Duluth HRA temporarily closes North Shore Section 8 applications as assistance wait times grow
For nearly 90 years, Americans experiencing housing insecurity based on their economic status have been able to turn to a federal voucher program for assistance.
Section 8, also known as the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program, is federally funded but administered locally. For North Shore residents, the program is managed by the Housing Redevelopment Authority of Duluth, and for those newly seeking that assistance, access has become more limited.
When someone applies for rental assistance, they are added to a waitlist for a voucher. The voucher can be used toward rent on a market-rate unit. Typically, recipients pay about 30% of their monthly income in rent, and the voucher is used to make up the difference between what the recipient is contributing and what the landlord is charging. Voucher recipients have 90 days to find an eligible housing unit once they are taken off the waitlist.
Rachel Downs is the rent subsidy supervisor for the HRA of Duluth, which administers the HCV program for the Duluth area, and much of Lake and Cook Counties. She told WTIP that arrangements like this are not unusual. Downs said that across the state, most housing authorities are small organizations with limited staff. Partnering with larger housing authorities means that the small organizations, like Cook County’s, are able to continue to work within their capacity, but area residents are still able to participate in programs that come with major administrative work.
Downs explained that all of the applicants in the Duluth HRA service area are part of the same waitlist. At this time, that waitlist is closed to new applicants.
Waitlist times for federal housing assistance are notoriously long. Downs said that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) now instructs local housing authorities to close their waitlists when the oldest applications have been on the list for over 24 months. She said that milestone was reached for the Duluth HRA Section 8 list during the summer of 2025.
The long wait time for assistance is caused by several factors. Downs said that not only is there a lack of available eligible housing units, but the program is also short on other resources.
Though over time federal funding for housing voucher programs has increased, it has not kept up with demand. Downs said that the strict regulations and limited funding coming from the federal government means that the resources available are not enough to meet the current needs.
“Costs are high, but we’re not necessarily receiving an increase in funding to match that need,” Downs said. “So that’s really where that imbalance starts to tip those scales, and this leads to longer wait lists and fewer opportunities to bring new people onto the program, because we have to support those that are already housed in utilizing the funds that we have.”
Section 8 is a federal program, but Downs said that as the HRA of Duluth has worked to navigate the resource shortages, the state has offered some assistance to housing authorities. State funds cannot be used for Section 8 programs, but can go toward supporting other local housing accessibility efforts. She said state funding has been important for keeping households housed who otherwise may have “fallen between the cracks” of the limits of federal programs.
State funding has been able to help the HRA of Duluth with some local programs, but Downs said that the long wait times for sustainable rent assistance that helps build long-term stability often leave applicants scrambling. She said that in the absence of local programs or support from non-profit aid groups, many are left paying rent they cannot afford in the long term, piecing together short-term accommodations, or experiencing homelessness.
“This is, a lot of times, the part that nobody really likes to think about,” she said.
Though the waitlist remains closed for now, Downs said she is optimistic that the closure is temporary, and that the HRA of Duluth hopes to be able to reopen it later this year, or early in 2027. But before that happens, the factors that have contributed to its closure will need to change.
“It comes down to us needing to be confident in our ability to fund additional vouchers,” she said. “We want to make sure that when people apply, there’s a realistic opportunity for assistance, and we’re not just adding them to an already very long list.”
WTIP’s Kirsten Wisniewski spoke with Rachel Downs, the rent subsidy supervisor for the HRA of Duluth. Audio of that conversation is below.
Kirsten Wisniewski March 20, 2026
