HUD SECRETARY DENIES POLICIES CAUSE EVICTIONS!

HUD SECRETARY DENIES POLICIES CAUSE EVICTIONS!
June 24, 2004

The Bush administration's latest housing policy against the nations poorest of the poor, has been a campaign of "shock & awe," and has sabotaged the world of subsidized rental housing across the nation.

Since HUD's new guidelines for the Section 8 program were spelled out on April 22, 2004 the nations housing authorities have been faced with funding shortfalls that may result in the eviction of more than 60,000 renters nationwide during fiscal year 2004.

Across the nation, the crisis has spread and now terrorizes the poor from shore to shore.

Below is the latest batch of just a few of the horror stories affecting the lives of millions of renters that fear that they may be the next to be dumped upon the cold hearted streets of America by the draconian policies of the Bush administration and his wicked henchmen.

Today we shall start with the the lies and denials of the newest HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson, from an interview that took place recently at the National Press Club.

For the latest in tenant/housing news from across the nation, join, Roll Back The Rents.
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For other groupings of stories about the Section 8 disaster just click below for a large batch of the Section 8 stories happening nationwide to follow the Section 8 Disaster....

http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/06/1686041_comment.php#1686046

Click below for another batch of Section 8 stories...

http://www.sf.indymedia.org/news/2004/06/1697432.php

Even more Section 8 stories & info...Click on link below...

http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/06/1683399.php

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Alphonso Jackson at The National Press Club
June 17, 2004

HUD Secretary Alphonso Claims That No One Faces Eviction From His Policies!

Q News reports from around the country have recently surfaced revealing that families are now receiving eviction notices or facing rent increases. Does the department have plans to allay this crisis?

SEC. JACKSON: Well, let me say this because that's another myth, and I like to debunk these myths. Nobody is facing evictions.

Click below for full story...

http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/31015.html

See, I do not come here today with a very paternalistic and patronizing attitude toward low- and moderate-income people. And I want to stop here for a minute because I've been criticized heavily the last three or four weeks about a statement that I made when I said that "poor is a state of mind, not a condition.

Are there people in poverty today? Absolutely, and my goal and the president's goal at HUD is to help them get out of poverty.

HUD's not getting out of the affordable, subsidizing, Section 8 affordable housing markets. It's impossible.

So I love -- I love -- when I hear people say to me, you're not sensitive, you don't understand low- and moderate-income people -- and notice I never use that p-word, that word, because I really don't understand why people use that word -- I'll only say this to them: I was never poor.

MS. CHERRY: Congress provided $900 million last fall to ensure that no Section 8 voucher tenant would be cut off from Section 8. The Senate unanimously passed a Sense of the Senate resolution to support this position. However, your April 22nd notice cutting of funds retroactively to housing authorities will negatively affect 2 million Section 8 families. Will you rescind the notice? (Applause.)

SEC. JACKSON: First of all, if you understand Article 1, Section 7, Congress is the appropriator and the authorizers, not HUD. We can only utilize the money that they allocate for us.

Now, where this $900 million is, I'm not sure. You know, it's the most amazing thing to me, I must tell you, Sheila, that people know more about the agency than I do, and I'm running it every day. So if they know where I can find the $900 million, I'll be happy to get it.

Secondly, if they want a change, I suggest that they go up to Congress. We're following the mandate of Congress. There's nothing else we can do. And if our interpretation is wrong, I'll tell you how it can easily be rectified. The Congress can rectify it tomorrow. We're just carrying out what our legal counsel and what we have been told from Congress that they want done.

Q News reports from around the country have recently surfaced revealing that families are now receiving eviction notices or facing rent increases. Does the department have plans to allay this crisis?

SEC. JACKSON: Well, let me say this because that's another myth, and I like to debunk these myths. Nobody is facing evictions. Those housing authorities who have overleased past their cap shouldn't have overleased. And if they have the money in their reserves, they can cover those overleasings. If they don't then they've effectively done what we've told them not to do and what Congress told them not to do.

So it's amazing to me -- it's amazing to me that if you run a red light and then the police stop you and you tell the police the light shouldn't have been red -- (laughter) -- well, I think something is wrong. Now if you know what your limitations are and you go over that, then you have to find a way to pay for that.

Now again, it's amazing that people say it's okay to go over your cap and we should cover it. Well, if we decide to cover it, those who have covered the government knows that when you cover something that you don't have the money to cover, it's anti-deficiency and the government jumps on you. Well, I'm not going to do it because they had enough notice to understand that they should not overlease. Those housing authorities who are facing some problems, we are working with them and we've resolved a number of them.

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Kerry Supporters Slam Bush on Housing
Kerry Supporters Criticize Bush Administration on Housing Issues

The Associated Press
WASHINGTON June 17, 2004 ?The debate over cuts to a federal housing voucher program spilled over into the presidential campaign Thursday as Democrats claimed the Bush administration has failed to make affordable housing a priority.

Jackson, who became secretary less than three months ago, has come under fire in Congress and from state and local officials for recent cuts in the $14.5 billion housing voucher program known as "Section 8." The rental program helps nearly 2 million families through some 2,500 local agencies.

