Families using vouchers may have to pay more in rent. Do they know?

A public hearing this week about a proposal to raise rent payments for thousands of San Diegans drew only a handful of people, suggesting that many low-income families remain unaware that they may owe more money starting late next year.

The plan would affect around 14,500 households receiving rental aid through vouchers that are distributed by the San Diego Housing Commission. Yet fewer than a dozen members of the public showed up at noon Monday to the commission’s downtown offices to hear more details, and a livestream of the meeting was viewed just 20 times.

A vote on the measure is scheduled for Dec. 11.

“Our goal is to make time for folks to adjust, to plan and prepare,” Lisa Jones, the housing commission’s president and CEO, said from the dais. “Our goal is to maintain everybody’s housing stability.”

Leaders publicly proposed the changes earlier this month and are in the early stages of notifying those affected. Elderly and disabled residents who are currently sending 28.5% of their income toward rent would instead have to give 32%. Other households used to contributing 24% could see their required share jump to 40%.

Without those increases, commission officials have said the agency might drain its reserves and be forced to kick some families out of the program completely.

The only person to speak Monday during the public comment period was Mahamud Umar, a community organizer with the advocacy group Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans, or PANA. Umar told commission leaders that PANA wasn’t completely opposed to increasing payments but thought the current version of the plan hit some families too hard. “Our concern is that we will see a sharp increase in evictions,” Umar said.

He suggested several tweaks, including a slower rollout, capping some rent payments at 35% of people’s income and making all of the changes temporary.

Multiple attendees required a translator who spoke Vietnamese. Other listened to the meeting in Spanish, including Anastasia Tejeda, a 71-year-old who said afterward that she only expected the changes to affect her “a little.” Tejeda did not think paying more might cause her to lose housing.

Another man in attendance said his voucher was from the Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program, or VASH. That initiative should be exempt from any increases.

Among the 14,500 households expected to be affected, more than 9,300 are made up of elderly and disabled residents, officials said. Within that group, the vast majority — 8,713 — would see their bills climb by no more than $99 a month. Several hundred individuals or families with larger paychecks might face monthly increases of up to $299.

An additional 3,000 households with adults who are able to work currently spend between 24% and 30% of their income on rent. That population would all be bumped up to giving 40%.

The remaining 1,900 or so households may see their monthly bills increase by hundreds of dollars, depending on how many adults in the family can work.

The vouchers are funded by the federal government. Washington, D.C. has long failed to fully pick up the program’s tab, especially in recent years as inflation has helped drive up the cost of housing. Local leaders are also worried that the Trump administration may further cut support.

Amid that uncertainty, a majority of the housing commission’s board appears willing to ask program participants to chip in more.

Monday’s meeting was announced during the last board meeting and listed on the commission’s website. Residents who missed out can still weigh in by emailing MTWPlan@sdhc.org or sending a letter to San Diego Housing Commission, Attn: Moving to Work, 1122 Broadway, Suite 300, San Diego, CA 92101.

Those comments must be received by 5 p.m. on Nov. 30.

If the housing commission board does vote next month in favor of the proposal, it must still be approved by the federal government. Once that happens, officials have pledged to send out more notices about the coming changes.

Rent payments would go up sometime in late 2026 or early 2027. Families facing certain hardships will be able to ask that their increases be delayed.

Staff writer Alexandra Mendoza contributed to this report.