If the same money had been spent on mortgage subsidies this might not be a problem
Quote of note:
While the exact effect is hard to calculate, the funding change means longer waiting lists for vouchers and fewer choices for families looking to escape poorer neighborhoods.
Of course. That's what it always means.
HUD cuts trickle down
Residents using rent vouchers across area may have to move--soon--due to funding reductions
By William Grady and Li Fellers
Tribune staff reporters
Published July 23, 2004
Lemika Early, a single mother living with two children near downtown Elgin in a first-floor apartment that accommodates her wheelchair, is about to become a casualty of the battle over rising federal budget deficits.
In an effort to curtail costs, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development made funding changes this spring that have forced cutbacks in the nation's largest housing-assistance program for low-income people. In turn, there's been a tightening of the financial screws on public housing authorities throughout the U.S.
One result is that Early, 23, and her young sons could be forced to leave their home at the end of the month because the Housing Authority of Elgin does not have enough money to help pay her $1,050-a-month rent.
Like dozens of other agencies across the country, the Elgin housing authority is scrambling to patch its budget after Congress and HUD opted to change the way the housing choice voucher program, formerly known as Section 8, is funded. The change could cost Elgin nearly $2 million this year, said Sandra Freeman, the authority's executive director.
Other Illinois housing authorities say they could lose hundreds of thousands of dollars, and some are considering cutoffs or reductions in rental assistance for hundreds of families.