Jackson said HUD is still working on the funding problems, and blamed housing authorities for leasing too many units and exceeding their funding caps.

"Nobody is facing eviction," he said. "The housing authorities did what we told them not to do. They have to find a way to pay for it.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20040617_1962.html


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Federal housing subsidy cuts has local agencies fearing increased homelessness

6-10-04

By JOHN FLOWERS

http://www.addisonindependent.com/section8.html

ADDISON COUNTY - Faced with a murky federal funding picture, the Vermont State Housing Authority (VSHA) has decided to close its waiting list for the Section 8 rental assistance program, a move that local low-income advocates fear may soon sharply increase the numbers of homeless people in Addison County and beyond.

The Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program offers rental subsidies, through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) - to qualifying, low-income households. In Addison County, eligible households must earn no more than 50 percent of the annual median county income. That 50 percent level is $29,800. The VSHA must also abide by a federal mandate to target 75 percent of voucher assistance to residents earning less than 30 percent of the median county income (in Addison County, $17,900 annually).

Qualifying families pay around 30 percent of their gross income for rent, with the balance of the rent covered by their Section 8 voucher or certificate. Some of those vouchers are project-based, and can be applied only to specific rental units. Others are assigned directly to citizens, who can bring them from apartment to apartment, even across state lines.

But faced with an ongoing onslaught of applications and the prospect of HUD funding cuts and program changes, the VSHA - effective July 1 - will cap its current Section 8 waiting list. There are currently 3,020 households - including 264 in Addison County - on the waiting list, according to Kathleen Berk, director of Section 8 housing programs for the VSHA.

Officials anticipate it will take at least five years to serve everyone currently in the Section 8 pipeline.

"Not knowing the future of the program, the responsible thing to do is to close the waiting list," Berk said on Tuesday. "Closing the list is a difficult thing for this agency to do. But we don't believe there will be a tremendous amount of resources to grow this program in the years to come."

Already, the trends look ominous, according to VSHA officials.

Based on HUD funding levels, the VSHA will need to reduce its 2004 administrative budget by $262,360, or 14.4 percent. The fiscal year 2005 appropriations bill contains no new resources, according to Berk.

Vermont's congressional delegation has already voiced concern about the recent HUD funding moves.

"Since taking office, the Bush administration has made a series of policy decisions that seem to be designed to dismantle the Section 8 rental assistance program one piece at a time," U.S. Rep. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., said through a press release.

Local human services providers said they're concerned they will soon have one less option to offer clients who are desperately seeking affordable housing in a tight, and expensive, market.

Addison County Community Action Group (ACCAG) owns and manages more than 100 units of affordable housing throughout the area. Jeanne Montross, ACCAG's executive director, says 44 of its tenants currently benefit from Section 8 housing, with another 24 on the waiting list.

Montross said she's concerned that the cap on Section 8 vouchers will force some low-income citizens to give up their search for affordable housing.

"The poorest of the poor, who are in the most desperate housing situations, won't be able to afford (non-subsidized rents)," Montross said. "We are going to see a deep wave of homelessness. I can guarantee it."

The VSHA currently supplies vouchers to 253 Addison County households. Of that number, 68 percent are households earning less than 30 percent of the county median income. The majority are either elderly or disabled, according to Berk.

News of the Section 8 voucher moratorium has hit hard at the Addison County Parent-Child Center. The center currently operates around a dozen affordable housing units in Middlebury. Those units serve as a training ground for young parents to learn how to run a household, and ultimately make the leap to self-sufficiency, according to center co-Director Sue Harding. She said the center had planned to get Section 8 certificates for its most successful tenants, to help them take another step toward being on their own.

"That's no longer possible," Harding said. "They're just going to have to start sharing space in a single dwelling. The (affordable) housing just isn't out there."

Samantha Paine is just one parent-child center client who is currently sharing space with a friend in a small apartment in Middlebury. Altogether, with two small children, there are four people living in the dwelling.

For three years now, Paine has been on the waiting list for a Section 8 voucher. She sees the recently announced moratorium as a big setback.

"It's been extremely frustrating," Paine said. "As it is, I was at least a year's wait away from getting a voucher. Now I feel like it's never going to happen, that I will never be on my own and independent."

Berk understands how some people may be feeling disillusioned.

Historically, around 400 Section 8 certificates in Vermont "turn over" each year, through attrition. That number is likely to shrink to 200 this year, according to Berk.

"Folks are just not going off the program," Berk said.

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Rent subsidies cut, Napa freezes enrollment
Thursday, June 3, 2004
By KEVIN COURTNEY
Register Staff Writer

Reacting to a federal funding cut, Napa's rent subsidy program is scrambling to remain solvent without removing low-income families from their homes.

New enrollments for Section 8 rent vouchers have been frozen. As leases come up for renewal, tenants may be required to pay a greater share of their rent, Peter Drier, executive director of the Napa Housing Authority, told the City Council Tuesday.

The Bush Administration is trying to apply spending caps on the fast-growing Section 8 program, which last year subsidized rents for almost 2 million families nationwide.

In April, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development stunned housing authorities by rolling back allowed rent subsidies retroactively to January.

This decision meant the Napa Housing Authority would not receive $284,000 that it had already spent, Dreier said. To avoid running a deficit, the authority began freezing new Section 8 enrollments in early May.

