A woman sleeps in her car.

Her neck is damaged, and she can’t work anymore as a hairdresser. But she does get a monthly check for her disability, so she has some income.

She also holds a Section 8 voucher, a federal rent subsidy meant to help low-income Americans find shelter.

But none of it is working.

Every night since early August, the 54-year-old mother of three grown children has parked her black, 1999 Isuzu Trooper outside a friend’s house in Stanton, then stretches out on the back seat and tries to get some rest. She can’t find a landlord willing to accept her voucher, and she can’t find a place she can afford without one.

“Either there’s no one-bedrooms, they’re all full, or they don’t accept Section 8,” said the woman, who doesn’t want to be identified because she fears for her safety while living on the streets.

RELATED: A tenant with a Section 8 public housing voucher succeeds as others fail

Until now, she considered herself lucky. About 21,000 households in Orange County hold Section 8 vouchers, a fraction of the 122,000 “very low-income” households that qualify for one. In all, about 87,000 local families are on waiting lists at the four agencies that administer the Section 8 program in Orange County. Waits of six to 10 years are common.

The basic bargain of Section 8 is simple and, often, cruel.

Once a person gets a voucher, they have it for life, as long as they follow the rules and meet income guidelines, meaning they stay poor enough to qualify.

But there’s a catch – the four-month rule. After you first get a voucher, you have four months to find an apartment. And if you’ve had your voucher for years but you lose your dwelling, you still have only those same four months to find a new one.

But take a day longer than four months, and your Section 8 voucher – the thing that often makes the difference between a bed under a roof and the back bench of an Isuzu – goes to the next person in line.

The woman in the vehicle held her voucher for 13 years before a dispute with her landlord put her on the streets. Her clock started ticking Aug. 7. If she doesn’t land a new lease by Dec. 10, she’ll lose her voucher for good.

“I’m stressing out,” she said. “That’s why, every day, I call and look for a place.

“But God will come through for me and help me. That’s what I believe.”

FAILURE IS COMMON

Orange County – like much of Southern California – is a tough rental market for anybody, with or without a Section 8 voucher.

The apartment vacancy rate in the county is about 4 percent, and the typical monthly rent is more than $1,700, up about $165 from three years ago.

Both factors help explain why so many locals who have Section 8 vouchers eventually lose them.

The federal program, generated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, is administered through a patchwork of agencies that serve communities around the country. In Orange County, there are four such agencies – the Orange County Housing Authority, which serves much of the county, as well as smaller housing authorities in Garden Grove, Santa Ana and Anaheim.

Within the OC Housing Authority, the Section 8 failure rate – the percentage of people who lose their vouchers because they can’t land a place to live within the four-month window – is running at about 22 percent. It’s the same in Garden Grove. In Anaheim, the failure rate is about 33 percent. And in Santa Ana it’s 64 percent.

Judson Brown, manager of Santa Ana’s Housing Division, wrote via email that the failure rate is going up, adding, “The number one reason why vouchers are returned is because the landlord is not willing to accept Section 8.”

Other reasons, Brown said, include a lack of available units, high rent, pet ownership and shaky credit.

The statistics of failure represent a human toll. For a family that loses a voucher after waiting years to get one, the result can be devastating.

“They think they’re going to get this assistance, and then to not get it, it’s almost like false hope,” said Lili Graham, litigation director with Legal Aid of Orange County.

But devastation cuts both ways.

Danny Le Huynh, who manages the Garden Grove Housing Authority, said his agency closely tracks voucher holders to make sure they’re searching for housing. Why? Because “someone holding on to a voucher means someone else on the waiting list is waiting for one.”

Whatever the reason, and whatever the results, Section 8 failure is common.

The national failure rate is about 30 percent, and it takes a typical voucher holder about nine weeks to find a place, according to federal data.

Many parts of Southern California fare worse than the national average.

