- Housing aid plan set, By Brittany Hutson, July 1, 2010, Wall Street Journal: “New York and federal housing authorities have come up with a plan to allow the city to make good on its promise to provide subsidized housing to thousands of low-income New Yorkers. ‘We’ve created a plan to ensure that everybody that has a voucher today will continue to have a voucher,’ said Rafael Cestero, the city’s Housing Preservation and Development commissioner. In December, 2,500 families that had been approved to receive assistance from the city’s Housing Choice Voucher Program, also known as Section 8, were told that their vouchers wouldn’t be honored because the New York City Housing Authority exceeded its annual allotment of 99, 951 vouchers. Since then, hundreds of families that lost vouchers have been evicted or face eviction and dozens have entered city homeless shelters, according to Judith Goldiner, an attorney at the Legal Aid Society, which provides legal representation to Section 8 and public housing tenants…”
- Deal restores public housing subsidies, By Cara Buckley, June 30, 2010, New York Times: “A brewing housing crisis that could have resulted in thousands of struggling families losing their rental subsidies has been averted, officials said, thanks to an intricate $32 million plan devised by city and state agencies that received federal approval on Wednesday. Under the plan, the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development will basically rescue the city’s public housing authority by taking responsibility for financing thousands of rental subsidy vouchers. The rental subsidies, meted out under a program called Section 8, enable recipients to put 30 percent of their income toward rent at private apartments while vouchers pay for the rest. The city’s public housing agency, the New York City Housing Authority, administers about 100,000 of the vouchers with money provided by the federal government…”
Day: July 1, 2010
Jobless Benefits Extension
1.3 million unemployed won’t get benefits restored soon, By Stephen Ohlemacher (AP), July 1, 2010, Detroit News: “More than 1.3 million laid-off workers won’t get their unemployment benefits reinstated before Congress goes on a weeklong vacation for Independence Day. An additional 200,000 people who have been without a job for at least six months stand to lose their benefits each week, unless Congress acts. For the third time in as many weeks, Republicans in the Senate successfully filibustered a bill Wednesday night that would have continued unemployment checks to people who have been laid off for long stretches. The House is slated to vote on a similar measure Thursday, though the Senate’s action renders the vote a futile gesture as Congress prepares to depart Washington for its holiday recess. A little more than 1.3 million people have already lost benefits since the last extension ran out at the end of May…”
Poverty and Academic Achievement – Tennessee
Poverty trumps education gains, By Jane Roberts, July 1, 2010, Memphis Commercial Appeal: “Tennessee has made the most gains of any state in high school graduation rates, jumping 13 percentage points between 2002 and 2007. The state also is making measurable gains against other key education benchmarks. State ACT scores have increased from 19.9 in 1999 to 20.6 in 2009. Standards for school principals make the state a regional leader, and new high school graduates in Tennessee are enrolling in college at a higher rate than their U.S. peers. But the increasing number of children growing up in poverty threatens improvements, according to a Challenge to Lead report released Wednesday by the Southern Regional Education Board. In 2009, 55 percent of Tennessee youngsters came from homes where family incomes made them eligible for free school lunches (up to $40,793 for a family of four), a 14 percent increase in 10 years…”