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October 21, 2004

Activists protest Section 8 changes

Jeremy Schwab

President George W. Bush intends to slash funding for the Section 8 low-income residential voucher program one way or another, say housing activists.

In his fiscal 2005 budget proposal, Bush recommends cutting the program’s budget by over $800 million.

While Congress reportedly refused to pass similarly deep cuts last year, and the fate of the proposed cuts is uncertain, the Bush administration is exploring other ways to reduce the cost of the Section 8 program.

Most recently, the administration changed the funding formula so that vouchers in some urban areas are worth less.

Before October 1, Section 8 vouchers for tenants moving into two-bedroom apartments in Boston were worth $1,419. Now they are worth just $1,266. Similarly steep drops took effect for vouchers for three- and four-bedroom apartments.

While the vouchers held by existing tenants will not drop to the lower funding levels until the second time the tenants’ leases come up — meaning from one to two years from now — the change has activists worried.

“We consider that a pretty significant drop in rent levels when we know rents have not dropped in Boston that much over the past year,” said Aaron Gornstein, executive director of the Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association. “We are going to be challenging their methodology. Landlords may decide they are not going to accept that rent level. And if they don’t think tenants can afford a higher rent, so it is riskier to rent to that tenant, they may not participate in the program.”

A spokeswoman for HUD said that her agency determined the new voucher values using updated 2000 census data, as required by law. However, housing activists charged that HUD artificially deflated voucher values.

Originally, HUD administrators planned to re-draw the map that groups cities and towns together to determine Fair Market Rents, which in turn determine voucher values.

Instead of grouping Boston with more affluent suburbs in Middlesex County, as has been the case for years, HUD administrators decided to group Boston with less affluent suburbs in Plymouth and Norfolk counties.

This shift dramatically reduced the fair market rents for Boston. Housing activists, seeing the move as an attempt by HUD to cut costs at the expense of tenants, protested vigorously.

Opponents of the change held a rally in front of West End Place in downtown Boston October 9.

Chanting revamped nursery rhymes making fun of HUD chief Alphonse Jackson and other slogans such as, “Tax, tax, tax the rich/ Pay for what we need/security begins at home/our housing, not their greed,” demonstrators, organized by the Massachusetts Alliance of HUD Tenants and eight other groups hoped to drive in their point.

Bowing to the fierce opposition, HUD reverted to the old map grouping Boston with more affluent suburbs in Middlesex County.

However, HUD decided to keep its calculations of voucher values made using the map that lumped Boston with poorer areas.

A HUD spokeswoman indicated the agency is more likely to conduct a survey that matches the map being used if people protest.

“It would make sense to do another one, based on the geography in place,” said the spokeswoman, Kristine Foye. “Right now it is under consideration to do another one. I would only say that it would be more likely we’d do it if we get feedback. Right now these decisions are being made down in Washington.”

HUD is currently soliciting comments on the change. Other administrative changes to Section 8 in recent months have, like the recent voucher value shift, thrown tenants and activists for a loop.

In April, Congress reportedly froze Section 8 funding levels for housing agencies across the country.

An estimated 2,000 or more low-income tenants, government officials and representatives of housing agencies poured into a Massachusetts State House hearing room to oppose the funding freeze.

Following the hearing, funding was temporarily restored, averting what advocates feared would be the elimination of 2,000 Section 8 tenants from the voucher program.

However, the temporary restoration did not fix the long-term problem. Section 8 funding levels, which for years were adjusted every three months based on housing agencies’ needs, remain frozen at the August, 2003 amount. If costs go up, say housing advocates, agencies will have to cut the number of vouchers they dispense or the value of those vouchers.

Activists say the Bush administration’s push to reduce Section 8 is a sign of the administration’s disregard for poor people.

“I think it is really indicative of their complete disregard for low-income people,” said Pat Coleman, a tenant organizer at the Massachusetts Alliance of HUD Tenants.

Members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation have been fighting Bush’s proposed Section 8 budget cuts. Congressman Michael Capuano, who represents the 8th Congressional District warned that the proposed cuts are just the tip of the iceberg.

“This is during an election year he’s doing it,” said Capuano. “It will be 10 times worse if he gets re-elected.”

 

 

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