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Indybay Feature
HUD SECRETARY DENIES POLICIES CAUSE EVICTIONS!
The Bush Administration's Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Maintains That No One Faces Eviction Due To His Policies. Meanwhile, Thousands Of People Are Being Evicted Due To The Despicable Policies Of HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson, And The Disaster Stories Are Spreading Like Wildfire!
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.
Just send an e-mail to;
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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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?
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.
Just send an e-mail to;
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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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Democrats Thrilled With Alphonso Jackson
http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/18022.html
Former Dallas housing chief confirmed as HUD secretary Democrats elect not to block him in protest of judge appointments
TODD J. GILLMAN, Washington Bureau
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS
April 1, 2004
WASHINGTON
WASHINGTON - The Senate confirmed former Dallas housing chief Alphonso Jackson late Wednesday as housing secretary, despite a Democratic threat to block all of President Bush's nominees to protest the appointment of two controversial judges.
Democrats made an early exception for Mr. Jackson, a friend and former neighbor of Mr. Bush in North Dallas who has spent the last three years as deputy secretary of housing and urban development.
"I am honored by the Senate's vote and the confidence the president has put in me," Mr. Jackson said through an aide. "I look forward to leading the hard-working people at HUD to address the nation's housing challenges and bring the American dream of home ownership to more low-income families."
Mr. Jackson won unanimous committee approval Tuesday after dropping a proposal to streamline home-buying rules. Many senators opposed the plan, along with key real estate industry players.
But his nomination almost got caught up in escalating partisan warfare.
The president angered Democrats this year when he used his "recess appointment" authority to put Mississippi Judge Charles Pickering and Alabama Attorney General William Pryor on federal appeals courts while the Senate was on a break. Democrats had filibustered both nominees. The appointments expire next January.
In the last week, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., threatened to stall all judicial nominees unless the president agreed not to use recess authority again. He then expanded the threat to all nominations, complaining that the White House has refused to fill federal board and commission slots set aside for Democrats.
A senior Democratic leadership aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the threat against Mr. Jackson was lifted because of unspecified "exceptional circumstances" and said the vote - by unanimous consent, rather than by roll call - does not mean Democrats are backing down.
Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican, said he was "extremely pleased" that Democrats relented on Mr. Jackson, but "I remain concerned about the scores of other nominations still held hostage."
Mr. Jackson, 58, grew up in South Dallas, the youngest of 12 children.
He has run housing agencies in Washington, D.C., and St. Louis, and was president and CEO of the Dallas Housing Authority from 1989 to 1996.
Once sworn in, he will become the third Texan in the Cabinet, and its third black member.
Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison predicted that "Alphonso Jackson will be a great HUD secretary. He will take care of those in need, and he'll assist many of them to independence."
Mr. Jackson has been acting secretary since December, overseeing 9,300 employees and an annual budget of $32 billion. He replaces Mel Martinez, who is running for the Senate in Florida.
E-mail: mailto:tgillman [at] dallasnews.com
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HUD cuts causing housing crunch
By Crystal Ross O'Hara/Enterprise staff writer
June 24, 2004 Click below for full story...
http://www.davisenterprise.com/articles/2004/06/24/news/190new1.txt
On May 18, HUD informed the Yolo County Housing Authority that it had changed the number of housing choice vouchers it would fund from 1,466 to 1,383.
"This has essentially made people homeless and put them in legal jeopardy," said Carol Duty. She runs the Pregnancy Support Group of Woodland. In recent weeks, three clients have come to her looking for help because of problems with their voucher applications.
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RESTORE SECTION 8 FUNDS
Hartford Courant (Connecticut)
June 21, 2004
http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/31255.html
Talk about a bad landlord. He comes to the door in late April and hits you with a rent increase, retroactive to the first of the year. On the way out, he tells you the rent is going up again next year.
The landlord in this case is Uncle Sam.
On April 22, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced a new funding formula for the Section 8 housing voucher program that helps more than 2 million low-income Americans pay for shelter.
In the past, HUD provided local agencies with funds to cover the actual cost of housing a certain number of residents. Under the new plan, HUD will pay the agencies at last August's levels, plus an adjustment for inflation, retroactive to January. The formula was changed to save money.
Participants pay about 30 percent of their income for rent, with Section 8 picking up the rest. The cutbacks could force families to pay more rent or reduce the number of people in the program.
In many parts of the country, including Connecticut, rent increases have outpaced the inflation factor. Already, some California cities have canceled current contracts to lower subsidies. In Massachusetts, only last-minute intervention by Gov. Mitt Romney kept 650 residents from being dropped from the program. By one estimate, New York City will lose 4,600 vouchers.
In Hartford, 8,200 households participate in Section 8 and another 2,000-plus are on the waiting list. It's not yet clear whether the revised formula will affect Hartford, in part because HUD has been slow to explain the new program and promulgate rules. But it's something the city needs to watch closely.
The Bush administration also proposes to further cut voucher funding in 2005 and convert the program to a block grant. Both changes are, as one area housing administrator put it, "too much, too fast and too drastic." We agree.
Though Section 8 has its critics, and programs in a few cities have been tainted by corruption, it serves a real and growing need. The wages of the working poor have not kept up with the rising cost of real estate. Lack of affordable housing has become critical in parts of Connecticut.
The Section 8 cutbacks have triggered complaints from around the country. As the protests have poured in, HUD has begun to rethink the changes. That suggests the cutbacks, which HUD blames on Congress, were too hasty and ill-considered.
The administration ought to restore full funding to Section 8 and instead prepare a comprehensive national housing policy. To cut housing assistance for the working poor, disabled and seniors at a time of tax cuts for the wealthy is unfair.
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Tenants protest cut in rent assistance; St. Paul housing agency must reduce subsidy.
Terry Collins; Staff Writer
Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
June 16, 2004
http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/30665.html
Veronica Jackson calmed her nerves just long enough Tuesday to ask St. Paul public housing officials how can she avoid telling her four kids they might have to move.
