Some of the worst news to come out of the partial government shutdown was that thousands of L.A. area families depending on federally backed housing benefits would be put on the street by the end of the month because the cash flow was being cut by Washington.

See also: Federal Shutdown Could Put Families in L.A. Affordable Housing on The Street.

Now the Housing Authority of the County of Los Angeles (HACoLA) says there will be a holiday miracle: The possibility of eviction for as many as 23,000 households has been put off through the end of the year:

Housing and Urban Development (HUD) officials announced this week that Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) payments “for November and December are scheduled to be made timely.”

That essentially means no curb life for 23,000 L.A. families, the Authority said. However:

County housing officials warn that if federal “sequester” budget cuts continue, this whole issue of providing roofs for thousands of local families could come up again next year. According to a statement from the Authority:

Should further cuts be made to the already underfunded Section 8 program, then HACoLA may be forced to terminate the assistance of hundreds of families beginning as early as January of 2014.

In the meantime, HUD's ability to fund Seciton 8 housing through the end of the year was welcome news, according to the Authority:

This is great news since just two weeks ago, PHAs, across the country, including the Housing Authority of the County of Los Angeles (HACoLA), began bracing for the worst when HUD announced that its ability to disburse funds between now and 2014 was dependent upon Congress' passing a budget or reaching an agreement on a continuing resolution.

Home for the holidays sounds so much better than van for the holidays.

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