EIGHT STAIRS AND A VOUCHER: WHY HOUSING ASSISTANCE STILL ISN’T ENOUGH IN BOULDER

By Emily Bernard Boulder Weekly There are eight stairs between Jen Livovich and the street. She knows them the way you know the height of a fall. In late March, she broke her upper left femur and shattered part of the bone. Four months in a wheelchair transformed those stairs from an inconvenience into a border. Her second-floor apartment became a place she could occupy but not easily leave. Property managers did what they could. Grab bars appeared in the bathroom. A temporary ramp bridged the raised threshold at her front door. The adjustments helped. The stairs remained. Livovich holds a federal Housing Choice Voucher, commonly known as Section 8, one of the most valuable forms of housing assistance available in the country. The subsidy can follow her across county lines and state borders. It can stay with her for as long as she continues to qualify. By almost any measure, she has what thousands of people are waiting for. She is still stuck. Not because she lost the voucher.

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