STUDY DETAILS CUTS IN LOCAL HOUSING

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

I've posted articles on this issue before, here's another one.

Funds Provided by Congress Would Go Unspent

Funding shortfalls in a key federal housing program resulting from a recent change in federal policies are causing widespread reductions in housing assistance to low-income families, seniors, and people with disabilities, new research finds. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the National Low Income Housing Coalition, and the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities have gathered information from 190 state and local housing agencies in 35 states that are being forced to reduce the amount of rental assistance they provide and/or the number of people they help.

The study (available at http://www.cbpp.org/7-15-04hous-survey.htm ) is the first large-scale compilation of cuts in assistance that are occurring as a result of the funding shortfalls. Together, the 190 housing agencies assist roughly 30 percent of all families helped by the program nationally.

More than half of the 190 agencies are cutting costs by reducing the size of the subsidies they provide to families in the program, even families with little or no income. “This will make it harder — and in some cases, impossible — for these families to afford their current apartments,” said Barbara Sard, director of housing policy at CBPP. “Some families will be forced to move into overcrowded and possibly unsafe apartments. Some may end up with no housing at all.”

In addition, nearly half of the 190 agencies are cutting costs by reducing the number of families in the program. Some agencies have been forced to cut off program assistance for families that have been depending on it to help pay the rent. More agencies may have to take this extreme step over the next few months.

http://www.cbpp.org/7-15-04hous.htm

[Kanary]

1. Anyone concerned about this? People losing their housing.....?

This sank like a rock......

Is this no longer a Dem issue?

Kanary

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. I'm concerned. We live in a trailer and would like to

upgrade to a double-wide on our own land instead of in a park, but it seems like a pipedream. How sad is that?

[Kanary]

3. ????????????????????????

:wtf:

Y'know, you were one of the last people I would have thought would mock a serious issue like this.

Oh well, let's me definitely know just how hopeless the whole thing is.

Thanks for clueing me in.

What about those gay rights, eh?

Kanary

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. I'm just saying that while I can't relate to the apartment part of the OP

I am saying I know what it is like to be unable to afford good housing.

In fact, our landlord wants to bulldoze down the section of the park where our trailer is located and put up subsidized low-income housing...but we did the math and figured out that we can't afford to rent one of those new units. So what good is low income housing if the poorest folk can't afford it?

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. Kanary, I honest to God live in a trailer. A Holly Park 14 x 70

and I really do want to move into a double wide! *lol* In fact, this is the floorplan for the one I like best.

http://www.colony-homes.com/deercreekmod-df514.htm

I am sorry if my post came across as sounding sarcastic. I suppose on rereading it it might sound that way to someone who did not know that I actually live in a trailer park. *g* (And no shame in that, either.)

[Kanary]

6. I guess that means you'll be sharing that lovely floor plan

with some of those who have lost their housing, according to this article, and are on the streets?

This is EXACTLY what I mean about nothing but middle class issues are important anymore.

You have NO idea the hurt this causes.

Thanks for straightening me out.

I give up.

Kanary, who just can't care anymore

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. Kanary I admit that

being college-educated nudges me into the middle class, but if you think that $25k per year for a family of four makes me middle class, then you are right, this country is really screwed up!

Did you catch my point that I said the land-lord wants to put in low-income housing, and that we cannot afford it? If our trailer burned down tonight *god forbid* we would not be able to buy a new home, not that double-wide or another single-wide. We can barely afford the $200 per month lot rent we have now. And $600 a month for so-called low-income housing is out of our reach.

[Kanary]

9. If I care about you if you are burned out

will you care about me when I'm on the street because of these cuts?

Do you really not see any difference?

I can't believe I'm having to explain this.

As I said, it's time for me to give up.

Enjoy your floorplan.

Kanary

[GreenPartyVoter]

12. Of course I care about people being on the streets

Nowhere in this thread did I say "Screw those guys" or "Hooray for those cuts".

And I will enjoy that floorplan. I know I will never own the actual house, so I will keep on daydreaming with the pictures, feel grateful that I have a roof over my head no matter how crappy it is, and hope to God I always do.

