The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Friday that it's providing $2.8 million in tenant protection vouchers to public housing residents in Oakland.
HUD officials said the vouchers will help families with relocation or replacement housing from demolition or mandatory conversion of their public housing units.
In addition, they said the vouchers will provide assistance to families living in Section 8 projects for which the owner is opting out of the housing assistance payment contract.
HUD officials said the housing vouchers are awarded to public housing authorities such as the Oakland Housing Authority for relocation and replacements in connection with a HUD-approved plan to demolish or dispose of public housing developments.
"When a family living in public housing finds out that their unit will no longer be available, we want to make sure they are not displaced," Hunter Kurtz, Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing, said in a statement.
"This funding allows HUD to keep its commitment of ensuring people have a decent, safe, and affordable place to live," Kurtz said.
The housing assistance announced on Friday is provided through HUD's Housing Choice Voucher Program, which provides funding that helps very low-income families, the elderly and the disabled to afford decent, safe and sanitary housing in the private market.
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HUD is providing a total of $5 million in tenant protection vouchers to eight cities in six states throughout the United States. The $2.8 million in vouchers for Oakland is by far the highest amount that any city is getting.
