- THA shakeup in late ’80s brought reforms, By Ginnie Graham and Curtis Killman, June 6, 2010, Tulsa World: “THA has had a rocky history with Section 8, reaching a boiling point in the late 1980s with reports of mismanagement and discriminatory selection. In 1988, the nonprofit group Neighbor for Neighbor led the criticism against THA. After several months in a court battle, the group was successful in a lawsuit seeking Section 8 addresses and payments made to landlords. A Tulsa district judge ruled those were public records…”
- ‘Never had a problem’, By Ginnie Graham and Curtis Killman, June 6, 2010, Tulsa World: “Taking a look down the street from her porch, Zandrell Macon said she never planned to live in this neighborhood. The Section 8 tenant, who lives in the 800 block of East 52nd Street North, said she had to transfer her voucher from an earlier Section 8 rental home after problems with roach infestation, conflicts with the owner over making home repairs and being burglarized…”
- Unchecked, By Ginnie Graham and Curtis Killman, June 6, 2010, Tulsa World: “For 79-year-old Juanita Austin, having a Section 8 voucher means she can still afford to live in her home independently. From her manicured and fenced lawn on the 800 block of East 52nd Street North, she points to homes surrounding her property with plywood over windows, tarps over roofs and cars parked in front yards. ‘You see some of those boarded up across the street, and this one next door doesn’t mow the yard,’ Austin said. That house next door, with ‘Blood’ as graffiti on the side fence and weeds growing to mid-calf, did have a Section 8 tenant in December. By April, it was vacant and overgrown.’If you’re Section 8, you have to fix it up a little,’ she said. Regulations set by the U.S. Housing and Development Agency address the condition of the home, which taxpayers subsidize a portion of the rent for low-income families and individuals. However, nothing requires the Tulsa Housing Authority, which administers the program, to do background checks on code violations, taxes owed on the property or the criminal backgrounds of the owners…”
- Annual check-ups, By Ginnie Graham and Curtis Killman, June 7, 2010, Tulsa World: “Bruce Thompson starts the routine with a smile, handshake and a few questions: ‘Who owns the range and fridge?’ ‘Do you pay all your utilities?’ The tenant, Arlene, said she owns a couple of appliances and pays for the utilities. She didn’t want to give her last name in order to protect her family from ridicule, she said. ‘This is a wonderful thing, but people put you in a category when they find out you’re on Section 8,’ she said. ‘You’re stigmatized, and some people are flat-out rude.’ After introductions and initial questions, Thompson starts opening windows, closing and locking doors, flipping switches and eyeballing walls and corners. As the head of inspections for the Tulsa Housing Authority, Thompson goes down the checklist for the annual inspection of a home in the 1500 block of North Oswego Avenue. ‘Ours is more of a visual inspection,’ he said. ‘We don’t climb in attics or pull off (circuit) breaker panels.’ The Tulsa Housing Authority performs move-in and annual inspections on all of its nearly 4,400 Section 8 properties based on standards set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development…”
- Sneaking in, By Ginnie Graham and Curtis Killman, June 7, 2010, Tulsa World: “A murder suspect, two unregistered sex offenders and an armed robber are among people who either were approved as Section 8 tenants or lived with a voucher holder without authorization, a Tulsa World investigation has revealed. The four are among 62 people found by the World who had been arrested since January 2009 in Tulsa County on felony complaints or warrants. The home addresses that all gave to law enforcement officers match those of Section 8 units. Also, five parolees with felony convictions that included drug trafficking and robbery gave addresses that matched Section 8 homes within the past four years, the World’s analysis shows. Tulsa has nearly 4,400 Section 8 voucher holders…”
Tag: Public Housing
State Cuts to Programs for the Poor – Minnesota
- Officials: Public housing would take a hit from Pawlenty’s welfare cuts, By Madeleine Baran, March 3, 2010, Minnesota Public Radio: “After overcoming drug and alcohol addiction two years ago, Gabriella Raspa said her life finally seemed to be headed in the right direction. She was 20, and barely scraping by on $203 a month in welfare payments, but she was getting ready to find a job, and had dreams of going to college to become a journalist. Perhaps most importantly, Raspa said, she had moved into a low-income apartment building in north Minneapolis. She had made friends with other residents, adding that the building was ‘kind of like a dorm, with lots of people my same age. I finally felt like I belonged somewhere.’ But then her welfare benefits abruptly ended. Her doctor said she had sufficiently recovered from her addiction, and was able to work. ‘I kind of freaked out,’ she said. Raspa worried that she would become homeless. She had no income, and didn’t think she’d be able to find a job fast enough to afford her $61 rent payment. Luckily, Raspa said, a caseworker helped her apply for hardship waiver from the public housing authority. The waiver allowed Raspa to stay in her apartment, rent free, until she found a job…”
- Plan offered to break impasse on health care, By Warren Wolfe and Mike Kaszuba, March 2, 2010, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Republican legislative leaders said late Tuesday they have produced a plan to break the impasse over providing health insurance for the state’s poorest and sickest residents. But DFLers and Republicans would not immediately disclose details as they began to analyze its implications. ‘We need more time to think,’ said Sen. Linda Berglin, DFL-Minneapolis, as she emerged Tuesday night from the second of two closed-door sessions in the governor’s office. Berglin, who chairs a key Senate committee, said details could be made public as early as Wednesday and insisted that any plan be subject to a public hearing…”
Public Housing Proposals – Hawaii
Hawaii tackles unpaid rents, By Mary Vorsino, February 11, 2010, Honolulu Advertiser: “Incoming public housing tenants could be subject to credit checks and visits to their current home under proposals meant to better screen applicants and cut down on delinquent renters. The planned changes are troubling some advocates, who say making it harder for low-income people to get into public housing will only worsen the housing crisis. But public housing officials say the changes are meant to decrease the number of tenants who fail to pay or who damage units, spurring costly repairs that add up quickly. And they point out that other public housing authorities already take similar steps. In December, more than 20 percent of the thousands of households in public housing were behind on their rent, with the Hawai’i Public Housing Authority owed as much as $1 million. The planned screening measures are part of other proposed changes to decrease rent delinquency in public housing, including speeding up evictions, and come as the agency attempts to tackle an aging public housing inventory, deal with budget shortfalls and catch up on tens of millions of dollars in backlogged repairs…”