HUD reversal preserves housing vouchers for Washington County families

Up to 30 Washington County families, including 69 children, stand to keep their federal rent assistance after the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reversed course on a pandemic-era voucher program.

HUD announced Sept. 29 that new funding from Congress would convert Emergency Housing Vouchers (EHV) into tenant protection vouchers with no end date, as long as recipients stay below a set income-to-rent ratio, first reported by The Oregonian. The emergency program, created during the pandemic, was originally supposed to last until 2030.

The reversal ends a year of uncertainty. In late 2025, the federal government told local housing authorities the program was running out of money three years early and that rent support would stop by the end of 2026.

"After more than a year of sounding the alarm about the expiration of Emergency Housing Vouchers, we are grateful federal leaders responded," Molly Rogers, executive director of the Housing Authority of Washington County, told The Oregonian.

In Washington County, the vouchers support 69 young people across 30 families, about 40% of the county's total emergency voucher households, according to The Oregonian's reporting. The exact number who will benefit locally is unclear: some families statewide who were moved to other assistance before the reversal will not get their vouchers back, The Oregonian reported.

Nationally, the reversal will keep more than 36,000 emergency voucher households with current leases in their homes, according to The Oregonian.

The need for housing resources in Washington County continues to outpace supply. As of January 2026, more than 1,700 households were waiting for a housing referral in the county, according to Washington County government data. More than 3,000 households have moved out of homelessness or housing instability into stable housing since the Supportive Housing Services (SHS) program launched in 2021, the county said.

As of January 2026, those 1,700 households on the county's waitlist were still seeking a housing referral.