Fresno again issues Section 8 housing vouchers, By BoNhia Lee, August 28, 2010, Fresno Bee: “For the first time in more than a year, the Fresno housing authority is handing out Section 8 rental vouchers — giving hundreds of families a long-awaited opportunity to afford a place to live. About 500 families are expected to receive the vouchers in coming months, the authority says. All of those families have been on a waiting list since 2008. That’s a small percentage of those who need a voucher: 22,220 families are on the waiting list. But it represents an unexpected bit of good news for a program that has faced overwhelming demand and funding shortfalls. In other cities, the wait for vouchers is even longer, said Donna White, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban and Development…”
Tag: Section 8
Section 8 Housing – New York City
- 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…”
US Strategy on Homelessness
- Administration broadens effort to fight homelessness, By Henri E. Cauvin, June 23, 2010, Washington Post: “The Obama administration released a strategy Tuesday to end homelessness by expanding programs to secure housing for veterans and families with young children and by building on efforts to help chronically homeless people. With the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq highlighting the needs of veterans and the economic crisis straining more families, the administration’s plan widens the role envisioned for the federal government in curbing and ending homelessness. It does not commit additional federal money on top of the billions of dollars already budgeted by the various agencies involved in reducing and preventing homelessness. Instead, the 67-page strategy, drafted by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness and unveiled Tuesday, details several smaller projects intended to spur collaboration among federal agencies and with local and state governments…”
- Obama builds on Bush success to help the homeless, Editorial, June 22, 2010, Christian Science Monitor: “To see what’s happening with the homeless population in America today, consider the following ’30s.’ In the last three years, during the great recession, the number of people who are considered to be chronically homeless has decreased by 30 percent. Over the same time period, the number of homeless families who are temporarily living in shelters has increased by 30 percent, according to a report last week by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The opposite trends show how far America has come in trying to solve homelessness, and where it needs to redouble its efforts. The Obama administration is attempting that extra effort with a national plan to eliminate homelessness. The plan, required by Congress, seeks to end chronic and veterans homelessness in five years – 10 years for families, youth, and children…”