In Los Angeles County, Section 8 failure rates range from 90 percent in Culver City to 27 percent in the city of Los Angeles, according to federal data. About two-thirds of new voucher recipients fail to find rentals in Pasadena and Santa Monica, while clients with the L.A. County housing authority have a 39 failure percent rate.

“It’s a national problem,” said Dave Levy of the Fair Housing Council of Orange County.

“Every big metro area with high-priced housing is facing the same problem.”

FEW PLACES TO TURN

Even professionals can’t easily find Section 8 housing in Orange County.

Two years ago, Bill Taraschi, an agent with ERA North Orange County Real Estate, decided to help a homeless mother of four who had a Section 8 voucher. She’d applied to rent from a landlord who was Taraschi’s client, and he learned that the woman – a former pharmacy student – had taken her family to a homeless shelter because she’d been abused by her husband.

“I felt this wasn’t right, and I’m going to do what I can so they don’t have to live in a shelter,” he said.

Over a 14-week period, Taraschi took her to more than 20 places and saw about 10 rental applications rejected before landing the family a place to live.

“It’s tough for regular tenants,” he said. “(But), I’m not exaggerating, it’s 10 times harder for a Section 8 tenant, because of the lack of understanding of Section 8 housing and because of the bureaucracy involved.”

It’s complicated, but it’s also common.

About 2.2 million families nationally, including more than 300,000 in California, hold Section 8 vouchers. And that’s just a fraction of the people who could have them. A Harvard study on housing found that only one out of four renters who could qualify for federal rent assistance actually got it in 2013.

The financial constraints are tough. To qualify for a Section 8 voucher, an applicant must be a citizen or legal U.S. resident and earn no more than 50 percent of the median income in a specific area – $48,750 a year for a family of four in Orange County. But three-fourths of the vouchers are reserved for even lower-income households, with incomes of $29,250 or less for an Orange County family of four.

Voucher holders can move and keep their subsidies, but only if they can find Section 8 housing in their new community.

Marilyn Thornton learned this the hard way.

In March, she lost the voucher she’d held for 13 years, mostly in Indiana, where she raised three kids. But last year, for health reasons, she tried to escape the chill of Indiana and move to Orange County, which is closer to her family.

In the process, the 56-year-old lost her already tenuous financial security.

She pays twice as much to rent in Fullerton as she did in South Bend, Ind. What’s more, she used to live alone; now she has a roommate. She pays her portion of the utilities, rent and food with an $880 monthly disability check. The voucher that used to help pay her rent in Indiana is gone.

And, beyond the money, Thornton said, the search to find a Section 8 apartment in Orange County was humiliating.

She left dozens of messages on answering machines. And when she did get return calls, she said, people were brusk, often saying “we don’t affiliate” with Section 8.

“It’s like you’re contagious,” she said.

Thornton eventually found a place with help from the Dayle McIntosh Center for the Disabled.

“I just thank God that I have a roof over my head,” she said.

“It is a long wait for vouchers, but they’re quick to take you off. It’s very easy to lose it.”

‘I NEED TO FIND A PLACE’

At dusk on a recent weeknight, the woman in the Isuzu read over some notes with apartment listings.

Her pet bird, a small parrot named Cookie, danced on her shoulder.

“It’s starting to hit me hard,” the woman said. “I need to find a place.”

She was hospitalized in June for neck surgery and was recuperating when she moved into her Isuzu.

She’s lost count of the number of apartments she’s checked. She goes through Craigslist and GoSection8.com, and even looks up apartment managers in the phone book.

Her voucher allows her rent to go up to $1,350 a month for a one-bedroom apartment, according to the Garden Grove Housing Authority. But, so far, no takers, something she finds puzzling because the voucher is guaranteed – she literally can’t skip out on her rent.

“You know the check’s going to be there. I don’t know why they don’t take it,” she said.

“It’s just hard finding a Section 8 apartment. There aren’t any out there.”

Contact the writer: 714-796-7734 or jcollins@ocregister.com