Dreier decried HUD's decision to retroactively cut funds to local housing authorities. "We'd spent the money," he said Wednesday. "If you're going to a new system, it needs to be debated. It needs to be understood. You need to look forward and not go back six months."

This abrupt change in funding is particularly upsetting because the Napa Housing Authority had been cited for following HUD rules, Dreier said. "We're a 'high performing' housing authority. We pride ourselves on following the rules."

Freezing the Section 8 rolls means families, the elderly and the disabled who have been waiting two and a half to three years for housing will now have to wait longer, Dreier said.

"When people call to ask when they will get a voucher, we tell them we don't know," he said. "It will likely be four to five years under the new system."

The local Section 8 program serves 1,200 low-income families, representing 2,680 individuals, scattered across Napa County. They rent from private landlords, with the federal government picking up 70 percent of their rent.

Another 1,800 families and individuals are on the Section 8 waiting list.

The number of families receiving Section 8 assistance will shrink by 15 to 25 families each month as people leave the program and their vouchers are retired, Dreier said.

The enrollment freeze will cause hardships, said Dreier, citing the case of a local woman who had hoped to be reunited with her three children this month once she obtained an apartment using a Section 8 voucher.

Her children had been in foster care while she underwent a rehabilitation program, Dreier said. Without an apartment that the mother can afford, the children will remain in foster care, he said.

The Napa Housing Authority must cut expenses by $284,000 so it ends the current fiscal year in the black, Dreier said. Unless Congress changes HUD's rules, the authority will need to cut expenses by another half million dollars in 2004/05, he said.

That's enough to provide housing assistance to 64 families, Dreier said.

Housing advocates and local government nationally are pressing Congress to undo the Bush administration regulations. "It's a political year. I don't know what will happen, Dreier said.

A single person must earn less than $25,850 to qualify for Section 8 assistance. For a family of four, the limit is $36,950.

In fact, most earn far less, Dreier said. The typical single person is surviving on Social Security or a disability payment of less than $9,000, he said.

Landlords were scheduled to receive rent increases this year, but now it won't happen, Dreier said. The authority doesn't have the money to pay them, he said.

So far landlords are accepting this news. None have dropped out of the Section 8 program, Dreier said. It's fortunate that this is a soft rental market, with many vacancies, he said.

The authority has been paying 110 percent of the area's so-called "fair market rent" to induce landlords to participate in the program. Once enrollment is restarted, this could end up being lowered, Dreier said.

Dreier briefed the council on Section 8 cutbacks Tuesday night. At Councilwoman Jill Techel's suggestion, he will make monthly reports on how things are going.

Councilman Harry Martin suggested that Napa replace lost federal money with local funds planned for downtown improvements.

The city now spends 25 percent of downtown redevelopment income on low-income housing. It should spend more, Martin said.

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Federal shortfall might affect 4,500 households
By Lori Weisberg
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20040602-9999-7m2sect8.html

June 2, 2004

The San Diego County housing department is cutting back monthly payments for about 4,500 households because of an anticipated $6 million shortfall in federal rent subsidies.

But rather than eliminate subsidies altogether for some families, the county chose instead to reduce the level of rent it will pay to landlords for those households renting units at higher than average rates.

In letters sent last week, landlords and tenants in the Section 8 program were notified that the county will have to trim its costs.

The change affects less than half the 10,400 Section 8 tenants in unincorporated areas of the county, as well as in 13 of the county's 18 cities. San Diego, Encinitas, Carlsbad, Oceanside and National City operate their own subsidy programs.

Under the Section 8 program, tenants typically pay no more than 30 percent to 40 percent of their income toward housing.

"We're hoping this will allow us to reduce our costs by $6 million a year," said Catherine J. Trout, director of the county's Department of Housing and Community Development.

"It gives the owner a lower subsidy amount from us, and if the owner chooses to reduce the rent, the renter may not see an impact. If the landlord keeps the rent the same, the tenant will have to pay more money."

In order to make the change, which goes into effect July 1, the county must cancel existing contracts with landlords, running the risk that some will choose to exit the Section 8 program.

Housing authorities nationwide are in similar binds as a result of a recent decision by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to cut back on funding for the rental vouchers.

Housing agencies now will receive their allotments for Section 8 vouchers based on costs as of last August, adjusted for inflation, as opposed to funding based on current costs.

HUD recently came up with $150 million to help rescue local housing agencies, but the agencies remain $170 million short of what is needed to operate their rental subsidy programs, according to the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials.

The change initiated in San Diego County affects all households renting at rates 10 percent above the fair market rate set by HUD. The county now will cover rents up to 95 percent of the federal standard.

For a household renting a two-bedroom apartment for $1,292 a month ?or 10 percent above HUD's fair market rate ?that means the county will subsidize a percentage of the rent up to $1,116 a month.

Trout is concerned that some landlords might decide to leave the subsidy program, but she said the county had ittle choice but to make difficult changes.

"This may cause some landlords to decide they don't want to deal with the program," Trout said.

Pete Smith of Sunrise Management, which manages 5,000 rental units in the county, said dropping the payment standard could pose a hardship for many landlords who might not be inclined to lower their rents.