[AP]

20. Geez, no wonder the left can't get its shit together. The guy who lives

in a trailer is being told he can't appreciate the life of the guy who fears getting thrown out of his apartment.

Nice class solidarity there, eh?

Who needs the RW to drive wedges in the left when we drive them ourselves.

[Nay]

24. Really! This is amazing, isn't it, AP???

[sangha]

28. I wouldn't advise seeing this as representative of anything

One participant has a history of singing "Poor, poor, pitiful me"

[AP]

34. Roger that.

[librechik]

33. exactly--if we can't get US to believe that real people with education

etc are still forced to live in trailers, then I don't know what we can do.

Housing has been a SERIOUS SERIOUS problem since the 70s when the rage for "urban renewal" raced across the country removing thousands of old and unwanted cheap housing--Whole neighborhoods that had housed the poor for decades were destroyed and the land taken over by cities for downtown upgrades (i.e, real estate interests, construction, and banks made millions)

Please everybody realize that this is the same heartless corporate war the GOP have been waging on the non-ruling class on so many other fronts. They want to kill the poor and replace them with a nice, obedient (foreign?) serving class in their nice Christian Banana Republic. THEY are the ones who are trying top destroy that stubborn America who insists that the working Joe or Homeless Moe is just as good and equal ast the boss. They want to be the Boss and forget about all that eqiality nonsense.

[Kat45]

7. I saw the other thread and read it. I am concerned but I didn't

post because I don't really have anything to say. I really don't know what the solutions are to the housing problems. I think that cutting funding for housing is very mean-spirited, as is much of what this administration is doing today. I live in the Greater Boston area, which is one of the highest priced housing markets in the country. If my mother didn't have a two-family house in which I could rent my apt, I wouldn't be able to afford an apt anywhere around here. When they talk about building affordable housing anywhere, the neighbors all complain, the town complains, it's tied up for ages, and nothing gets done. And sometimes the definition of "affordable" is anything but.

I wish I had something more interesting to say, some ideas, but at this point, I don't; just wanted you to know that there are people who do care about this issue and consider it an important one.

[GreenPartyVoter]

10. It's not just housing either. They cut back on the HEAP program

heat and electricity assistance program. That made for a very hard couple of winters for some families who depended on those vouchers to make sure they could get fuel oil.

You can't generally count on the fuel businesses to cut you some slack. On the one hand, I understand, they are a business and if they cut slack to too many folks they run in the red. But when my first son was 3 months old my furnace broke down in early March (it was sub zero) and my oil company would not come fix it because we were late on paying a bill. Did not care that I had a newborn in the house and that I could not drive him anywhere warmer.

So we signed up with a new company and they came straightaway and fixed it. Thank God for that!

[Kanary]

11. Thank you, notmyprez......... that means a lot to me, and I appreciate

your reply.

I realize that many people haven't heard about this issue, and don't know what it entails, but I hope you can understand just how demoralizing it is for me to be so isolated by this.

What *EVERYONE* can do is call 1-800-839-5276, ask for the congresscritters of your choice, and keep hounding them on this. They aren't hearing from anyone on this, so they don't think it's at all important.

Please, print out this article, put the above phone number on it, and ask everyone you know to call, and try to drum up some support.

Thank you!

Kanary

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. Will emails get there faster than a call on a weekend??

[GreenPartyVoter]

14. OK, sent an email to all the Maine congress critters in D.C., plus the

Green in Augusta, as he is from Portland, which appears to be one of the areas in our state that is most affected by these cuts.

[GreenPartyVoter]

15. Kanary is right, this thread is sinking like a stone. Please keep it

kicked by signing in to say you have contacted your reps?

(Perhaps the subject line isn't attracting attention?)

[Sugarbleus]

16. Hi ya'll.... I'M VERY CONCERNED!!

While participating in national politics here and elsewhere, I also kept my eye on what this administration was up to and I saw when Bush decided to cut the budget to (or "reconfigure") HUD. It shocked men then; it is scaring the shit out of me now.

That was last year sometime but the hatchet has started to do it's dirty work in our communities...it finally trickled down to become a reality right now, right here. I've talked with Kanary about this in another thread. This is absolutely abominable. People who DO care should write to their representatives to complain. If not for yourselves then do it for your fellow citizens. One day it could be you or a loved one in need of this program.

