Waiting lists that are now two years long have caused leaders of the Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority to stop taking new applications for their most popular housing assistance programs.

For the first time in about a decade, the housing authority has closed it waiting lists for people who are seeking one- or two-bedroom units through the public housing program or the Section 8 assistance program.

“We don’t want people to apply and think they are going to get a house, when in reality they are not going to get a house through us for several years,” said Barbara Huppee, executive director of the authority.

Huppee said the down economy has caused the waiting list to grow by about 100 families. Federal regulations allow the housing authority to close a waiting list any time it would take more than a year for the list to be cleared. Huppee said the authority could have made the decision to close the list in past years but chose not to. This year the authority re-evaluated its position as it became clear that some people on the list wouldn’t be served for about two years.

“What’s really changed is we’ve further analyzed it and we realized we’re creating a false sense of hope for people who apply,” Huppee said.

Huppee said she’s uncertain how long the list will be closed. She said it could reopen by the beginning of the year, but it would depend upon how many people leave the program.

The closing of the lists impacts three particular programs:

• The Section 8 program that provides monetary assistance to people renting from a private landlord.

• The public housing program that allows people to live in one of the 224 public housing units, including Edgewood Homes, owned by the authority.

• The city’s HOME Transitional Housing Program, which provides housing for people exiting homelessness.

Huppee said the waiting lists for people who qualify for three- or four-bedroom units will remain open, but she said the majority of people who apply for assistance only qualify for one- or two-bedroom units. Waiting lists for Babock Place, Peterson Acres, Clinton Place, the HOPE Building and the Bert Nash HOME program will remain open because they are part of separate programs.

Both a shortage of funding and a shortage in the number of available public housing units are creating the long waiting lists. Huppee said the local Section 8 program hasn’t seen its $3.5 million allocation from the federal government increase since about 2000. The authority also hasn’t received any funding to build additional general, public housing for about a decade.

“I think this is just a reminder of the harsh reality of the economy and the harsh reality of how much the community is hurting right now,” said Sue Hack, who is the vice chair of the housing authority’s board of commissioners. “Unfortunately, I don’t think the housing authority’s situation is more disheartening than what many other social service agencies are going through.”