"I could see some landlords dropping out of the program," Smith said.

The San Diego Housing Commission is planning to trim costs, but it will not cancel existing contracts, said its chief executive, Elizabeth Morris.

"Canceling contracts creates turmoil in the housing industry, and we think it makes the value of the contract, in the owner's eye, not very reliable," Morris said.

However, the agency has sent letters to applicants for Section 8 assistance, notifying them that it will not issue new vouchers until the funding problems are resolved.

Lori Weisberg: (619) 293-2251; lori.weisberg [at] uniontrib.com

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64. Low-income rent voucher program at risk ?Whittier Daily newhtml

TRENTON -- New Jersey is moving to replace slashed federal housing subsidies with state money redirected from another assistance program.

But the funds probably won't come in time to help the 72 Woodbridge families whose federal Section 8 vouchers will be terminated June 30.

"The way I read it, they're just looking at appropriating the money. The money won't be there tomorrow," said Kathy Blaha, property manager at the Woodbridge Housing Authority.

If the new program were up and running, Blaha said she would encourage the Woodbridge tenants to apply, but the legislation must still receive other approvals and then be enacted into a program.

The bill fostered by a collection of Democrats in the state Assembly is headed for the full Assembly after winning 6-0 approval this week in the Assembly Housing and Local Government Committee.

The measure would create a permanent state program to provide rental assistance to low-income residents who have lost federal Section 8 benefits.

Backers of the idea blamed President Bush for cutting Section 8 rental benefits from the federal budget. The Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program is run by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. It is a system in which local housing authorities hand out rent vouchers to the poor, the elderly, and disabled or handicapped, to help pay their rent.

"Cuts to Section 8 housing in the president's proposed budget have left thousands of New Jersey's neediest families living in fear that they may no longer be able to afford a place to live," said Assembly Speaker Albio Sires, D-Hudson.

"This program would help replace what these families are having taken away," said Sires, who is sponsor of the measure.

Woodbridge Section 8 subsidies have been put in jeopardy by changes in HUD rules and by the Woodbridge Housing Authority's administration of the funds. The switch has affected housing authorities across the nation. Woodbridge is alone in Middlesex County in feeling the impact because of the way it has distributed funds, although the authority was in accordance with HUD rules.

The New Jersey bill has support from influential legislators.

Because the Assembly speaker can place any bill on the agenda of the full Assembly, support from Sires boosts the odds the measure will receive an airing by the full legislative chamber.

Another influential Democrat, Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-Mercer, backs the measure. She is also chairwoman of the Democratic State Committee.

"For many families," Watson Coleman said, "rental assistance doesn't just go to pay the landlord. It buys peace of mind and security."

"The sheer number of applicants vying for the few available housing units and vouchers across the state speaks directly to the need for this program," said Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, D-Mercer.

Gusciora and other backers point to 12,900 applicants for only 50 Section 8 housing vouchers offered in February by the Paterson Housing Authority, or 1,500 similar applicants last September for 40 affordable units in Burlington County.

It is unclear how many New Jersey residents are expected to benefit.

"The Bush Administration wants to basically dismantle the program," said Gusciora, adding he estimates some 7,000 New Jersey families are to lose their Section 8 assistance in the next year.

The bill would allocate $10 million from what backers describe as unused funds from the state Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency. Of that amount, $3 million would go to low-income seniors.

The state Mortgage Finance Agency, established in 1983, offers low-interest loans and mortgages for buyers and rehabilitators of urban homes.

Gusciora called the $10 million just a "drop in the bucket."

No date has been set for when Sires might post the bill for debate, which also must be approved by the Assembly Appropriations Committee. It must also be approved by the state Senate before it can be signed into law by Gov. James E. McGreevey.

Contributing: Staff writer Sharon Waters

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Posted on Thu, Jun. 24, 2004

Section 8 voucher cuts reduced

Landlords to see 7% drop, less than first proposed
BY TONI COLEMAN
Pioneer Press

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/8996979.htm?1c

The St. Paul Public Housing Agency on Wednesday approved a 7 percent reduction in the Housing Choice Voucher, a federal housing subsidy program formerly known as Section 8. The reduction takes effect Sept. 1.

The agency's initial proposal to cut rental vouchers by 15 percent to plug a $3 million budget gap was widely criticized by landlords who threatened to drop out of the program and tenants who feared they'd end up homeless if there weren't enough rental properties accepting the vouchers.

But the agency now says a 7 percent reduction is in line with what's going on in the market. A study commissioned by the agency, using data from a housing referral service and a housing industry analyst report, shows rents are dropping.

The 7 percent reduction doesn't plug the $3 million gap, but "it gives us a way to make it to the end of the year," said Al Hester, housing policy director.

The agency is diverting funds from such other initiatives as employment and homeownership programs to supplement the vouchers. Agency officials also hope the federal Housing and Urban Development Department will come through with more money.

"I think that's great news. It's more reasonable," said Bill Cullen, president of the St. Paul Association of Responsible Landlords. "I think it's going to be a lot more manageable for landlords. I think it'll work out for Section 8 because more landlords will hang in there."

