Here's an insight into Section 8 housing. Who benefits?
POOR HOUSING SKIRTS SCRUTINY, FIRM'S FRAYING SECTION 8 APARTMENTS GET SCANT ATTENTION
Shareholders were already reaping soaring returns from a Colorado real estate company in 1997 when executives gambled on a trendy investment opportunity: housing the poor.
During the next few years, Denver-based AIMCO acquired thousands of government-subsidized apartments, including Vantage 78 in east Charlotte's Grier Heights neighborhood.
Now the company is the largest player in Charlotte's Section 8 housing program, collecting $2.2 million since 2004 -...
http://nl.newsbank.com/...
Public housing became privatized, for profit housing for the poor, in short. But Reagan cut it by 80%.
Section 8 Voucher Programs were initiated when the large public housing complexes known as "The Projects" were disbanded. The low-income tenant pays a nominal fee determined by HUD, and HUD pays the landlord the balance.
Did Obama inherit a Section 8 housing budget shortfall?
In 2008, the Center on Budget Policies submitted a bleak picture for Section 8 and low income housing based on Bush's low ball budget for the programs.
To prevent losses of housing assistance to low-income families and communities, Congress would have to provide $6.5 billion more than the President’s 2009 request for HUD, for two main reasons.
In each of the last several years, Congress has used roughly $2 billion in recaptured funds from earlier years to help finance HUD programs. Such funds will not be available in 2009.
The President’s budget fails to provide funding increases in HUD’s three main rental assistance programs needed to sustain assistance for the low-income families now being served:
To renew all Housing Choice vouchers in use, an increase of $868 million is needed in 2009 (or $1.3 billion above the President’s level, which would eliminate vouchers for at least 100,000 families).
The Public Housing Operating Fund requires $920 million above the 2008 level (and $820 million above the President’s budget) to prevent the deterioration (and ultimate loss) of affordable units.
The budget also fails to address adequately a one-time, multi-billion-dollar shortfall in the Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance program, which risks the loss of thousands of affordable apartments for some of the nation’s most vulnerable families.
http://www.cbpp.org/...
You can see how much was slated to be cut for each state here:
http://www.nationalpriorities.org/...
For instance, Georgia's (the location of the sad scene we saw this week) was slated to be cut by $9,847,000.
For an excellent history of Federal subsidies for low-income housing, I highly recommend this site:
July/August 1997
A Withering Commitment
By Rachel G. Bratt
http://www.nhi.org/...
According to Bratt's article, the Federal government "has never had a strong commitment to housing for low-income Americans." And, in 1997, 1.5 families were receiving housing assistance.
Apparently, and no surprise to anyone here, Reagan's administration reduced assistance by 80%.
Again, quoting her article:
a 1989 publication of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Low Income Housing Information Service, A Place to Call Home, noted that the Congressional Budget Office found,
"Appropriations for HUD's subsidized housing programs have fallen from a peak of $32.2 billion in fiscal year 1978 to $9.8 billion in fiscal year 1988.
After adjusting for inflation, this constitutes a decline of more than 80 percent."
The report also pointed out that the number of additional low-income households assisted each year fell sharply during the 1980s.
http://www.nhi.org/...
In 1996, the Clinton Administration addressed the problem. From what I read, the push was more about making low-income people into homeowners. It was named The National Homeownership Strategy. Well, that didn't work out all that well, but a lot of people made a fortune in the process, as in developers, builders, etc.
It also includes funding for homelessness. So I guess homelessness was/is an acceptable issue for Americans down on their luck, as in jobless.
I'll let you read this report and determine your own opinion. Here is the part of the report that addresses Section 8 housing:
CLINTON PROPOSES FY 1997 HOUSING BUDGET:
SEEKS FUNDS TO CARRY OUT REINVENTION OF HUD;
ASKS CONGRESS TO RESTORE FUNDS CUT LAST YEAR
.....Since the early 1970's, the Section 8 rental assistance program has been HUD's most effective and efficient tool for providing affordable housing opportunity. Despite the fact that more than 5.3 million households in 1993 either paid more than 50 percent of their income for rent or lived in substandard housing, the FY 1995 rescissions and the FY 1996 appropriations bills broke from a 20 year bipartisan commitment to support incremental Section 8 rental assistance.
For FY 1997, HUD proposes to reverse this new trend, allocating funds for 50,000 housing certificates, with at least 30,000 targeted to assist new households. In addition, the Department requests $4.26 billion for renewal of expiring Section 8 contracts and $800 million for amendments to existing Section 8 contracts.
http://archives.hud.gov/...
America.
Who are we?
What are our collective values?
What has been done to make housing affordable as wages have been flat for decades and housing costs have soared?
What's next?
Are we to become nomadic society living in campers, traveling from one location to find a few weeks/months of income?
Or perhaps the world leaders can come up with some form of traveling vouchers, so we can ship our family members here and/or there around the world for a chance to make some income?
Like other countries with depressed labor markets, will our children face having to sell their children to others as indentured labor or sex slaves in order to avoid dying from hunger?