Keep Calm and Keep Calling: How One Woman is Navigating the Rental Market Without Letting Bureaucracy Get in Her Way
Images by Jenna Opsahl
What’s the power of housing assistance programs? Meet SaverLife member Mecca, a renter and housing advocate who understands the significant impact housing assistance programs can have on financial stability. From navigating the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program to mastering rental applications and securing deposit assistance, Mecca emphasizes the importance of knowing how to access these vital resources.
As Mecca will tell you: securing housing is exhausting. But she’s finding her way forward by building a support network of people who are going through experiences just like her. Read on to learn more about how Mecca is working to improve her financial health and maintain safe, affordable housing in a market where housing costs stay high.
Navigating relationships — at work and at home
Mecca is a California native who works for a national housing nonprofit. Through her work, she supports individuals and families to locate safe and secure affordable housing. She also recommends programs and resources that they can use to navigate the application process and cover essential moving costs. “I love my job,” she says. “It’s what I’ve always wanted to do.”
When Mecca isn’t working, she likes to spend time with her son who recently moved back to the area. Together, they like to try new restaurants, like a Vietnamese spot with unforgettable pho. Mecca also values her alone time when she can relax with her dogs and recharge her social battery. Because she maintains a tight budget, she prefers to spend her weekends at home, although she will treat herself to a pedicure from time to time.
When housing programs hurt instead of help
Mecca and her husband have been renting her parents’ home since 2020, when her parents moved out of town to avoid living in a large city during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mecca always knew that this arrangement was temporary, however; her parents’ decision to move back into their primary residence to be closer to their medical providers still took her by surprise earlier this year. After paying rent that was comparable to her income for four years, Mecca was shocked to discover that most rental prices fell outside of her monthly budget. “The price of the apartments has gone up a whole lot,” she describes. “And the application fees. I’ve spent a lot of money on application fees alone.”
Living in her parents’ home had allowed Mecca to save more of her money and maintain financial stability. But now she fears what housing-related costs will do to her financial health in the long term. To mitigate these effects, Mecca has sought out programs and resources that she can use to ease her transition from her current home to a new place. She notes: “My work has been helpful because I know how housing programs work, like the HCV program, rapid rehousing, and other kinds of programs. But at the same time, I feel like I shouldn’t have to be a part of these programs, too. I’m supposed to be helping someone who I’m in the same boat with.”
Mecca began navigating the rental process by applying for a HCV that she can put toward rent. After qualifying for the voucher, she located a home that met her needs: a two-bedroom house with a small backyard for her dogs and washer/dryer hookup. The trouble is, once Mecca submitted her rental application, she began to encounter new and unexpected challenges with the process. “The landlord knows it can take possibly up to 30 days [for an HCV to process her paperwork], but I don’t think he wanted to wait 30 days,” Mecca explains. In a competitive housing market, the HCV program doesn’t have the rapid services needed to operate on landlords’ timelines.
To entice the landlord to reserve the place for her, Mecca agreed to put a deposit down on the house. However, she needed additional assistance to cover the full cost. Knowing that 211 offers deposit assistance, Mecca contacted their office every day — often multiple times a day — to try and secure the money. Finally, a 211 employee returned her call and completed the request: an act that Mecca attributes entirely to luck.
As if securing an HCV and deposit assistance weren’t enough, Mecca then needed 211 to fast track her payment to the landlord so that he wouldn’t give up her house. “I texted the landlord almost every other day,” Mecca adds. “I kept thinking that at any moment he’s going to say, ‘You know what? I can’t wait any longer. I’m going to go with someone who doesn’t have a voucher or someone who has the money right now.’” This reality frustrated Mecca who knows that landlords have a responsibility to accommodate HCV requirements. However, she recognized that no matter what the process looked like on paper, she wouldn’t be able to prevent the landlord from rejecting her application if he changed his mind.
Resilience in an uncertain housing market
After all her work, Mecca finally secured the rental property. But the process of applying for and requesting support has left her uncertain about reaching out for assistance again. In particular, she feels that recertifying her qualifications for an HCV is invasive and discouraging. “I am fortunate to have a voucher, I know. I waited a long time to get it, and I know people are waiting even longer,” she describes. “But I just went for my annual recertification, and they were digging through all my bank statements, asking me ‘Well, where did this Zelle transfer of $50 come from? We need to know.’ It was a lot.”
Additionally, Mecca says that the amount of rent covered by her HCV is tied to her annual income — and as of now, it’s only covering a portion of her full expenses. She explains: “I’m right in the middle where I’m not making enough, but I’m also making too much… I’ll be paying the majority of the rent myself anyways. In total, [HCV] will probably only pay like $300 to $400.”
To accommodate for these realities, Mecca has thought about relocating to another state or seeking a higher-paying position in another industry. She knows she has options, but recognizes that they’ll come with additional processes and programs that she has to navigate — experiences that might feel more overwhelming than productive when she gets there. Homeownership is still her goal in the long term, but she’s not exactly sure when she’ll have the financial stability to begin planning for it.
Even so, Mecca stays optimistic about the future by focusing on her work. Assisting others to secure reliable, affordable, and safe housing is her top priority, and she finds these little successes keep her motivated on her own housing journey, too. “As hard as it can be, as frustrating as it can be,” she concludes, “At the end of the day: I’m here to help. And if we can help each other — if we can come together as a team — it’ll all work out.”
(We extend out gratitude to Melville Charitable Trust for their generous philanthropic support, which has made it possible for this important story to be shared.)