Between May 2003 and May 2004, the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment dropped from $809 to $784, down about 3 percent, according to a housing matching service. The slight dip in rents ?along with offers such as a free month's rent and other lease-signing incentives ?indicate an overall rent reduction.

Housing advocates hope the 7 percent reduction will mean fewer displaced voucher holders.

"I'm hoping a lot of landlords will look at that and say it's better than 15 percent," said Pam James of the Community Stabilization Project. Housing advocates say HUD is wrongly freezing payments to local public housing agencies at the August 2003 funding level although Congress appropriated enough money to fund the program at current rent levels.

Said James, whose group is preparing to sue the federal department: "HUD has the money, and we'd like HUD to give up the money."
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Toni Coleman can be reached at tcoleman [at] pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5442.

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http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/8996013.htm

Posted on Wed, Jun. 23, 2004

Section 8 housing subsidies cut

HOUSING ASSISTANCE:The Duluth Housing and Redevelopment Authority Board of Commissioners lowered payments because of a smaller federal allocation.
BY CHUCK FREDERICK
NEWS TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

Federal subsidies that help Duluth's poorest families pay rent each month were reduced Wednesday, meaning some disabled, elderly, working-poor and others will be left scrambling to pay the difference.

The Duluth Housing and Redevelopment Authority Board of Commissioners voted unanimously, and with a heavy heart, they said, to reduce subsidy payments through the federal Section 8 program, or Housing Choice Voucher Program, an average of 7.76 percent.

The reduction equals a loss of about $46 per month per recipient of the housing assistance, funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Unless landlords lower rents, Duluth's 1,428 Section 8 recipients will be left to come up with the extra cash to cover their rent. Or move out.

Housing advocates and others fear the latter.

"This is a crisis," said Terri Roeber, executive director of the Housing Access Center, a Duluth nonprofit that advocates for low-income housing. "These people are going to end up at (emergency shelters). They're going to end up on the streets. They are not going to be able to afford their portions of rent."

The Duluth HRA's vote was in response to funding changes announced in late April by HUD. Federal officials changed the formula they use to determine funding levels to the nation's 2,500 housing authorities.

Using August data, HUD determined the average assistance payment in Duluth is $326 and based allocations to the city on that. But Duluth HRA officials estimate the average payment at $342. That $16 difference per recipient per month equals a shortfall this year of about $343,000 in the city's Section 8 program, including administrative costs. Duluth's total Section 8 budget is more than $5 million.

Nationally, the shortfall is estimated at $1.6 billion, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. In all, about $28 billion a year is dedicated to helping 2 million low-income families pay their rent.

"It's not an exaggeration to call this a crisis. Across the nation, it's being viewed that way," said Rick Ball, executive director of the Duluth HRA.

In Massachusetts, 650 low-income families began receiving notices April 27 they would lose housing assistance because of HUD's changed formula. In St. Paul, subsidies were reduced 15 percent to compensate for a $3 million shortfall.

Members of Congress and others have written to HUD, publicly questioning if the formula change jibes with congressional intent to fully fund Section 8 through the 2004 appropriations bill.

"Only time will tell what's going to happen here and how bad it will really be here," said Diane Martin, director of housing services for the Duluth HRA. "Tenants are scared. They're just plain scared. They have a lot of questions and we don't have many answers."

Anne Scherrieb, a HUD spokeswoman in Chicago, said problems facing Duluth and other housing authorities are due largely to rents that have risen rapidly since August when HUD changed its funding formula.

Some housing authorities are using reserves or re-evaluating programs to deal with the funding changes, she said.

Also, HUD has reached out to housing authorities with offers of guidance and a July 15 deadline to submit appeals if they believe they can't meet client needs, Scherrieb said.

"We are confident that all families currently being served will continue to be served," Scherrieb said. "We at HUD can only provide the funding and guidance. We rely on (housing authorities), our local partners, to administer the program in their communities with judgment and foresight, and to operate within the resources Congress appropriates."

About 520 homeless people live in Duluth, according to a survey done in October by the independent research center at Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, a St. Paul nonprofit. This month, Mayor Herb Bergson declared homelessness the city's top issue. President George W. Bush has vowed to end homelessness by 2010.

Many advocates for the homeless and low-income housing believe HUD's funding change will add to the problem.

"We have that same fear and we're already always pretty much full," said Kim Randolph, emergency shelter coordinator at Churches United in Ministry. The Duluth nonprofit runs a soup kitchen and drop-in center with 44 beds, three family apartments and limited floor space. "We don't have the capacity to absorb all the homeless these changes could create."
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Housing voucher future in question in Columbia, Missouri
About 60 families could lose assistance if Congress cuts funding as expected
By LORI YOUNT
June 22, 2004

Click below for full story and Section 8 demographics of Columbia.

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/story.php?ID=7983

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City Won? Cut Residents From Subsidized Housing
By ADEEL IQBAL
Contributing Writer
Thursday, Junom/Global/story.asp?S=1957910 ?
Washington-AP -- Low-income and homeless people -- protesting administration policies affecting affordable housing -- have sent what they call an "eviction notice" to President Bush and HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson.

The group gathered today in front of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The protesters said their economic survival is at stake.

