Housing Authority of the County of Santa Clara

At HACSC, our mission is to provide and inspire affordable housing solutions to enable low-income people in Santa Clara County to achieve financial stability and self-reliance.

Our agency assists about 17,000 households through the federal rental housing assistance (Housing Choice Voucher, also known as Section 8) program. We also develop, control and manage affordable rental housing properties. The majority of our program funding comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Our programs and properties are targeted to assist low, very low and extremely low-income households. The vast majority—more than 80%—of our client households are extremely low-income families, seniors, veterans, persons with disabilities and the formerly homeless. Working together with landlords, housing developers, charities and local governments, we strive to provide housing and support services to as many eligible families as possible.

In all our operations, HACSC works toward being a model for the innovative use of federal funds in the Section 8 program and in leveraging funds and community partnerships to develop new affordable housing and to preserve existing affordable housing. Some of our achievements include:

• Leading national efforts to make housing assistance more cost-effective
       since 2008, by eliminating unnecessary documentation and procedures,
       thereby reducing the cost to administer the program and the burden on
       voucher holders.
• Revisions to the level of rent subsidy that allowed HACSC to maintain
       assistance to all voucher holders despite a 2013 federal funding decrease
       that would otherwise have required the termination of almost 1,000
       families from the program.
• Pioneering use of the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit program to
       develop more than 2,000 units of affordable housing (recognized by
       numerous awards); maximizing local use of federal dollars and 
       consistently being considered a “high performer” that exceeds standards
       for quality in Section 8 voucher program administration.
• Being the first housing authority in the nation to earn a "Strong" ranking
       by Standard & Poor's.