"Tell me what I need to do to save my home," Jackson said. "I'm willing to do whatever it takes. Most of us here feel the same way."
She was among the more than 200 people at a public hearing about the St. Paul Public Housing Agency's proposed strategies for its Section 8 housing choice voucher program, which helps subsidize rent for about 4,000 low-income tenants in the city.
Jon Gutzmann, the agency's executive director, told the standing-room-only crowd that the agency is considering reducing the amount of assistance it pays to about 1,500 landlords participating in the program. The agency is facing a $3 million shortfall in the next fiscal year because the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reduced funding for the Section 8 program, he said.
"We have to make a decision in the next few days to go forward, let the chips fall where they may or revise this plan," he said. "In any event, we have to save $3 million."
In April, HUD retroactively cut payments to public housing authorities across the country, including St. Paul, Gutzmann said. The following month, HUD provided an additional $150 million in funding to housing authorities, but it still left St. Paul short, he said.
As a result, the $3 million shortfall amounts to about $250,000 less each month, Gutzmann said Tuesday.
The Section 8 housing voucher program helps 2 million low-income families nationwide make up the difference between 30 percent of their income and the cost of rent. St. Paul has a waiting list of more than 4,400 families seeking Section 8 help.
A majority of tenants in attendance said they couldn't afford to move.
"It's not you guys that will be on the streets ... we know you're trying," said Lowanda Harvey, a mother of five who lives on the East Side. "We're not going to give up."
Meanwhile, several landlords who are in the program said they can't afford to bear the burden.
"I want Section 8 tenants because when I got into this, I said I want to make sure low-income people have a place to stay," said Diane Binns who co-owns several units around St. Paul. "Unfortunately, the reality is you might be on the street because I can't afford to take a cut."
Gutzmann said landlords will be contacted later this month about whether they want to stay in the program.
Pam James, an organizer with the Community Stabilization Project, a St. Paul nonprofit organization, said the issue is not a battle of tenants against landlords and the housing agency.
The real enemy, she said, is HUD.
"HUD has the money. Tell HUD to give us the money," James said, earning applause.
Gutzmann said he felt their pain.
"We're trying to find a way to get through this crisis," he said. "We've had several ideas that we thought would fly. This current idea may not work. We're trying."
Terry Collins is at tcollins [at] startribune.com.
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http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/31434.html
Housing Authority Weighs Sale to Satisfy U.S. Audit
Michael Biesecker
The News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina)
June 22, 2004
DURHAM -- The Durham Housing Authority will likely have to sell some of its assets and seek new financing from private lenders to repay money a federal audit says it misused, the agency's board said Monday.
Among the properties destined for the auction block could be the Golden Belt Center and the Woodridge Commons apartment complex. Both are owned by one of the authority's nonprofit subsidiaries, Development Ventures Inc., and together have lost nearly $70,000 since Jan. 1.
"I'm not comfortable waiting six months or a year to make a decision," said Robert "Bo" Glenn Jr., an authority board member who also serves as chairman of Development Ventures. "We need to do something this week. We either need to make this break even or sell it."
The board called a special meeting Monday morning to discuss an audit from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that found the Durham authority improperly diverted more than $5 million in low-income housing funds.
Investigators from HUD's Office of Inspector General recommend in the report that the federal government seize control of the local authority, freeze spending on the city's $35 million Hope VI grant and discipline its top managers.
At issue is the authority's involvement in Development Ventures and other nonprofit entities set up by former Director James Tabron and the agency's board. Tabron was forced to resign in April 2003 after it was found he made more than $12,000 in personal charges on an authority credit card.
The board made no decisions Monday, but another meeting is scheduled Thursday.
Glenn spent more than an hour going over the audit findings, acknowledging some of the shortcomings outlined in the draft report while playing down others. He said investigators failed to take into account some revenue owed to the authority and said the agency's financial position is better than the audit portrays.
He did not address some of the auditors' key concerns, including how the authority transferred housing funds and incurred loans without public discussion or board approval. Nor did Glenn talk about Fayette Place, a former public housing complex emptied of its residents for a planned redevelopment that has yet to begin.
A review of the authority's most recent financial statements, however, shows that some projects the board hopes to sell are already more indebted than they are worth.
Woodridge Commons, a 38-unit apartment complex in northern Durham, is valued at $717,496. But the authority owes $1,655,903 on the property, including the remainder of an $800,000 bank loan federal investigators say was improperly used "to pay cost overruns at Golden Belt."
The Golden Belt Center, a former cigarette packaging plant in downtown Durham, is listed as having a value of $2.2 million with nearly the same amount listed in outstanding loans and liabilities. No recent market appraisal of the property's worth has been performed, but when the center was donated to the authority in 1997, its tax value was listed at $450,000.
The board also discussed taking out new loans on two other developments, Edgemont Elms and Preiss-Steele Place, in an effort to cash out equity.
Edgemont Elms, a complex of 58 apartments near downtown, is valued at $1.6 million but has outstanding loans of more than $1.4 million, including $738,000 owed to the city of Durham.
On Monday, the City Council unanimously voted to give the housing authority a three-month extension so it could refinance its first-mortgage loan on Edgemont Elms and be in a better position to repay the city over the next five years.
Preiss-Steele, a development for low-income older people, has a listed value of $3.4 million but has $3.1 million in outstanding loans, including $1.9 million owed to the city.
Mayor Bill Bell spoke to the authority's board briefly Monday, saying he wants a complete accounting of how the millions in city money granted to the agency over the years were used and why Fayette Place was vacated before the financing to complete the project was in hand.
Council member Eugene Brown said Glenn seemed more focused on justifying the board's actions than taking responsibility for the authority's troubled finances.
The City Council and mayor appoint the authority's board members. "My friend Bo Glenn was doing an admirable job of trying to defend the indefensible," Brown said in an interview afterward. "They've got some serious credibility problems. That board needs new life, new energy, new leadership and, above all, accountability. It's time for a shake-up. This is an embarrassment for the city that just doesn't seem to end."
