It is unclear whether there are enough federal rent vouchers available.

With federal rent vouchers no longer in use, all the bonus money can go toward rent.

Take the case of rent vouchers, now Washington's only serious effort to improve housing.

Residents will receive Section 8 rent vouchers to move into private homes.

By comparison, subsidized rent vouchers for a family of six would be closer to $18,000 a year.

He said his research showed that 90 percent of the time, a simple rent voucher was enough to prevent families from returning to homelessness.

Some tenants also said they were told that their federal rent vouchers would be taken away if they did not move by early April.

In 2003, she said, the authority gave out dozens of rent vouchers that tenants were able to use to help pay for apartments elsewhere.

The families who get the limited number of rent vouchers are usually headed by single mothers with low incomes.

"What we really want is a system of rent vouchers," he said.