U.S. Seeks Cuts in Housing Aid to Urban Poor

[papau]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/22/nyregion/22housing.html

September 22, 2004
U.S. Seeks Cuts in Housing Aid to Urban Poor
By DAVID W. CHEN

The Bush administration has proposed reducing the value of subsidized-housing vouchers given to poor residents in New York City next year, with even bigger cuts planned for some urban areas in New England. The proposal is based on a disputed new formula that averages higher rents in big cities with those of suburban areas, which tend to have lower costs.

The proposals could have a "significantly detrimental impact" in some areas by forcing poor families to pay hundreds of extra dollars per month in rent, according to United States Representative Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican. That extra burden could be too much for thousands of tenants, "potentially leaving them homeless," Mr. Shays wrote in a recent letter to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The changes would affect most of the 1.9 million families who participate in the Section 8 program, the government's primary housing program for the poor, including 110,000 in New York City. People in the program receive vouchers to help them rent private apartments from landlords who agree to participate.

For a four-bedroom apartment in New York City, HUD has proposed that the fair market rent be reduced from $1,504 a month to $1,286, a drop of more than 14 percent. For practical purposes, that means that a tenant must find an extra $218 to stay in that apartment, or else find something cheaper. A voucher for a three-bedroom apartment would be cut by 7 percent, with smaller cuts for smaller units.
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[Rose Siding]

1. Ballsy in an election year

It's a two-fer: redistribution of assets from blue states to red and while it's a swipe at wellfare for the base, isn't it risky with the Blessed Swing/Undecided/Braindead?

[elehhhhna]

3. near houston there's new construction going on for sec 8 housing...

[kayell]

2. That's our compassionate GOP

Goes well with their humanitarian approach to world hunger.

[baby_bear]

4. Remember what HUD Sec. Alphonso Jackson said last spring

http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/05/1682493_comment.php#1682498

<snip>
On May 20, Secretary Alphonso Jackson testified before the House Financial Services Committee.

In an outrageous statement, Secretary of HUD Alphonso Jackson claimed that, “being poor is a state of mind, not a condition.”

</snip>

Well, he warned us. There's the compassionate Bush administration for you.

s_m

[Moderator]

5. Duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x844728