(Staff writer Margie Fishman contributed to this report.)
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http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/31367.html
County says it can account for U.S. funds
LINDSEY UNTERBERGER lunterberger [at] journalsentinel.com
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Wisconsin)
June 22, 2004
Waukesha -- Waukesha County taxpayers will not be on the hook for nearly $100,000 a federal agency says must be repaid, a county official predicted Monday.
At a committee meeting Monday, Glen Lewinski, the community development coordinator, said he is confident he will be able to submit a report to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development documenting that federal money was not misspent.
HUD officials ordered the county to repay $97,677 in federal funds, and potentially repay $105,998 in loan guarantees, at a meeting on June 15. HUD gave the county until July 16 to provide documentation to substantiate its spending of federal money.
Lewinski said he believes the funds were not misused but were improperly documented. He said he has already been able to account for $77,699 of the $97,677. United Press and Graphics, which was one business that received the federal funds, provided documentation showing that the money was used to purchase equipment. Lewinski said he feels comfortable HUD will accept the documentation.
United Press and Graphics was not originally told it would need to provide such detailed documentation, Lewinski said. A lack of specific requirements caused the majority of the problems in the audit report, he said.
Looking at a three-page list of expenses from other companies in similar situations, Lewinski said he is confident another nearly $20,000 will be accounted for. The Waukesha County Economic Development Corp. is reviewing the list to find places where documentation can be obtained.
The loan guarantees are contingent on businesses proving they created new jobs with the money they received. Job creation will be monitored by HUD and reviewed in November, but the county has until May to provide final documentation.
County accepts blame
Lewinski and supervisors agreed they made a mistake.
"We are at fault here," James Dwyer, county board chairman, said Monday. "It's a checks and balance system, and very obviously, we didn't have enough checks or are unbalanced."
The financial mess began when a citizen complained of suspected wrongdoing involving community development funds. While the suspicions turned out to be invalid, federal auditors suspected the county had not accounted for its funds and probed deeper, extending their audit. More than $16 million allocated by the county over five years to local economic development and housing improvement organizations was scrutinized.
At Monday's meeting, county supervisors said guidelines for documentation defined by HUD were vague.
"They purposely like to keep things gray," said Supervisor Walter Kolb of the Town of Waukesha.
HUD public relations officer Sheila Ashley, who attended the June 15 meeting, declined to comment Monday.
Lewinski said he was unaware of the detail of documentation needed. He said HUD requested details such as copies of both the front and back of checks and proof a check was cashed if issued electronically.
In one case, he said, workers were paid to install machinery but did not write what they were doing on their time cards. If proof of their work cannot be found, the $14,000 they were paid will not count toward the other $20,000 of substantiated funds the county must produce.
In the future, Lewinski said, he will provide HUD with a copy of the county's policies and procedures and make sure they are up to required standards before money is spent. Businesses receiving loans also will know what those requirements are, he said.
"We're going to make clear exactly what any person getting a loan will be required to give us."
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Bush plan to cut rental aid may affect 300 families here; Finding safe place to live a concern
Angela D. Chatman, Plain Dealer Reporter
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio)
April 12, 2004
http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/20220.html
Tammie Mitchell's goal is to see her two adolescent sons finish school and get through college.
But at 38, she is out of work on a disability and dependent on Social Security benefits. She is grateful for the voucher from the federal government that guarantees her assistance in paying the rent on her $750 Ohio City apartment.
"People like me on fixed incomes can't afford this high rent," she said.
Mitchell worries that a Bush administration proposal to cut money for vouchers will hurt other people like her - thousands of poor across the country who qualify for the vouchers and who need help getting a safe, decent, affordable place to live. The alternative is substandard, and sometimes expensive, housing.
Their chance of getting help became more precarious this spring with the administration's proposed 2005 budget for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The administration's proposals include providing $13.1 billion, or about $1 billion less than in fiscal year 2004, for the voucher program, the nation's largest housing program for low-income renters.
The vouchers cover most of the cost of a place to live; the voucher holder pays no more than 30 percent of his or her income toward rent.
Housing advocates say $1.7 billion more money is needed and the cuts will hobble the 30-year-old program, formerly known as Section 8.
The Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority estimates that it will lose money for 750 subsidies under the Bush plan, which would go into effect Oct. 1.
Housing authorities across the state - including those in Akron, Cincinnati, Columbus and Lake, Lorain and Medina counties - predict funding cuts for dozens, sometimes hundreds, of vouchers.
"These reductions would result in 300 families either remaining in a state of homelessness or being unable to afford housing even if they are working full time and earning less than $10 per hour," said Homer Virden, executive director of Lorain Metropolitan Housing in a statement released by the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio. The Columbus-based group is working to build statewide opposition to the plan.
The Cuyahoga authority said that at the very least, it cannot issue more vouchers. It is not clear yet whether it will have to rescind vouchers, officials said.
HUD now gives CMHA $89.7 million for 13,550 vouchers. The 750 amounts to about 5.5 percent of the total number of vouchers.
"If Congress moves forward with funding, using the formulas that have been described and the approach, it decreases the number of families that we can serve," said Cathy Pennington, CMHA's director of the housing choice voucher program.
The Washington, D.C.-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that money for 250,000 of 1.9 million vouchers nationwide - or about 13 percent - will be lost. It projects a loss of more than 10,000 in Ohio.
The center projects the program will lose money for nearly a third, or more than 600,000 vouchers, by 2009.
Federal housing officials dispute those numbers, stressing the need to hold down costs. They say the average cost for each voucher has increased at a rate of 23 percent in the last two years.
They also argue that changing the housing choice voucher program into the proposed "flexible voucher program" will allow housing authorities more leeway to address the changing needs of participants. Changes include making people with higher incomes eligible for vouchers and loosening the rules for inspecting rental properties.
