For the first time in a decade, the state’s public housing office will begin handing out Section 8 vouchers to individuals and families living on Oahu. However, demand is forecast to greatly outstrip available housing units because of the island’s tight housing market and the reluctance of landlords to accept low-income tenants.

The Hawaii Public Housing Authority is expected to accept new applications for a couple of weeks in November, though the agency hasn’t released an exact date yet.

Housing officials will likely be flooded with 15,000 to 20,000 applications. However, it’s probable that only 200 to 300 families will be given vouchers this year, depending on market conditions, said Hakim Ouansafi, the Hawaii Public Housing Authority’s executive director.

Meanwhile the agency hopes to change its rules to allow former Section 8 tenants who were evicted for not paying rent — and banned from the program — to reapply for housing vouchers this year. An estimated 2,000 to 3,000 individuals or families are currently banned from the housing program because of the prohibition, Ouansafi estimates.

Ouansafi said he hopes to take advantage of Gov. David Ige’s Friday emergency proclamation to address homelessness, which allows the Governor’s Office to bypass bureaucratic red tape and act more expeditiously to address the homeless problem. In response to the announcement, Ouansafi said that he contacted the attorney general’s office to see whether the Section 8 rule change could go into effect immediately and in time for the new round of vouchers.

Otherwise, the rule change process is expected to take until March and would include public hearings and federal and state approval processes.

The Section 8 or Housing Choice Vouchers Program is part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development but is administered by local public housing agencies.

“The kind of client we serve, they may go through tough times,” Ouansafi told the public housing board Thursday as he urged support for the rule change. “We all go through tough times here and there.”

In order for prior Section 8 tenants to reapply for housing, they would still have to pay the past rent that they owe the state. “We believe that the money they owe belongs to the taxpayers, and we have to make sure they pay it,” Ouansafi said.

The nine-member board voted unanimously to give the housing agency the authority to change the rule.

The last time that the housing authority accepted Section 8 housing applications was in 2006. At that time the waiting list had swelled to 15,000 applications. It’s taken nearly a decade to clear that backlog.

The Hawaii Public Housing Authority currently serves 7,500 people in its Section 8 voucher program, which provides tenants with a subsidy to cover all or part of their rent. The agency serves only Oahu, while Maui, Kauai and Hawaii counties have their own Section 8 programs.

Getting landlords to accept Section 8 tenants has historically been difficult. Three months ago the housing agency gave out 300 vouchers to the remaining people on the 2006 waiting list. More than half of the families are still looking for housing.

The housing agency recently boosted the subsidy to 110 percent of a unit’s fair market value to try to entice more landlords to accept Section 8 tenants. Last year the average housing subsidy was about $1,063, according to the housing authority’s latest annual report.

Ouansafi said his staff scours Craigslist looking for units for Section 8 clients, and that he’s been meeting with landlords to assuage their concerns about accepting subsidized tenants. The housing authority is also considering providing landlords with several months of rent upfront.

For the upcoming round of Section 8 vouchers, the housing agency will give priority to the disabled, homeless, victims of domestic abuse and people involuntarily displaced by events such as floods or fires.