- New system aims to give Section 8 voucher holders access to more neighborhoods, By Kate Giammarise, March 12, 2018, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “A new payment system, set to start April 1, could allow Section 8 voucher holders to live in more parts of Pittsburgh — neighborhoods they might currently find themselves priced out of, ones with access to good schools, transportation and jobs…”
- Pittsburgh Housing Authority will ask HUD to delay Section 8 changes, By Kate Giammarise, March 14, 2018, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Housing officials in Pittsburgh will ask the federal government to allow them to not implement a new payment system — that had been set to take effect April 1 — that aims to give greater neighborhood choice to Section 8 voucher holders. Following pushback at two public hearings Tuesday, the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh will request a waiver from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to give officials more time to develop a methodology to give voucher holders more choices about where to live…”
Category: Homelessness and Housing
Housing Discrimination – Washington
Lawmakers move to protect Section 8 recipients, homeless veterans, others on aid, By Ahmed Namatalla (AP), March 6, 2018, Kitsap Sun: “Mindy Woods fought her way out of homelessness. It’s a success story state lawmakers and advocacy groups are trying to replicate by targeting perhaps the biggest challenge faced by the homeless: rejection. Woods, 52, slept on friends’ couches for eight months and had eight property owners turn her down before she found a landlord willing to accept her Section 8 voucher, a federal subsidy that helps low-income people pay their rent…”
Racial Inequality and Discrimination
- Modern redlining: Racial disparities in lending persist in Dayton, By Katie Wedell, February 24, 2018, Dayton Daily News: “Dayton is one of 61 metro areas in the U.S. where minorities are denied mortgage loans at higher rates than their white counterparts — a modern-day system of redlining that keeps minority neighborhoods from recovery, officials say…”
- Report: No progress for African Americans on homeownership, unemployment and incarceration in 50 years, By Tracy Jan, February 26, 2018, Washington Post: “Convened to examine the causes of civil unrest in black communities, the presidential commission issued a 1968 report with a stark conclusion: America was moving toward two societies, ‘one black, one white — separate and unequal.’ Fifty years after the historic Kerner Commission identified ‘white racism’ as the key cause of ‘pervasive discrimination in employment, education and housing,’ there has been no progress in how African Americans fare in comparison to whites when it comes to homeownership, unemployment and incarceration, according to a report released Monday by the Economic Policy Institute…”