Hundreds of San Diego families face eviction as COVID aid runs out early

SAN DIEGO — Approximately 400 households in San Diego are at risk of losing their homes as a federal COVID-19 housing subsidy program runs out of money years earlier than expected.

The Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) program, established by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in 2021, was originally intended to last until 2030. However, HUD recently notified local housing agencies that the funding is nearly exhausted.

Officials blame skyrocketing rental prices and stagnant incomes for the rapid depletion of the budget. The program was designed to support vulnerable populations, including people experiencing homelessness and survivors of domestic violence.

The San Diego Housing Commission stated it lacks the resources to transition these families into other long-term assistance programs, which are also facing budget shortfalls. Many of the affected families now face the prospect of returning to homelessness.

The crisis unfolding in San Diego serves as more than a localized emergency; it is a stark illustration of the inherent fragility within the American temporary social safety net. While the Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) program was launched with legislative goodwill, it remains a tactical, pandemic-era stopgap rather than a structural solution to the nation’s systemic housing deficit.

The premature exhaustion of these funds highlights a fundamental failure in policy forecasting. Program architects failed to insulate the initiative against macroeconomic volatility, specifically the aggressive rent inflation and price pressures characterizing high-cost markets like California. This has resulted in a precarious "cliff effect": vulnerable families were granted a veneer of stability, only to have it abruptly withdrawn, a move that threatens to erase hard-won progress and exacerbate social trauma.

Furthermore, the situation reveals a deepening disconnect between federal policy ambitions and local implementation capacity. The San Diego Housing Commission is now tasked with managing the fallout of a sunsetting federal program without the necessary resources to transition participants into permanent subsidies. With Section 8 waitlists already at a breaking point, there is no immediate safety valve for those losing EHV support.

As pandemic-era relief measures continue to expire across the United States, San Diego may well be a bellwether. Without a coordinated transition strategy to move families from temporary aid to sustainable housing models, the "funding cliff" risks triggering a broader national crisis in housing security.

San Diego is home to one of the nation’s largest Vietnamese American populations. While the report doesn’t explicitly break down the ethnicity of the households affected, the ongoing housing crisis and the reduction of social safety nets have a profound impact on immigrant and low-income communities. In neighborhoods like City Heights, many Vietnamese families are facing the same crushing pressure from skyrocketing rents and a scarcity of affordable housing. This situation is a clear reflection of the broader economic challenges hitting our community today.