SAN JOSE, CA—With $85 billion in across-the-board federal sequester cuts now in place, The Housing Authority of the County of Santa Clara (HACSC) confirms today the negative impact this will have on the agency's programs that serve more than 17,000 extremely low-income veterans, seniors, the disabled, families with children and formerly homeless in Santa Clara County. Housing authorities, charities and communities nationwide have worked together tirelessly to provide housing and support services to this very vulnerable population.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has cut $21 million from HACSC's Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program funding for 2013. This means that up to 1,500 families with children experiencing poverty, the elderly, adults with disabilities and veterans in Santa Clara County may lose their homes this year. It also makes it much more difficult for HACSC and its community partners to fund solutions to end homelessness in Santa Clara County. The Section 8 program is 100 percent federally funded, so any funding shortfall has a direct and immediate impact on the fragile population it serves.

"I live off of $1,100 a month in social security and my tiny IRA. That's it," says Verna Hayden, 82, a Section 8 voucher holder and 17-year resident at HACSC-owned Sunset Garden Apartments affordable housing in Gilroy. "Living here would be really rough without the housing authority's help; it would take all the money I have to pay rent and I would not have enough money to buy food." Any increase to Hayden's housing cost could mean she'd have to go without food or medical care. "When I was in the hospital for four months, it was a relief to know I could go home when I got out because I had paid the rent."