It's one thing to be barely making it in this society or not having healthcare; it's just too far and too much to ask to take away a program that houses human beings that haven't done anything but find themselves in dire straights.

I completely understand what the one poster here was talking about when mentioning the issue about affordable housing to own. In my community, as in others, there are/were special programs through the county where first time home buyers, and others, could purchase certain properties...sometimes even new properties at a much reduced cost. Here, one of those programs was called measure J and measure O. HOWEVER, my lovelies, when WE went to look into it (some years ago) we were shocked to find we were TOO POOR to buy them. HA How's that for a reality check! We had to settle for renting in the Section 8 voucher program unless and until we hit the lottery.

We've been in the program since 1985. We've moved 4 times *ugh*. We are two disabled people and one grandson. I used to work for Seagate..ya know, they guys that made the harddrives(?) We used to live in nice digs. We both expected to work and then inherit...NOT none of that evolved. Now we're both sick, in pain, poor, and crammed into a dingy little cracker box (though lucky to be housed) and we're being threatened with "downsizing". We got to know the people in Housing. They knew us. We always kept the property clean and improved. We have always been 5 star tenants. Good credit blah blah blah. That doesn't matter anymore. Bush doesn't want to support people with housing needs anymore...or people with health needs either, for that matter. So, the drums are beating and people are freaking out. What the HUD does is start the "agitation" thing; that sorta, kinda, threatening thing that puts one off their security footing. More paper work, more questions, more visits, more picky stuff. PLUS the share of costs are going up. We have managed to secure ourselves for one more year....but I'm not sure about what comes next.

I know that others in and around my community are suffering now. I hear them call into my local liberal radio show to complain and share their anxieties. My husband is sickly enough that he could leave this world in the very near future. I put myself on the waiting list for rental support in case he should die. Well it doesn't look like there will be a list any more for me with this new policy. If hubby should die, I'll be out. We live in fear and anxiety all the freaking time. I don't know whether I should waste a buck on a potted plant for the front porch or buy a cheap pair of curtains for the kitchen window. I can't live like this not knowing if I'm staying or going. I'm middle age + and need a place I can stay til I die.
On that happy note, I'll say better luck to all of you~~Peace

[GreenPartyVoter]

17. Sugarbleus, thanks for telling us about your situation

*hugs*

Keep hoping that with Kerry in office this will get sorted out. In fact, I say we email him and Edwards about this.

Here are their webpages:

http://kerry.senate.gov/bandwidth/contact/email.html

http://edwards.senate.gov/mailform.html

[Avalon Sparks]

18. I think we all care about this issue...

But the problem is - every freaking day since Bush bullied his way into the Whitehouse some new policy, directive or financial cut the administration has supported has appalled me.

I am burned out.

Wen I read stuff like this, it still pisses me off but it's just one more infuriating, short sighted, nasty, EVIL thing Bush* and his neo-con "I got mine" fascists support.

There's so many articles, like this detailing policies that are causing major stress, worries and harm to people, I've been numbed down by the sheer volume of them.

I do what I can, but I'm also quilty of just waiting for the tipping point which should eventually occur.

Additionally, sometimes it seems pointless to contact my Senate and House Reps about anything like this because I am in Texas.

I do tell friends and family about these abominations like this and try to get the word out as much as possible.

[Sugarbleus]

19. Thanks for your kind response... I've bookmarked this page

and I do write my reps. I will give those links a look also...

:hug:s back atcha...

[Avalon Sparks]

21. Good Luck Sugar Bleus...

Don't feel alone.

This adminstration is stressing out a lot of us and making us question what our future holds.

Although my husband and I are comfortably middle class and we just bought a pretty, very nice first house, I worry everyday about losing my job, and losing everything anyway. I too wonder if I should buy a dollar planted pot - or dollar anything a lot of the time.

I used to like to shop a lot - not obsessively, but just for fun.
Not at all anymore really, not with those assholes in office. I guess I know it's stupid to spend any extra money now...

