an open waitlist for rental assistance vouchers. The cities of Encinitas, Carlsbad, and San Diego, as well as the county of San Diego, have all closed their waitlists as federal funding for the program fails to keep pace with the growing cost of rent.
Oceanside currently provides rental assistance to 1,380 households, nearly half of which have been with the program for over 10 years. The majority of participants are elderly or disabled.
At an Oceanside City Council meeting on March 25, city staff said housing assistance payments have increased by 46% since 2020, with the average monthly rent subsidy payment reaching $1,831.
Housing and Neighborhood Services Director Leilani Hines said the federal government isn’t factoring in the rising cost of rent when calculating this funding for cities, even though the city is paying for it.
“[There are] about 141 vouchers that we technically aren’t able to issue, because we don’t have the federal funding to make up those housing assistance payments,” Leilani said.
This year, Oceanside anticipates receiving $29.7 million in federal funding for housing assistance, which will leave the city about $900,000 short of what it needs to cover all program participants.
Hines said the city is asking the Department of Housing and Urban Development to replenish these funds so people do not have to be removed from the voucher program.
There are currently 4,869 people on the city’s waitlist, and just over half live or work in Oceanside. City staff said they have not been able to pull from the waitlist since 2023 and have stopped providing estimated wait times to get off the list (in the past, the wait time has been over eight years).
Staff said they will discuss the possibility of no longer accepting waitlist applications with the city’s Housing Commission, which could formally recommend that the City Council close the waitlist. If that happens, the closure would require HUD approval.
“We’ve had these conversations about a potential list closure. It’s not a decision that we take lightly. We understand the implications,” said City Manager Jonathan Borrego.
City Council members said that while closing the list would be unfortunate, they do not want to give people false hope when they are unlikely to make it off the list.
“Closing off our list is a really sad sign of the times, but keeping it open and basically promising people who sign up for it the idea that they might someday get housing from us — which, unless the conditions change, is a false promise — is a sad state of affairs,” said Councilmember Eric Joyce.
Staff noted that the city may be able to issue a handful of new vouchers in the coming year for households eligible for the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program.
HUD has also proposed new restrictions for the Section 8 program, including time limits on how long participants can receive assistance. Oceanside Housing Program Manager Raymond Rull said implementing term limits would result in even more administrative work for staff.
“Let’s see how the wind blows with this current administration, as to whether they institute a requirement for term limits on these vouchers,” Rull said.
Resident Jimmy Knott said many people are being economically forced into homelessness, with fewer options for lower-income housing or rental vouchers.
“At the senior center, I’ve encountered numerous seniors saying, ‘I’m next, what am I to do,’” Knott said. “Please, let’s figure out some hope that we can give to our people.”
During the discussion, the council reviewed its 2026-27 annual plan related to the voucher program. Staff said the city is meeting its major program goals, including promoting self-sufficiency for assisted households, improving program management, and expanding the supply of housing participating in project-based vouchers.
Oceanside has executed or initiated agreements for 124 new project-based voucher units between the El Camino, Coast Villas, and Olive Park projects, including 26 units restricted for HUD-VASH. Project-based vouchers are tied to a specific unit within a property, requiring the individual to live in that unit to receive rental assistance.
Oceanside also received $145,406 in renewal funding for the family self-sufficiency program, which provides case management and financial coordination for households receiving vouchers to reduce their dependency on public assistance.
