PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Skyrocketing rent prices and low turnover at affordable apartments are leaving more Bay Area families who rely on Section 8 housing vouchers homeless. 

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently updated their payment limits for Section 8 housing vouchers. In Pinellas County, the vouchers are worth roughly 90-110% of the average median rent for any given zip code. 

But residents in search of moderately priced housing are not finding it. 

Lifelong St. Pete resident Delria Hayes spends at least five hours each day scouring the area for an affordable home. She says those that are within the limits for the housing voucher also require proof of income at three times the monthly rental rate. 

“Who has that? I don’t,” Hayes said. “I’m disabled and unfortunately that’s what the market is doing.”  Hayes is recovering from a brain tumor. 

Hayes says she rented a home in St. Pete for the last decade but had to leave in July when the home was sold and the new owner raised the rent out of her budget. She has custody of her 8-year-old grandson and the two have been bouncing between staying with friends and family and spending some nights sleeping in her car. 

“Right now he’s sleeping in a pallet on the floor or in a twin bed with me and its not easy,” she said. “My children are grown and it breaks my heart that I can’t give him stability right now, because that’s the one thing that every child deserves.” 

Hayes says homes that just two years ago were in budget are now more than $500 a month more while the housing vouchers have not increased enough to keep up. 

“This is just price gouging in the worst way,”  she said. 

Elisa Galvin with the Pinellas County Housing Authority says this an ongoing problem throughout the county and there’s just not enough affordable housing available. 

“In a perfect world every apartment complex would say that 10% of our units would go to affordable housing, but that’s not something that’s mandated in this county,” she said. 

Galvin believes the eviction ban prompted by the pandemic has made the situation worse. Over the past year, fewer people are moving or leaving their homes which has created an inventory issue. 

Some landlords that would have previously rented to those with government assistance are now renting at much higher prices following market trends. The housing authority is trying to entire landlords by offering a $500 bonus as an incentive to lease to a resident with a housing voucher. 

“There’s so many new builds being done but they’re not required to make anything affordable,” Galvin said. “If they could make some of their units affordable for families in our community that would help.”