[Sugarbleus]

23. I hear what you're saying....I am a frustrated "shopper" too lol

I do feel for our middle class. I have no ill feelings for anyone who is trying to make a life for themselves; it's the normal pattern of living.

I hear horror stories of medical woes in middle america especially with certain HMO's et al. I hear of people losing their jobs, then their insurances, then maybe their homes and it HAS to be very very stressful. You work very hard to get where you are; you're kinda hanging right out there in the "in between" not enough money to totally relax and have all your needs met, yet too much money to get any assistance from the state in an emergency.

I for sure don't want to see anyone fail. I wish to see all of us be able to live in peace--each to his own ability and in his own way. A roof over all of our heads, enough to eat, adequate healthcare for ourselves and loved ones and, (in my case) a little left over to go "garage saling" lol...

I'll vote with you and for your benefit, Avalon if you'll remember all of us little peapickers down here at the bottom of the totem pole. :hi: ~Peace~

[Kanary]

22. I'm in close to your situation now..

I'm in a situation bad for my health, with an abusive assistant manager to boot (caught him physically abusing an elderly Chinese woman who spoke no English --, and no, before someone confronts me, there is NOTHING that can be done about it).

For a year now I've been battling a very painful, and very frightening eye problem, and am losing vision....... and here I have to worry about being out on the street. What this has done to me I'm not even allowed to post on DU, that's how hideous it all is.

Yet, I either get ignored or criticised on this whole issue. THAT'S THE DEPTHS TO WHICH NOT ONLY THE PARTY, BUT THE HUMAN RACE IN THIS SOCIETY HAS SUNK.

I'm now so hurt and angry that I just don't give a rip anymore. I wasn't going to look back at this becuase I just can't take anymore of the cute little dismissals, but I saw your post, Sugarbleus, and I really understand just what you're saying, because we're both in the same pit, and hardly anybody gives a rip. I'm doing my best to not give some very sharp retorts. I feel like shit that nobody can even understand or CARE what this does to me, and to others.

A thread comes up about wolves being shot in Yellowstone, and immediately there are lots of replies, with people puttingin the crying emoticon. *ANY* thread about gay rights of marriage, and wham....... lots of replies. Yet, there are LOTS of people who will DIE from these housing cuts, and if anyone ever posts anything about it, it sinks like a rock.

All the emails that flew out in a hurry over the "outrage" that F911 might not be shown in as many theaters as people wanted. Wow... what a flurry. All the emails that went out, complaining to Slimfast about Whoopi, for GAWDS SAKE. Like the poor woman is in such danger of extinction. Yet, something like this is posted, and NOT ONE PERSON CAN FIGURE OUT THAT MAYBE CALLS, LETTERS, EMAILA MIGHT BE IN ORDER????? Major disconnect, anyone?????

Yes, I'm pissed.. ......... royally. WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH THIS SHIT????????

Since the days of Vietnam, and my protests with that, I've been a vocal supporter of so many other causes. It all seemed quite related to me........ and, of course, it is. But, if gay folks cannot care and support the people being cut from housing, then to hell with it...... if people crying about wolves cannot care and support people being cut from housing, then to hell with it, and on and on and on.......

THIS IS ALL SO STOOOOOOOOOPID, I CAN'T EVEN BELIEVE i'M HAVING TO POINT OUT THE OBVIOUS.

Kanary, disgusted beyond any hope........

[GreenPartyVoter]

27. Kanary

I hope things can get better for you! I am not sure why you are not allowed to talk about your situation here. That doesn't sound right at all. *hugs*

I also don't know why people are not posting that they have contacted their congressfolk about this. But I am hoping that they are and have just neglected to say that that did.

[The Flaming Red Head]

35. I'm new here and I've already been trolled to death

I keep looking for topical issues on housing, healthcare, the environment, and nutrition programs and they're rarely any threads at all and every time I do speak out I get trolled to hell and back.

I live in a doublewide on my own land and I feel very fortunate to have a place to live at all.

My friends, cousins, and their families live in section 8 housing close to chemical plants in another state and they are constantly on alert because of chemical spills.

I have so many issues that I am interested in and have a very personal stake in and it is very disheartening to get trolled every time I speak out.