But housing advocates said some of those changes could mean that the poorer people the program currently serves would no longer be served, although the money could be stretched farther. They point out the proposal would eliminate statutory requirements that 75 percent of the people local housing authorities serve must be people who make less than 30 percent of the local median income. Such a move could stretch the voucher money farther because less rent would be paid for each voucher holder.
"This is just another example of how the federal government is balancing its budget on the backs of poor people," said Cleveland City Council President Frank Jackson, whose Ward 5 includes several public-housing projects. "Thousands of people in need of low-cost housing will now be forced to live only in public or subsidized housing rather than in neighborhoods made up of people from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds."
Mitchell, who got her voucher seven years ago, expressed similar sentiments. "We're poor. Leave us alone. We're trying to live like everybody else," she said.
More than 76,000 households are on waiting lists for vouchers at housing authorities across the state, according to a January survey conducted by local HUD officials and the Ohio Housing Authority Conference, the state group for housing authorities.
In Cuyahoga County, more than 6,000 households are on CMHA's waiting list.
Tameka Wright has waited three years to get an apartment for herself and her sons.
Crammed into her mother's three-bedroom ranch house with her mother, her mother's boyfriend, her great-grandmother and her uncle, Wright shares a bedroom with her three sons. She dreams of a three-bedroom place that would cost her $700 or $800 a month.
She can't do it alone. Her job at the Warrensville Development Center, a therapeutic rehabilitation center for the mentally retarded, will pay her $12.94 an hour for 20 hours a week. She has no benefits because she could get only part-time work.
"I am one of those ones that are trying to make it," Wright, 27, said late last month while sitting at a table off the empty living room of her mother's house in Cleveland's Lee-Miles neighborhood. She has lived there four years; her mother plans to sell the house.
"I was staying from place to place and I wanted to get my own place so I wouldn't have to go through all of that," said Wright. She is looking at three-bedroom apartments, but most are out of her price range.
George Phillips, CMHA's executive director, said he was discouraged by a meeting in early March in Columbus between OHAC members and a HUD official from headquarters.
"The administration is not really being receptive to the plight of the . . . program itself. They believe that the way to control costs is by cutting the vouchers, and that's not necessarily true," he said.
Housing advocates are planning protests for late spring and summer, said Michael Foley, executive director of the Cleveland Tenants Organization.
"There's already a lack of affordable housing in the county and to diminish that is criminal," he said.
Meanwhile, Sandra Montes is thinking about asking her landlord to give her a break on the rent she and her boyfriend pay for their house on West 49th Street in Cleveland.
Montes, who has one son, is training to become a computer information processor. She does not want to quit training to go back to work.
"I don't know what to do," she said.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: achatman [at] plaind.com, 216-999-4115
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Tenants Cheated By Housing Authority & Demand Rents Be Rolled Back!
Click below for full story...
http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/17531.html
Dozens of protesters are set to show up outside the Housing Authority offices today to demand an immediate across-the-board reduction of 38 per cent in public housing rent.
The authority will meet today to decide how it should comply with a court ruling which found that it had charged rent above the legal limit of 10 per cent of median household income.
It is currently appealing against the ruling and a decision is expected next month.
"In the past, the Housing Authority has applied the same increase in rents to all households. We think an across the board rent cut is simple and fair,'' Federation of Public Housing Estates director Ho Wai-man said.
"It can immediately benefit all 600,000 households,'' he said.
The authority's first option is a 38 per cent cut in domestic rents for all households on public housing estates.
While this is the most popular option for most tenants, it is not favoured by the authority because it will cost HK$11.2 billion in the first three years of implementation.
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Housing Authority Appeals After Being Caught Cheating Tenants!
April 21, 2004
The Housing Authority has no legal obligation to carry out periodic rent reviews at public housing estates, the Court of Appeal was told yesterday in a highly anticipated case.
http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/21546.html
Outside the court, about 50 public housing estate tenants protested against the appeal and urged the government to cut rent immediately.
http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/18022.html
Former Dallas housing chief confirmed as HUD secretary Democrats elect not to block him in protest of judge appointments
TODD J. GILLMAN, Washington Bureau
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS
April 1, 2004
WASHINGTON
WASHINGTON - The Senate confirmed former Dallas housing chief Alphonso Jackson late Wednesday as housing secretary, despite a Democratic threat to block all of President Bush's nominees to protest the appointment of two controversial judges.
Democrats made an early exception for Mr. Jackson, a friend and former neighbor of Mr. Bush in North Dallas who has spent the last three years as deputy secretary of housing and urban development.
"I am honored by the Senate's vote and the confidence the president has put in me," Mr. Jackson said through an aide. "I look forward to leading the hard-working people at HUD to address the nation's housing challenges and bring the American dream of home ownership to more low-income families."
Mr. Jackson won unanimous committee approval Tuesday after dropping a proposal to streamline home-buying rules. Many senators opposed the plan, along with key real estate industry players.
But his nomination almost got caught up in escalating partisan warfare.
The president angered Democrats this year when he used his "recess appointment" authority to put Mississippi Judge Charles Pickering and Alabama Attorney General William Pryor on federal appeals courts while the Senate was on a break. Democrats had filibustered both nominees. The appointments expire next January.
In the last week, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., threatened to stall all judicial nominees unless the president agreed not to use recess authority again. He then expanded the threat to all nominations, complaining that the White House has refused to fill federal board and commission slots set aside for Democrats.
A senior Democratic leadership aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the threat against Mr. Jackson was lifted because of unspecified "exceptional circumstances" and said the vote - by unanimous consent, rather than by roll call - does not mean Democrats are backing down.
Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican, said he was "extremely pleased" that Democrats relented on Mr. Jackson, but "I remain concerned about the scores of other nominations still held hostage."
Mr. Jackson, 58, grew up in South Dallas, the youngest of 12 children.
He has run housing agencies in Washington, D.C., and St. Louis, and was president and CEO of the Dallas Housing Authority from 1989 to 1996.
Once sworn in, he will become the third Texan in the Cabinet, and its third black member.
Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison predicted that "Alphonso Jackson will be a great HUD secretary. He will take care of those in need, and he'll assist many of them to independence."
Mr. Jackson has been acting secretary since December, overseeing 9,300 employees and an annual budget of $32 billion. He replaces Mel Martinez, who is running for the Senate in Florida.
E-mail: mailto:tgillman [at] dallasnews.com
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HUD cuts causing housing crunch
By Crystal Ross O'Hara/Enterprise staff writer
June 24, 2004 Click below for full story...
http://www.davisenterprise.com/articles/2004/06/24/news/190new1.txt
On May 18, HUD informed the Yolo County Housing Authority that it had changed the number of housing choice vouchers it would fund from 1,466 to 1,383.
"This has essentially made people homeless and put them in legal jeopardy," said Carol Duty. She runs the Pregnancy Support Group of Woodland. In recent weeks, three clients have come to her looking for help because of problems with their voucher applications.
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RESTORE SECTION 8 FUNDS
Hartford Courant (Connecticut)
June 21, 2004
http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/31255.html
Talk about a bad landlord. He comes to the door in late April and hits you with a rent increase, retroactive to the first of the year. On the way out, he tells you the rent is going up again next year.
The landlord in this case is Uncle Sam.
On April 22, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced a new funding formula for the Section 8 housing voucher program that helps more than 2 million low-income Americans pay for shelter.
In the past, HUD provided local agencies with funds to cover the actual cost of housing a certain number of residents. Under the new plan, HUD will pay the agencies at last August's levels, plus an adjustment for inflation, retroactive to January. The formula was changed to save money.
Participants pay about 30 percent of their income for rent, with Section 8 picking up the rest. The cutbacks could force families to pay more rent or reduce the number of people in the program.
In many parts of the country, including Connecticut, rent increases have outpaced the inflation factor. Already, some California cities have canceled current contracts to lower subsidies. In Massachusetts, only last-minute intervention by Gov. Mitt Romney kept 650 residents from being dropped from the program. By one estimate, New York City will lose 4,600 vouchers.
In Hartford, 8,200 households participate in Section 8 and another 2,000-plus are on the waiting list. It's not yet clear whether the revised formula will affect Hartford, in part because HUD has been slow to explain the new program and promulgate rules. But it's something the city needs to watch closely.
The Bush administration also proposes to further cut voucher funding in 2005 and convert the program to a block grant. Both changes are, as one area housing administrator put it, "too much, too fast and too drastic." We agree.
Though Section 8 has its critics, and programs in a few cities have been tainted by corruption, it serves a real and growing need. The wages of the working poor have not kept up with the rising cost of real estate. Lack of affordable housing has become critical in parts of Connecticut.
The Section 8 cutbacks have triggered complaints from around the country. As the protests have poured in, HUD has begun to rethink the changes. That suggests the cutbacks, which HUD blames on Congress, were too hasty and ill-considered.
The administration ought to restore full funding to Section 8 and instead prepare a comprehensive national housing policy. To cut housing assistance for the working poor, disabled and seniors at a time of tax cuts for the wealthy is unfair.
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Tenants protest cut in rent assistance; St. Paul housing agency must reduce subsidy.
Terry Collins; Staff Writer
Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
June 16, 2004
http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/30665.html
Veronica Jackson calmed her nerves just long enough Tuesday to ask St. Paul public housing officials how can she avoid telling her four kids they might have to move.
"Tell me what I need to do to save my home," Jackson said. "I'm willing to do whatever it takes. Most of us here feel the same way."
She was among the more than 200 people at a public hearing about the St. Paul Public Housing Agency's proposed strategies for its Section 8 housing choice voucher program, which helps subsidize rent for about 4,000 low-income tenants in the city.
Jon Gutzmann, the agency's executive director, told the standing-room-only crowd that the agency is considering reducing the amount of assistance it pays to about 1,500 landlords participating in the program. The agency is facing a $3 million shortfall in the next fiscal year because the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reduced funding for the Section 8 program, he said.
"We have to make a decision in the next few days to go forward, let the chips fall where they may or revise this plan," he said. "In any event, we have to save $3 million."
In April, HUD retroactively cut payments to public housing authorities across the country, including St. Paul, Gutzmann said. The following month, HUD provided an additional $150 million in funding to housing authorities, but it still left St. Paul short, he said.
As a result, the $3 million shortfall amounts to about $250,000 less each month, Gutzmann said Tuesday.
The Section 8 housing voucher program helps 2 million low-income families nationwide make up the difference between 30 percent of their income and the cost of rent. St. Paul has a waiting list of more than 4,400 families seeking Section 8 help.
A majority of tenants in attendance said they couldn't afford to move.
"It's not you guys that will be on the streets ... we know you're trying," said Lowanda Harvey, a mother of five who lives on the East Side. "We're not going to give up."
Meanwhile, several landlords who are in the program said they can't afford to bear the burden.
"I want Section 8 tenants because when I got into this, I said I want to make sure low-income people have a place to stay," said Diane Binns who co-owns several units around St. Paul. "Unfortunately, the reality is you might be on the street because I can't afford to take a cut."
Gutzmann said landlords will be contacted later this month about whether they want to stay in the program.
Pam James, an organizer with the Community Stabilization Project, a St. Paul nonprofit organization, said the issue is not a battle of tenants against landlords and the housing agency.
The real enemy, she said, is HUD.
"HUD has the money. Tell HUD to give us the money," James said, earning applause.
Gutzmann said he felt their pain.
"We're trying to find a way to get through this crisis," he said. "We've had several ideas that we thought would fly. This current idea may not work. We're trying."
Terry Collins is at tcollins [at] startribune.com.
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http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/31434.html
Housing Authority Weighs Sale to Satisfy U.S. Audit
Michael Biesecker
The News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina)
June 22, 2004
DURHAM -- The Durham Housing Authority will likely have to sell some of its assets and seek new financing from private lenders to repay money a federal audit says it misused, the agency's board said Monday.
