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April 22, 2004
Section 8 crisis brings hundreds
to packed State House hearing
Yawu Miller
Dee Lobo says she has no idea what she would do
without her Section 8 voucher. The mother of three doesn’t
earn enough from her job as a claims processsor for Blue Cross/Blue
Shield to pay her rent and expenses.
But like thousands of other Massachusetts residents who receive
their vouchers from the state, Lobo was forced to contemplate
a future without her voucher after she received a letter last
week informing her that her voucher could be withdrawn.
“I haven’t even been able to think about it,”
she said. “I don’t have any family to live with. I’m
sure my landlord would put me out if I didn’t pay the rent,
but if I did, there’s no way I could pay for day care and
transportation.”
Thursday, Lobo put aside the calculus of survival and joined a
crowd of affordable housing advocates estimated at 2,000 who attempted
to attend a State House hearing on the Department of Housing and
Community Development funding shortfall that threatens to remove
up to 2,700 people from the Section 8 voucher program.
The department’s move came after HUD notified DHCD of a
$3.1 million shortfall in the funding that normally goes to the
agency’s 18,432 rental subsidies.
Governor Mitt Romney last week sent a letter to HUD Secretary
Alphonse Jackson criticizing the funding cut.
While DHCD officials say HUD has reversed its estimates and will
supply the missing funding, housing advocates say the crisis is
far from over.
“All housing agencies will get similar notices from HUD
shortly,” noted Michael Kane, executive director of the
Massachusetts HUD Tenant Alliance. “This is just the tip
of the iceberg.”
DHCD is just one of several agencies that contract with HUD to
distribute Section 8 vouchers. Others in Boston include the Metro
Boston Housing Partnership and the Boston Housing Authority. Section
8 Vouchers, funded by HUD, provide holders with a subsidy that
allows them to pay no more than one-third their income on rent.
Since President Bush took office, HUD officials have been floating
plans to make cuts to the program — the most expensive HUD
administers. The funding cuts come as a result of a HUD decision
to fund voucher providing agencies based on the average 2003 costs
for such programs.
HUD’s new funding formula leaves housing markets like Boston
— where rents are higher than average — at a marked
disadvantage. While Romney was able to step in and restore most
of the funding HUD cut from the DHCD, it is uncertain whether
the BHA and MBHP would have similar luck in dealing with the federal
agency.
Kane estimates that when housing authorities across the nation
recieve similar notices as many as 60,000 people could lose their
vouchers.
If last Thursday’s State House hearing is any indication,
however, such moves could have considerable political ramifications.
Gardner Auditorium, which seats hundreds, was filled to capacity.
An overflow crowd filled the main staircase on the second floor
and hundreds of activists and voucher holders massed outside the
State House for more than three hours waiting to be allowed through
the metal detectors that guard the building’s two entrances.
“This is the largest turnout for a hearing in the State
House that I’ve ever seen,” Kane said.
Inside the auditorium, Congressman Barney Frank urged state officials
to reject HUD’s directives to pare down the Section 8 program.
“What HUD is asking our state to do is morally unacceptible,”
said Frank, noting that the Bush administration is raising the
Department of Defense budget while cutting housing.
Congressman Bill Delahunt, who represents Southeastern Massachusetts,
noted that while HUD has funded the construction of 5,000 housing
units in the last year, the United States has funded the construction
of 25,000 homes in Iraq.
Delahunt and other members of the Massachusetts delegation to
Congress fired off a letter to Hud Secretary Jackson last week
urging him not to change the funding formula.
“We strongly urge you to implement the voucher renewal formula
in such a way that will avoid cutting off housing assistance for
thousands of low-income families in Massachusetts and throughout
the nation,” the letter reads.
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