Watch how fast they attack me for saying this.

[kimchi]

25. This pisses me off.

It sucks that those who need assistance get cut first. My friend just bought a house and wants to rent to section 8s. He has other houses, and always rents to people who need it most. One house has a family with 5 children that no one wanted to rent to. Another has a new family with poor credit. He is an excellent landlord who keeps his houses in better condition than his own home. He wants to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity. Maybe I can convince him to lobby more locally.

What really sucks is that real estate here is still booming. Sadly, affordable housing is basically nonexistent as it is.

I would be happy to draft a letter to my congresscritters from the safety of my well-heated home. It is the least I can do.

[GreenPartyVoter]

26. Real estate is booming....

but for whom?

In my town, a well-to-do area that finds itself in shock that a trailer park sprouted up in it *lol*, a 70s modular ranch-style house on a scrubby acre of land goes for...... $300,000.

In the less fancy towns, that house would go for half as much, but is still out of reach of the working poor.

Now, out in the middle or north of the state, it would go for $85,000 BUT the reason it's so cheap is that those towns are dying. There is no work to be had. So for the residents of that area, those houses are every bit as out of reach.

Why is the housing market so outrageous in my area? Because well-to-do people in other states with extra money in their pockets swoop in here and buy up all of the real estate. And the realtors, sniffing the possibility of making more money, tell their clients to jack up the prices. Which means all of the area real estate goes up in "value" and the locals are priced right out of the market and left scrambling for whatever they can find.

It isn't right, and something has to be done, or Maine will truly become "Vacationland" for rich out of staters, and colorful local characters will become a distant memory.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

37. You're right on with this post.

That acre of land would cost about $500,000 where I live in the county north of Seattle. I see so much new construction but we're talking $220,000 to start if one wants a house not a condo. One might get a studio condo for $120,000. It's not surprising there are so many people who need subsidized housing.

[GreenPartyVoter]

38. Yeah, it's out of control. It's like we're sliding back into

the dark ages and the feudal system. The rich own too much of everything, and the rest of are us fighting each other for what's left over.

All I want is to buy a few acres of land, build a snug little eco-friendly solar house, and maybe grow a few vegetables each summer. I want self-sufficiency and dignity, you know? I don't see why it's unreasonable for every American to be able to say they have that.

[in_cog_ni_to]

29. I DID contact my congress people.....YESTERDAY....about this.

I was sitting at The Duke of Oil getting my oil changed and picked up the Chicago Trib to read. There was an article on this very subject. It was about a 23 year old Elgin, IL. woman and her 2 young children. They looked to be around 2 and 4 years old. The young lady is in a wheelchair and is a single parent. HUD has made cuts so she and her children will "probably" be out on the street because they can't afford to help pay her rent. Her apartment is wheelchair accessible and THAT is VERY difficult to find! I was SO pissed off about her and her children not having a home, I wanted to scream! I came home and sent out some emails immediately to my congressmen. We do care, at least, I care.

NO U.S. CITIZEN SHOULD EVER, EVER HAVE TO LIVE ON THE STREETS OR GO WITHOUT FOOD, HEALTHCARE, MEDICINE, CLOTHING OR EDUCATION! ever!

Write/call your congress people!!!!

[GreenPartyVoter]

30. NO U.S. CITIZEN SHOULD EVER,

EVER HAVE TO LIVE ON THE STREETS OR GO WITHOUT FOOD, HEALTHCARE, MEDICINE, CLOTHING OR EDUCATION!


Amen to that, and thanks for writing!

[in_cog_ni_to]

31. kick

for some more help on this.

:Kick: Please start writing and calling your congress people!

[librechik]

32. today I heard Kennedy say that there's a $14 B surplus in unemployment

fund--and yet the repukkkes refused the extension.

These people have no hearts.

[GreenPartyVoter]

36. Didn't you know? There are all kinds of new jobs being created.

Unemployment in the USA is a myth, a myth I tell you! *shaking fists above head in RW fashion*

[Sugarbleus]

39. I just dropped in to revisit the issues here... good to see so

many people got interested. I see many other issues were addressed as well.

Thanks American DUer's for your concern and action!! :hugs: