Merced County, California Housing Choice Voucher Waiting List

The Housing Authority of the County of Merced (HACM) Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher waiting list is currently closed. Applications were last accepted from March 24, 2020, until April 3, 2020. There is no notice of when this waiting list will reopen.

To apply during the opening period, applicants were required to complete the online application.

This waiting list had the following preferences:

• Active Agriculture - Midway only: Families who apply for housing at the Midway Complex, a Project Based and USDA Rural Development Site, and who earn at least $5,752.50 per year from agricultural employment and who meet the following definition: ACTIVE farm labor households. “Agricultural employment” means employed in the cultivation and tillage of the soil; the production, cultivation, growing and harvesting of any agricultural or horticultural commodities; the raising of livestock, bees, furbearing animals, or poultry; dairying, forestry, and lumbering operations: and any work on a farm as incident to or in conjunction with such farming operations, including the delivery and preparation of commodities for market or storage. “Agricultural household” means an agricultural worker or workers and other persons who reside or will reside with an agricultural worker in an assisted unit.
• Elderly or Disabled Person: An elderly preference applies if the head, spouse or co-head is a person who is age 62 or older. A disabled person preference applies if the head, spouse or co-head receives Social Security or Supplemental Security benefits or otherwise meets the definition of disabled as defined under Section 223 of the Social Security Act.
• Involuntarily Displaced: Families who have been displaced due to a locally declared disaster, state declared disaster, federally declared disaster or other national emergency. It will also be given to those families that are involuntarily displaced by HACM action (emergency relocation, extensive rehabilitation and insufficient funding or other local disasters) as approved by Executive Director.
• Mainstream - Voucher Only: A person 18 years of age or older and less than 62 years, who is a family composed of one or more non-elderly persons with disabilities, which may include additional members who are not non-elderly persons with disabilities who are: • Transitioning out of institutional and other segregated settings • At risk of institutionalization • At risk of experiencing homelessness or homeless.
• Other Agriculture - Midway only: Families who apply for housing at the Midway Complex, a Project Based and USDA Rural Development Site, and who earn at least $5,752.50 per year from agricultural employment and who meet the following definition: OTHER. Retired or disabled domestic farm laborer households – active in the farm labor market at the time of retirement or disability OUTSIDE of the local area.
• Residency: Families who live, work, or have been hired to work within Merced County and /or residents. Applicants who are working or who have been notified that they are hired to work in a residency preference area must be treated as residents of the residency preference area.
• Retired.Disabled Agriculture - Midway only: Families who apply for housing at the Midway Complex, a Project Based and USDA Rural Development Site, and who earn at least $5,752.50 per year from agricultural employment and who meet the following definition: RETIRED or disabled domestic farm laborer households – who were active IN the local farm labor market at the time of retirement or disability.
• Veteran: Current members of the military, veterans, or surviving spouses of veterans may qualify for this preference. Applicants must provide proof of honorable discharge. If discharge is less than honorable, applicant must provide proof of eligibility to receive veteran benefits.

It was not known how applicants will be placed on the waiting list, weighed by order of preferences.

For more information, visit the HACM website.

Sources: This information was verified by the HACM, as of March 30, 2020.

Service Area

This waiting list is for rental assistance in Merced County, California.