WASHINGTON (Map, News) - D.C.’s Housing Authority is about to start an exhaustive process to determine who on its 57,000-person public housing waiting list still needs a home, officials told The Examiner on Wednesday.

It’s been eight years since the agency verified the names on the enormous list, which some social service workers consider far too long.

“We cannot get an honest picture of the situation, and several of us have tried,” said Christine Campbell, director of advocacy and organizing for Housingworks, a nonprofit that seeks housing for people with HIV/AIDS. “If they’re going through the list to clean it up, then that’s needed. ... All we know is, the system is broken and people don’t really know where to go.”

The list is for low-income residents seeking public housing, a housing-choice voucher or Section 8 housing. The last time the Housing Authority updated it in 2000, there were just 25,000 heads of household on it.

That the leap has been so sizable reflects what Campbell calls a stock of available housing that is “practically drying up.”

In 2000, the District had close to 9,400 public housing units at its disposal for residents. Now that number is down to 8,100, due mainly to a loss in federal funding. The units are spread throughout 50 locations in every D.C. ward.

In 99 percent of the cases, applicants earn less than 30 percent of the area median income, or $28,000 for a family of four, making the households some of the most underprivileged in the nation’s capital, officials said.

At this point, there’s no way of knowing how many residents have either moved or died while waiting for public housing, so the District is asking applicants to reapply.

“You hear stories about people being on the list for 10 or 15 years. ... Are they? Perhaps, and now we’ll find out,” said Karen Moone, deputy executive director of the authority.

dlevitz@dcexaminer.com