The protest was organized by the National Alliance of HUD Tenants and a variety of local organizations from across the country. As many as 300 people had been expected, though the group appeared to be smaller than that.

The protesters say budget cuts are forcing up to 60-thousand families from their homes. They also say 600-thousand families will lose their homes by 2009 under the Bush administration.

Copyright 2004 Associated Press.

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Borderland´´Friday, June 11, 2004

Low-income renters wary of possible subsidy cuts

http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/borderland/20040611-129349.shtml

Diana Washington Valdez
El Paso Times

Blanca Chavez is concerned that changes in HUD's Section 8 housing program could cause her to lose the rent subsidy she relies on each month.

"My only income is $564 a month from SSI, and I am disabled because of polio," Chavez, 54, said. "I get $40 worth of food stamps, which means I can't afford to buy chicken or meat. The rent at my apartment complex is $400 a month, and thanks to the subsidy, I pay $99 of that. Anyone can do the math and figure out that I can't afford to pay more for housing."

Chavez's is one of about 4,600 El Paso households that receive rent subsidies through the El Paso Housing Authority. Congress is considering a sweeping legislative proposal that would give local authorities control of the program, but they would also have to absorb budget cuts.

Alfredo Juarez, Desert ADAPT team leader, is concerned that elderly people and people with disabilities may be left out on the streets. "The elderly and the disabled are the people who can least afford to pay more for housing, and they are the ones who will be the most affected," said Juarez, an advocate for people with disabilities. "We've sent a fax to the HUD secretary to ask for more funding for Section 8 instead of less funding." HUD is the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Nationwide, ADAPT is projecting that 250,000 Section 8 vouchers will be cut in the next fiscal year, and an additional 800,000 the following fiscal year. The federal fiscal year runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, but budgets sometimes get postponed until Congress can agree on a spending bill.

El Paso Housing Authority spokesman Al Velarde said that "because of the El Paso authority's past success in operating Section 8, the net effect in the El Paso area is not expected to be as dramatic as in other localities."

Cities in other states, which are starting to respond to the possible changes, are reporting lower subsidies and higher rent payments for Section 8 tenants.

Marcia Barraza, executive director of Anthony Public Housing Authority, said "HUD wants us to lower the subsidies and cut our costs. We have to react sooner because we are a small housing authority. We notified the landlords that we cannot approve any increase in rent due to the funding cuts we had for the current fiscal year. Some of the landlords are working with us." Anthony's Section 8 program administers 453 vouchers.

"The White House is proposing an $8 billion cut to HUD's entire budget, which will hurt the lowest income people in our country," U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas. "These kind of draconian cuts are taking place at a time when we are spending $20 billion to rebuild communities in Iraq. If the legislation goes through with these cuts, I will have to vote against it."

Adrian Duran, the authority's Section 8 program director, said El Paso's authority subsidizes about 4,600 vouchers but has plans to increase that number to the maximum, 4,789, to accommodate as many of the 3,000 people as possible on the waiting list. He said El Paso's average rent subsidy is $400 a month.

Velarde said the authority will come up with a new Section 8 plan for El Paso as soon as the final budget is in place, which may not be until early 2005. In the meantime, the authority is going to conduct a campaign to keep landlords, tenants and others aware of developments.

According to the El Paso Housing Authority, the largest concentration of Section 8 renters live in the 79936 ZIP code (more than 800), and the next highest concentrations (400 to 500) are in 79924, 79907, 79912 and 79925.

HUD officials said, "Program costs are getting out of hand and are threatening the existence of the (Section 8) program as well as other HUD programs. In the last two years, the national average cost per voucher has increased at an alarming rate of 23 percent."

Diana Washington Valdez may be reached at dvaldez [at] elpasotimes.com; 546-6140.
Printer friendly´2004/06/10/bssectio.htm

ar $1.6 billion in budget cuts proposed by the Bush administration could trigger a full-blown housing crisis here and beyond.
heir names out of a hat?"
care of me."
´?ince its inception in the Nixon administration, housing advocates and local governments have largely hailed the Section 8 program. It offers an alternative to building costly housing and today provides nearly 2 million of the nation's poor with vouchers to pay their own rent.
´?hat includes more than 4,000 recipients in Orange, Sullivan and Ulster counties, according to one lawmaker's survey of area housing agencies. Some agencies have waiting lists hundreds of names long.
he funding needed to continue the program as planned this year. In April, however, the Department of Housing and Urban Development enacted new funding rules, citing a desire to "more closely reflect actual funding needs and local rental market changes."
time next year.
, Ulster and Sullivan counties, according to figures released by Sen. Charles Schumer yesterday.
ture unless meaningful reform is undertaken."
´?till, for Jean DeGroat, it's not easy to understand why reform in Washington could threaten to leave an elderly woman homeless on the streets of Newburgh.
ay, June 15, 2004

Subsidized housing money faces cuts

By Robin Miller/City Editor

Low-income families who depend on vouchers to help pay for housing could find that source of help dwindling, officials warned Monday.

The Vacaville Housing Authority, which also operates the Solano County Housing Authority, will receive an estimated $113,000 less in funding for housing vouchers this year under new federal funding regulations. The authority will be using reserve funds to meet this year's shortfall, but could be facing program changes if the shortage of funding continues.

