Low- to moderate-income residents are currently living in about 1,000 housing units supported by vouchers through the Housing Authority of Champaign County — but more than triple that number are on the waitlist for the same opportunity.
Currently, 1,064 project-based vouchers are available for leasing housing units, according to Housing Authority of Champaign County’s revised 2025 Moving To Work plan. These vouchers are already attached to housing units in developments and communities pre-approved by the authority.
But this May there were 3,965 unique applicants on the project-based voucher waitlist. In total, there were even more applications because some people applied for more than one property.
Because the authority is over-leased, the plan said “we cannot begin pulling from our waitlist for quite some time.” A direct rental assistance program was proposed in the revised plan, beginning with just 175 families — a fraction of those waiting for assistance.
The proposed program would select 100 families from the waitlist at random. The remaining 75 would receive assistance through a sponsor-based voucher, of which the plan said ten organizations will make referrals for tenants to the authority.
All applicants for the project-based vouchers were also cross-listed on the tenant-based voucher waitlist. About half of the tenant-based housing applicants applied for one or more of the waitlists for project-based housing, according to the authority’s 2025 plan.
The housing authority assists low- and moderate-income families with securing housing in one of its 17 properties. The project-based vouchers it awards provides rental assistance for these specific properties in Champaign County.
Applicants’ income, divided into tiers, determines the amount of money a household will have to contribute to their living space. According to the 2025 plan, household members typically contribute 28% of their income to rent, with those earning $4,995 a year or less paying a flat rent fee of $100 per month, but this can be waived if a hardship request is approved.
The authority’s hardship policy reduces a household’s rent payment by one income tier for 90 days. If the family is on the lowest tier, the payment will be waived.
Douglas Square, Crystal View and Oakwood Trace Apartments are some of the facilities under the authority’s umbrella. The vouchers are open to individuals and families. Some developments like Hayes Homes, Steer Place and Youman Place Apartments are housing structures restricted to individuals aged 55 and older, and they have assigned vouchers to all units.
The housing authority said in its 2024 end-of-year report that the least-occupied development, Oakwood Trace, is 87.8% full, and three others at maximum capacity.
According to the March 2025 edition of “The Housing Hub,” the authority’s monthly newsletter, individuals 55 and older could apply for residence at Youman Place from April 11 to June 16.
The authority’s 2025 plan said it will not add public housing units to its portfolio this year. It said it no longer categorizes those units as “public housing.”
“We got rid of our public housing program back in 2017, so we actually don’t have any public housing,” Housing Authority Executive Director Lily Walton said in an interview. “We do continue to develop affordable housing, but it is not under the public housing umbrella.”