Section 8 Housing Faces Continued Threat

Over the last several months housing authorities around the country have had to make life harder for their low-income clients.

The New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority cut aid, forcing people to pay more in rent.

Executive Director Dean Christon doesn’t like to squeeze people who on average make under $15,000 a year.

But he says that’s better than the alternative.

12:32 obviously it puts increased burden on those households, but it’s an option that is short of obviously terminating assistance.

Terminating assistance is a polite way of saying pushing people off the program.

The only reason that option’s on the table for some agencies is because Congressional funding didn’t fully cover Section 8 costs this year.

To deal with the shortfall, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, is tapping money set aside for emergencies to pump $130 million more dollars into the program.

But Doug Rice of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities doubts that will go far enough.

TAPE: many local programs will be assisting fewer families at the end of this year...during one of the deepest Recessions in decades, the program really ought to be assisting more people, not fewer.

Dick Dunfey directs the Manchester, New Hampshire Housing Authority.

He says while his deficit is a huge concern, that’s not what keeps him up at night.

24:!5 in 2001 I recall going over to City Hall and reporting that we had 1900 families on our waiting list. Currently we have over 10,000.

I ask Dunfey how long someone towards the back of the line has to wait.

1:30...your household may well be looking at an indefinite wait...what does that mean ‘an indefinite wait?’...well it means we don’t know when, if ever, we are going to be able to assist you.

Manchester isn’t alone.

Just listen to these numbers from some housing authorities.

In Houston, 19,000 people are on a waitlist that could take up to 3 years.

In Washington D.C. there’s an 8 year wait for the 28,000 families in line.

The number of people on the Section 8 waitlist with the New York City Housing Authority: 127,825.

Sfx: Cheri and Sam talking to each other

Back in New Hampshire Cheri Salie has been on the Section 8 waitlist for over three years.

3:56...when I signed up, my daughter was walking now she’s not...needing their help so badly and there is no funding available.

Salie’s facing simultaneous emergencies.

She is going through a divorce and won’t be able to afford her place anymore.

But even if she could, she wants to move because of her daughter’s deteriorating condition.

Sam’s got what’s called FOP, where bone grows over her muscles and joints, restricting her ability to move.

The 16 year old, who weighs 67 pounds, gets around in an electric wheelchair, and depends on an array of machines to keep her alive.

This spring doctors said she has 24 months left.

It takes Salie an hour- with all that equipment- to get Sam outside....that includes Salie cradling her daughter as they go down three flights of stairs, a nurse trailing with Sam’s life support system in her arms.

All that means the teenager gets outside about once a month.

TAPE: What do you want Sam? What do you want to see happen here....to be able to live on the first floor, make new friends, hang out with my mom and dad and be able to play outside.

Sam’s prognosis jumps the Salie’s to the front of the Section 8 waitlist, but still no voucher is on the horizon.

So, once the divorce is final, Salie will try to find a place she can afford out of the $1200 a month she gets from welfare and disability.

TAPE: we’re trying living every day trying to figure out how to grow it faster.

HUD’s Assistant Secretary Sandra Henriquez says she would love to be able to shower vouchers on the Salie’s and all the other families who need help.

But right now she says the Department’s first priority is to ensure no one loses their voucher due to the shortfall.

She says she’s confident by year’s end housing authorities will serve the same if not more people than in 2008.

But realistically, Henriquez says those waitlists won’t be getting shorter anytime soon.

For NHPR News, I’m Dan Gorenstein.