Among the properties destined for the auction block could be the Golden Belt Center and the Woodridge Commons apartment complex. Both are owned by one of the authority's nonprofit subsidiaries, Development Ventures Inc., and together have lost nearly $70,000 since Jan. 1.
"I'm not comfortable waiting six months or a year to make a decision," said Robert "Bo" Glenn Jr., an authority board member who also serves as chairman of Development Ventures. "We need to do something this week. We either need to make this break even or sell it."
The board called a special meeting Monday morning to discuss an audit from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that found the Durham authority improperly diverted more than $5 million in low-income housing funds.
Investigators from HUD's Office of Inspector General recommend in the report that the federal government seize control of the local authority, freeze spending on the city's $35 million Hope VI grant and discipline its top managers.
At issue is the authority's involvement in Development Ventures and other nonprofit entities set up by former Director James Tabron and the agency's board. Tabron was forced to resign in April 2003 after it was found he made more than $12,000 in personal charges on an authority credit card.
The board made no decisions Monday, but another meeting is scheduled Thursday.
Glenn spent more than an hour going over the audit findings, acknowledging some of the shortcomings outlined in the draft report while playing down others. He said investigators failed to take into account some revenue owed to the authority and said the agency's financial position is better than the audit portrays.
He did not address some of the auditors' key concerns, including how the authority transferred housing funds and incurred loans without public discussion or board approval. Nor did Glenn talk about Fayette Place, a former public housing complex emptied of its residents for a planned redevelopment that has yet to begin.
A review of the authority's most recent financial statements, however, shows that some projects the board hopes to sell are already more indebted than they are worth.
Woodridge Commons, a 38-unit apartment complex in northern Durham, is valued at $717,496. But the authority owes $1,655,903 on the property, including the remainder of an $800,000 bank loan federal investigators say was improperly used "to pay cost overruns at Golden Belt."
The Golden Belt Center, a former cigarette packaging plant in downtown Durham, is listed as having a value of $2.2 million with nearly the same amount listed in outstanding loans and liabilities. No recent market appraisal of the property's worth has been performed, but when the center was donated to the authority in 1997, its tax value was listed at $450,000.
The board also discussed taking out new loans on two other developments, Edgemont Elms and Preiss-Steele Place, in an effort to cash out equity.
Edgemont Elms, a complex of 58 apartments near downtown, is valued at $1.6 million but has outstanding loans of more than $1.4 million, including $738,000 owed to the city of Durham.
On Monday, the City Council unanimously voted to give the housing authority a three-month extension so it could refinance its first-mortgage loan on Edgemont Elms and be in a better position to repay the city over the next five years.
Preiss-Steele, a development for low-income older people, has a listed value of $3.4 million but has $3.1 million in outstanding loans, including $1.9 million owed to the city.
Mayor Bill Bell spoke to the authority's board briefly Monday, saying he wants a complete accounting of how the millions in city money granted to the agency over the years were used and why Fayette Place was vacated before the financing to complete the project was in hand.
Council member Eugene Brown said Glenn seemed more focused on justifying the board's actions than taking responsibility for the authority's troubled finances.
The City Council and mayor appoint the authority's board members. "My friend Bo Glenn was doing an admirable job of trying to defend the indefensible," Brown said in an interview afterward. "They've got some serious credibility problems. That board needs new life, new energy, new leadership and, above all, accountability. It's time for a shake-up. This is an embarrassment for the city that just doesn't seem to end."
(Staff writer Margie Fishman contributed to this report.)
************
http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/31367.html
County says it can account for U.S. funds
LINDSEY UNTERBERGER lunterberger [at] journalsentinel.com
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Wisconsin)
June 22, 2004
Waukesha -- Waukesha County taxpayers will not be on the hook for nearly $100,000 a federal agency says must be repaid, a county official predicted Monday.
At a committee meeting Monday, Glen Lewinski, the community development coordinator, said he is confident he will be able to submit a report to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development documenting that federal money was not misspent.
HUD officials ordered the county to repay $97,677 in federal funds, and potentially repay $105,998 in loan guarantees, at a meeting on June 15. HUD gave the county until July 16 to provide documentation to substantiate its spending of federal money.
Lewinski said he believes the funds were not misused but were improperly documented. He said he has already been able to account for $77,699 of the $97,677. United Press and Graphics, which was one business that received the federal funds, provided documentation showing that the money was used to purchase equipment. Lewinski said he feels comfortable HUD will accept the documentation.
United Press and Graphics was not originally told it would need to provide such detailed documentation, Lewinski said. A lack of specific requirements caused the majority of the problems in the audit report, he said.
Looking at a three-page list of expenses from other companies in similar situations, Lewinski said he is confident another nearly $20,000 will be accounted for. The Waukesha County Economic Development Corp. is reviewing the list to find places where documentation can be obtained.
The loan guarantees are contingent on businesses proving they created new jobs with the money they received. Job creation will be monitored by HUD and reviewed in November, but the county has until May to provide final documentation.
County accepts blame
Lewinski and supervisors agreed they made a mistake.
"We are at fault here," James Dwyer, county board chairman, said Monday. "It's a checks and balance system, and very obviously, we didn't have enough checks or are unbalanced."
The financial mess began when a citizen complained of suspected wrongdoing involving community development funds. While the suspicions turned out to be invalid, federal auditors suspected the county had not accounted for its funds and probed deeper, extending their audit. More than $16 million allocated by the county over five years to local economic development and housing improvement organizations was scrutinized.
At Monday's meeting, county supervisors said guidelines for documentation defined by HUD were vague.
"They purposely like to keep things gray," said Supervisor Walter Kolb of the Town of Waukesha.
HUD public relations officer Sheila Ashley, who attended the June 15 meeting, declined to comment Monday.
Lewinski said he was unaware of the detail of documentation needed. He said HUD requested details such as copies of both the front and back of checks and proof a check was cashed if issued electronically.
In one case, he said, workers were paid to install machinery but did not write what they were doing on their time cards. If proof of their work cannot be found, the $14,000 they were paid will not count toward the other $20,000 of substantiated funds the county must produce.
In the future, Lewinski said, he will provide HUD with a copy of the county's policies and procedures and make sure they are up to required standards before money is spent. Businesses receiving loans also will know what those requirements are, he said.
"We're going to make clear exactly what any person getting a loan will be required to give us."
************
Bush plan to cut rental aid may affect 300 families here; Finding safe place to live a concern
Angela D. Chatman, Plain Dealer Reporter
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio)
April 12, 2004
http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/20220.html
Tammie Mitchell's goal is to see her two adolescent sons finish school and get through college.
But at 38, she is out of work on a disability and dependent on Social Security benefits. She is grateful for the voucher from the federal government that guarantees her assistance in paying the rent on her $750 Ohio City apartment.
"People like me on fixed incomes can't afford this high rent," she said.
Mitchell worries that a Bush administration proposal to cut money for vouchers will hurt other people like her - thousands of poor across the country who qualify for the vouchers and who need help getting a safe, decent, affordable place to live. The alternative is substandard, and sometimes expensive, housing.
Their chance of getting help became more precarious this spring with the administration's proposed 2005 budget for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The administration's proposals include providing $13.1 billion, or about $1 billion less than in fiscal year 2004, for the voucher program, the nation's largest housing program for low-income renters.
The vouchers cover most of the cost of a place to live; the voucher holder pays no more than 30 percent of his or her income toward rent.
Housing advocates say $1.7 billion more money is needed and the cuts will hobble the 30-year-old program, formerly known as Section 8.
The Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority estimates that it will lose money for 750 subsidies under the Bush plan, which would go into effect Oct. 1.
Housing authorities across the state - including those in Akron, Cincinnati, Columbus and Lake, Lorain and Medina counties - predict funding cuts for dozens, sometimes hundreds, of vouchers.
"These reductions would result in 300 families either remaining in a state of homelessness or being unable to afford housing even if they are working full time and earning less than $10 per hour," said Homer Virden, executive director of Lorain Metropolitan Housing in a statement released by the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio. The Columbus-based group is working to build statewide opposition to the plan.
The Cuyahoga authority said that at the very least, it cannot issue more vouchers. It is not clear yet whether it will have to rescind vouchers, officials said.
HUD now gives CMHA $89.7 million for 13,550 vouchers. The 750 amounts to about 5.5 percent of the total number of vouchers.
"If Congress moves forward with funding, using the formulas that have been described and the approach, it decreases the number of families that we can serve," said Cathy Pennington, CMHA's director of the housing choice voucher program.
The Washington, D.C.-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that money for 250,000 of 1.9 million vouchers nationwide - or about 13 percent - will be lost. It projects a loss of more than 10,000 in Ohio.
The center projects the program will lose money for nearly a third, or more than 600,000 vouchers, by 2009.
Federal housing officials dispute those numbers, stressing the need to hold down costs. They say the average cost for each voucher has increased at a rate of 23 percent in the last two years.
They also argue that changing the housing choice voucher program into the proposed "flexible voucher program" will allow housing authorities more leeway to address the changing needs of participants. Changes include making people with higher incomes eligible for vouchers and loosening the rules for inspecting rental properties.
But housing advocates said some of those changes could mean that the poorer people the program currently serves would no longer be served, although the money could be stretched farther. They point out the proposal would eliminate statutory requirements that 75 percent of the people local housing authorities serve must be people who make less than 30 percent of the local median income. Such a move could stretch the voucher money farther because less rent would be paid for each voucher holder.
"This is just another example of how the federal government is balancing its budget on the backs of poor people," said Cleveland City Council President Frank Jackson, whose Ward 5 includes several public-housing projects. "Thousands of people in need of low-cost housing will now be forced to live only in public or subsidized housing rather than in neighborhoods made up of people from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds."
Mitchell, who got her voucher seven years ago, expressed similar sentiments. "We're poor. Leave us alone. We're trying to live like everybody else," she said.
More than 76,000 households are on waiting lists for vouchers at housing authorities across the state, according to a January survey conducted by local HUD officials and the Ohio Housing Authority Conference, the state group for housing authorities.
In Cuyahoga County, more than 6,000 households are on CMHA's waiting list.
Tameka Wright has waited three years to get an apartment for herself and her sons.
Crammed into her mother's three-bedroom ranch house with her mother, her mother's boyfriend, her great-grandmother and her uncle, Wright shares a bedroom with her three sons. She dreams of a three-bedroom place that would cost her $700 or $800 a month.
She can't do it alone. Her job at the Warrensville Development Center, a therapeutic rehabilitation center for the mentally retarded, will pay her $12.94 an hour for 20 hours a week. She has no benefits because she could get only part-time work.
"I am one of those ones that are trying to make it," Wright, 27, said late last month while sitting at a table off the empty living room of her mother's house in Cleveland's Lee-Miles neighborhood. She has lived there four years; her mother plans to sell the house.
"I was staying from place to place and I wanted to get my own place so I wouldn't have to go through all of that," said Wright. She is looking at three-bedroom apartments, but most are out of her price range.
George Phillips, CMHA's executive director, said he was discouraged by a meeting in early March in Columbus between OHAC members and a HUD official from headquarters.
"The administration is not really being receptive to the plight of the . . . program itself. They believe that the way to control costs is by cutting the vouchers, and that's not necessarily true," he said.
Housing advocates are planning protests for late spring and summer, said Michael Foley, executive director of the Cleveland Tenants Organization.
"There's already a lack of affordable housing in the county and to diminish that is criminal," he said.
Meanwhile, Sandra Montes is thinking about asking her landlord to give her a break on the rent she and her boyfriend pay for their house on West 49th Street in Cleveland.
Montes, who has one son, is training to become a computer information processor. She does not want to quit training to go back to work.
"I don't know what to do," she said.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: achatman [at] plaind.com, 216-999-4115
************
Tenants Cheated By Housing Authority & Demand Rents Be Rolled Back!
Click below for full story...
http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/17531.html
Dozens of protesters are set to show up outside the Housing Authority offices today to demand an immediate across-the-board reduction of 38 per cent in public housing rent.
The authority will meet today to decide how it should comply with a court ruling which found that it had charged rent above the legal limit of 10 per cent of median household income.
It is currently appealing against the ruling and a decision is expected next month.
"In the past, the Housing Authority has applied the same increase in rents to all households. We think an across the board rent cut is simple and fair,'' Federation of Public Housing Estates director Ho Wai-man said.
"It can immediately benefit all 600,000 households,'' he said.
The authority's first option is a 38 per cent cut in domestic rents for all households on public housing estates.
While this is the most popular option for most tenants, it is not favoured by the authority because it will cost HK$11.2 billion in the first three years of implementation.
************
Housing Authority Appeals After Being Caught Cheating Tenants!
April 21, 2004
The Housing Authority has no legal obligation to carry out periodic rent reviews at public housing estates, the Court of Appeal was told yesterday in a highly anticipated case.
http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/21546.html
Outside the court, about 50 public housing estate tenants protested against the appeal and urged the government to cut rent immediately.
----- Original Message -----
From: Billie
To: Ronald Bailey - HUD ; Susan Finister - HUD
Cc: Washington Post - News Dept. ; Washington D. C. ; U. S. Dept. of Justice ; Nancy Seats - HADD Pres. ; NY Times - News Dept ; Munson & Munson ; Cindy - HADD ; State Capitol
Sent: Monday, August 30, 2004 5:35 AM
Subject: Illegal Property Flipping Within the FHA [HUD] Program
August 30, 2004
From: Billie M. & Hubert E. Teague
Re: Fraud within the HUD [FHA] program
Re: FHA # 491-7262071
Dear HUD:
As you are aware, our house closed on August 14, 2001.
We then found out our house had been involved in an "illegal property flipping" scheme.
This scheme involved crooked sellers ["Homevestors" / "Redus and Co., Inc." - of Denton, TX.], a crooked lending company [MortgageIT, Dallas, TX], and a crooked FHA inspector.- Jerry B. Murphy, Tyler, TX.
We were then stuck with a house that was not worth over $22,000...
that in reality [which you have copies of repair estimates],
will take "$ 95,094.71" for repair costs, "to bring the house up to minimum FHA living standards."
The amount owed on the house, is $58,000.
We have been filing formal complaints with HUD, the sellers, and the lending company - for the past three years.
After getting nothing done about the situation, we finally walked away from the house, as of January 2004.
Per the .pdf document website link -
http://www.hud.gov/oig/mortgagefraud.pdf
we now see that HUD has KNOWN about "illegal property flipping" schemes, even BEFORE we had to go through this.
You have sat there and watched us try to fight for our rights, for the last three years - while you simply turned your heads and looked the other way.
SHAME ON YOU HUD !!!
HUD "IS" part of the problem, when it comes to fraud in the housing industry - not to mention your
DECEPTIVE ADVERTISING - "The American Dream of Home Ownership".
We will NEVER have anything to do with HUD / FHA ever again.
All of our friends, acquaintences, and family...also now know the truth - and they are now telling all of THEIR friends, and they are telling their friends...and the dominoe effect has begun.
Multiply this, by all of the OTHER FHA homebuyers who have gone through these types of scenerios...
you could have a bad problem at the end.
IT'S TIME TO CLEAN UP YOUR ACT !!
Billie M. & Hubert E. Teague
Our FHA "American Dream of Homeownership"
was in reality...
"The Ultimate Nightmare in the U. S. of A."
From: Billie
To: Ronald Bailey - HUD ; Susan Finister - HUD
Cc: Washington Post - News Dept. ; Washington D. C. ; U. S. Dept. of Justice ; Nancy Seats - HADD Pres. ; NY Times - News Dept ; Munson & Munson ; Cindy - HADD ; State Capitol
Sent: Monday, August 30, 2004 5:35 AM
Subject: Illegal Property Flipping Within the FHA [HUD] Program
August 30, 2004
From: Billie M. & Hubert E. Teague
Re: Fraud within the HUD [FHA] program
Re: FHA # 491-7262071
Dear HUD:
As you are aware, our house closed on August 14, 2001.
We then found out our house had been involved in an "illegal property flipping" scheme.
This scheme involved crooked sellers ["Homevestors" / "Redus and Co., Inc." - of Denton, TX.], a crooked lending company [MortgageIT, Dallas, TX], and a crooked FHA inspector.- Jerry B. Murphy, Tyler, TX.
We were then stuck with a house that was not worth over $22,000...
that in reality [which you have copies of repair estimates],
will take "$ 95,094.71" for repair costs, "to bring the house up to minimum FHA living standards."
The amount owed on the house, is $58,000.
We have been filing formal complaints with HUD, the sellers, and the lending company - for the past three years.
After getting nothing done about the situation, we finally walked away from the house, as of January 2004.
Per the .pdf document website link -
http://www.hud.gov/oig/mortgagefraud.pdf
we now see that HUD has KNOWN about "illegal property flipping" schemes, even BEFORE we had to go through this.
You have sat there and watched us try to fight for our rights, for the last three years - while you simply turned your heads and looked the other way.
SHAME ON YOU HUD !!!
HUD "IS" part of the problem, when it comes to fraud in the housing industry - not to mention your
DECEPTIVE ADVERTISING - "The American Dream of Home Ownership".
We will NEVER have anything to do with HUD / FHA ever again.
All of our friends, acquaintences, and family...also now know the truth - and they are now telling all of THEIR friends, and they are telling their friends...and the dominoe effect has begun.
Multiply this, by all of the OTHER FHA homebuyers who have gone through these types of scenerios...
you could have a bad problem at the end.
IT'S TIME TO CLEAN UP YOUR ACT !!
Billie M. & Hubert E. Teague
Our FHA "American Dream of Homeownership"
was in reality...
"The Ultimate Nightmare in the U. S. of A."
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