09:47 PM CDT on Thursday, June 30, 2005

By Nancy Holland / 11 News

Concrete and rebar, lumber and nails and the number of homes, apartments, condos and townhouses grows every day. But visible as they may be, they are still far beyond the reach of thousands of people.

"Total, we're looking at nearly 20 thousand people waiting to get into one of our federal housing assistance programs," says Lachanda Jenkins.

KHOU

Walk around Allen Parkway Village with the Houston Housing Authority's Jenkins and you can see some of the people who've hit the housing lottery.

But the waiting list to get into Houston's HUD-funded public housing, like Allen Parkway Village, has 10,000 on it. That's names of families, not individual members.

The other major program, once known as Section 8, offer vouchers used to pay rent for independent apartments or houses.

When the waiting list was last open in 2001 more than 20,000 people applied in three weeks.

The list, still with more than 9,000 names on it, remains firmly closed.

"We're using all the resources and doing everything we can within our power to serve our clients through that voucher program and right now we're at capacity so opening the waiting list would just create a sense of false hope," Jenkins says.

Candace Rogers says she was on that waiting list for five years before deciding it would never happen.

"Some people, you know, they were helping and then they cut it back off again. So, I just said 'forget it.' I been on this Section 8 thing too long, so I kind of gave up on it," says Rogers.

Even as the Housing Authority prepares to tear down Oxford Place and replace it with new and better units, estimates are the number of people in Houston who meet the income limits that would allow them access to public housing is astounding.

Not only could they fill this complex, they could fill Reliant Stadium more than four times.

Those who have made it in say it is vastly different than their other options.

"I don't want to exaggerate but I want to say a million times better. The area is perfect as far as my son going to school two blocks away. Everything here is a little bit more convenient for me," says public housing resident Julie Silva.

One thing that is convenient for Silva is classes that are held in a nearby community center.

"You want to set the stage," she says.

Now working on her GED, her goal is to become a medical assistant and get out of public housing.

That is exactly what people in public housing hope for, a bridge rather than a permanent way of life, which will make room for others.

Even as the federal money to build more units goes down and demand goes up, the Housing Authority is trying to get creative.

Peninsula Park as an example of that creativity. When the developer built these units, he got federal tax credits. The Housing Authority got low-income housing it never would have had otherwise.

Public housing may never see the boom that is now occurring in other parts of the housing market. For the estimated 300,000 people in Houston who qualify for low-income housing, any addition would qualify for a welcome mat.