"We have reserves to get us through the rest of this year, but we are still working on what the effect will be next year," said Terry Rogers, housing and redevelopment manager in Vacaville. "We are going to do all we can to maintain the program."

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has altered the Housing Choice Voucher Program, also known as Section 8, so that funding for local housing authorities no longer will be based on the agencies' actual costs but instead will be based on their costs in August 2003, with an adjustment for housing inflation, said Rep. George Miller, D-Solano, in a press release issued Monday.

"The effect will be to strip funding for these programs from local housing authorities," the press release states.

In addition, the new regulations are retroactive to Jan. 1, 2004, meaning housing authorities already have spent money they won't be receiving, Miller said.

"These changes to the Section 8 program will have a simple, painful consequence: they will make it harder for low-income families to afford a safe and decent home," Miller said.

Vacaville officials said they are not sure of the full impact locally, but said if the cuts remain, the 1,400 households that currently receive Section 8 help could see the amount of funding they get decrease.

HUD officials notified local housing authorities of the changes in April, saying language in the 2004 appropriations bill passed by Congress required the funding cuts.

Miller countered that it was HUD officials who argued for the change in language during last-minute negotiations and noted that he has co-sponsored a bill (HR 4263) to repeal the language and retain funding based on agencies' actual costs.

He puts the blame for the problem squarely on the administration of President George W. Bush.

"This is just another in a long line of actions that reveal the Bush Administration's misplaced priorities," he said. "This administration is content to keep cutting taxes for the wealthiest Americans, while forcing low-income families to pay more for housing, or forcing them out onto the street altogether."

Other regional housing authorities being impacted by the changes include the Vallejo Housing Authority and the Contra Costa Housing Authority, both of which have begun to consider their options for reducing their costs to meet the reduced funding levels.

The Vallejo Housing Authority estimates it will receive $642,882 less in funding for vouchers and $200,000 less in administrative funding for the 2004-05 year.

Robin Miller can be reached at citydesk [at] thereporter.com.

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June 8, 2004

Cutting Section 8 would be a disgrace

http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/opinions04/060804_opinions_mckee.shtml

Barbara J. McKee

"Section 8." To some people, these words mean a discharge from the armed services for mental incompetence. But for nearly 2 million Americans, the federal Section 8 housing program has been a godsend.

For more than 30 years, it has been the only way for many working families, senior citizens and people with disabilities to obtain a decent place to live. It does so by subsidizing their housing payments. Section 8 housing vouchers have become the dominant form of federal housing assistance.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which administers Section 8, had its beginnings in 1937 under the U.S. Housing Act. At first, HUD was mainly concerned with building public housing. HUD became a Cabinet-level department in 1965. The Fair Housing Act of 1968 outlawed most housing discrimination and gave HUD enforcement responsibility. In 1974, Section 8 was born, providing vouchers that gave low-income tenants housing options in addition to public-housing projects.

Section 8 has helped families rent in the private market, often in safe neighborhoods with good schools and jobs. But it serves only one in four eligible families, and there are long waiting lists across the country.

Property owners strongly support the program, which guarantees rent payments and helps secure the safety of their properties and tenants. The Millennial Housing Commission strongly endorsed the program in May 2002, describing it as "flexible, cost-effective and successful in its mission."

Congress provided HUD with enough funds in the current fiscal year to renew all vouchers in use. But HUD is using a more restrictive formula, which means landlords are getting less money and are shifting the costs to families that could end up on the street if they can't pay higher rent.

For the new fiscal year, the Bush administration is proposing a budget cut of more than $1.6 billion and converting Section 8 to a block grant, called the Flexible Voucher Program. The proposal would eliminate vital protections for families, such as limits on how much of a tenant's income can be paid in rent and the requirement that three out of every four vouchers go to extremely low-income families. The proposal would further erode support for vouchers in the private housing community and at local banks.

A coalition of industry groups, including the National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders, has been urging the feds to reverse HUD's 2004 policies and to reject the 2005 Flexible Voucher Program.

In a recent letter to Congress, the coalition says, "We are greatly concerned the fixed-dollar amount will not keep pace with the cost of providing rental assistance to needy families. . . . Housing providers consider the Flexible Voucher Program extremely worrisome".

It is more than worrisome to hear this administration proposing cuts in housing funds. To approve these funding cuts would be a national disgrace. I think America has had enough disgrace lately. Let's not pile on another one.

McKee, who gets around in a wheelchair, is an Albuquerque writer, poet, performer and producer. Her column runs every Tuesday. You can reach her at chairgrrl [at] chairgrrl.com.

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http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/27420.html

Aid Recipients Blast the 'Robbin' HUD' over Section 8 Changes
Andrew Kirk
Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City)
May 27, 2004


Thirteen adults, many in wheelchairs, donned felt "Robin Hood" hats in front of the Salt Lake County Housing Authority office Wednesday to protest the Department of Housing and Urban Development's order to cut the number of individuals receiving federal assistance for rent.

"We're scared to death we'll end up homeless and have to go to a nursing home," said Jerry Costley, executive director of the Disabled Rights Action Committee, which organized the protest.

Housing Authorities across the country use funding from HUD to give Section 8 vouchers to disabled people and very low-income families that they can use to supplement rent in an apartment of their choice.

For reasons not fully understood by Salt Lake Housing Authority director Kerry Bates, on April 22 his office was ordered by HUD to reduce the number of people on vouchers in order to cut their budget by $1 million. If nothing is changed, Bate will have to take rent assistance away from 250 Utah families this winter. The order also decreases the amount of assistance given to those allowed to keep the vouchers.

"This is mean-spirited, shortsighted and being applied retroactively," Bates said.

The green felt hats were worn to protest "Robbin' HUD" taking from the poor to give to the rich, said Barbara Toomer, action committee co-founder.

Reducing the number of vouchers will kick disabled, elderly and low-income people out of their homes, Costley said. Because of long waiting lists for alternative federal housing, they will be forced to go to nursing homes or homeless shelters, which cost more per day than Section 8 vouchers, he said.

"I've been in nursing homes," said Peter Staniewicz, a tall, middle-aged man. "We have an apartment now, we have a car, we don't want to go anywhere."

"It's not as if once off Section 8 you can move into another program," Bates said. But even if there weren't long waiting lists, some people need to live close to their job or health-care facility and other federal housing projects can't accommodate that, he added.

Bates said he is doubtful Salt Lake County has the additional money his office will need to not pull the 250 families off the program. Gov. Olene Walker was notified several days ago of the problem and was "very concerned with this issue," he said.

The national HUD office has not offered any explanation and has not returned his phone calls, Bates said.

Regional HUD directors were not available for comment. E-mail:

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http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/19688.html

Tenants Protest Suspension of Section 8 Aid
Jocelyn Y. Stewart
Los Angeles Times
April 9, 2004


Safiya Baidi spent six months living in a 1987 Mitsubishi Galant. She slept in the front seat; her two baby girls slept in the back seat. Food was stored in the trunk.

It was a way to keep orderly the only home she had. Most nights, though, that order was interrupted by her children's needs.

"They always wanted me to sleep close to their noses, so I put the seat back," Baidi said. "It was very uncomfortable, but that's what they wanted."

On Thursday, the needs of her children led Baidi to join about 150 frustrated tenants who converged on downtown's Pershing Square to protest the suspension of federal housing assistance to 1,500 families in Los Angeles.

The problem, advocates say, may soon grow worse. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that about 10,000 families in Los Angeles County could be cut from the Section 8 program if the 2005 budget proposed by the Bush administration is passed by Congress.

Officials with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, however, view the proposed budget in a starkly different way.

"The president's proposal would provide enough flexibility for local housing authorities to still cover as many people with vouchers as it currently does," said Larry Bush, a HUD spokesman. "In the case of Los Angeles, this will require better management than we have seen to date."

Section 8 is a federal program that subsidizes the rents of low-income tenants, who pay about 30% of their income in rent. The federal government pays the rest.

In Los Angeles, for example, a family of four with an income of $29,750 is considered very low income. A family of four with an income of $17,850 or less is considered extremely low income.

With her voucher, Baidi would have been able to rent a two-bedroom apartment. She had found a place in Hawthorne. Now that her voucher is suspended, the 22-year-old, who works full time at a hospital, remains in the homeless shelter that took her in after her long stint living in her car.

"My job is minimum wage," she said, above the chants of protesters. "That won't get me in anywhere."

The protests, which included speeches by single mothers, the mentally ill and others in need of housing assistance, was organized by the Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness. State Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar) and Los Angeles Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa joined the group in demanding that Congress, the state and federal government do more to assist those who need housing.

"These are people struggling to find the American dream and our president is trying to take it away," Alarcon said to the crowd. "I think we need to take away his public housing and kick him out of the White House."

The program had been supported by previous administrations because they "understood something about Section 8," he said, calling the program "a path to a better place."

Earlier this year, officials at the Los Angeles Housing Authority canceled housing vouchers of those who had not yet entered into rental contracts. Officials estimated that about 5,000 subsidized households -- families already in rental contracts -- might lose their assistance unless help came soon.

Local officials pushed HUD for additional funds, more vouchers or an agreement that certain funds could be used to pay for the vouchers. Federal officials blamed problems on the local agency.

On Monday, HUD and local officials announced the signing of an agreement that averted the loss of assistance to the 5,000 families, but so far no hope has been offered that assistance will be restored to those with suspended vouchers. Those families, about 400 of whom are homeless, according to the Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness, have been left in limbo: stuck in hotels, in shelters or on the streets.

One of the protesters, Laura Figueras, spent 10 years living on the streets, mentally ill and unable to care for herself.

She credits a Santa Monica shelter with helping her reform her life. Now her illness is controlled with medication and she has started to imagine herself living in her own home. She is on a list to receive a voucher.

"It took me a long time to get that far," Figueras said. When she learned about the suspensions "my world fell apart.... I was pretty devastated," she said. "But I'm not giving up."

The voucher suspensions and concerns about possible cuts in the program have given rise to the Save the Section 8 Coalition, several organizations that are pushing for HUD "to release emergency funds to honor the 1,500 Section 8 vouchers." The coalition is also demanding that the program "remain fully funded to at least its current level. No massive cuts as the Bush administration has proposed."

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