Street Roots:

Section 8 crisis in the U.S.: Save 100s of families from homelessness!

Take a good look at these faces. They are the faces of a family right before they become homeless! (Photo by Ken Hawkins, Street Roots)

The following organizations are calling on President Obama, HUD Secretary Donovan, and Congress to provide housing authorities with an immediate infusion of funding in the current fiscal year, to ensure that every current Section 8 tenant is able to keep their voucher.

Oregon ON, Washington State Low-Income Housing Alliance, Street Roots, Real Change, Columbia County Citizens for Human Dignity, Columbia River Business Alliance, Sisters Of The Road, Rural Organizing Project, Tillamook County Citizens for Human Dignity, Columbia Pacific Alliance for Social Justice, Latinos Unidos para un Futuro Mejor, Western Regional Advocacy Project, National Coalition for the Homeless, Rev. Chuck Currie, Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco, LA Community Action Network, San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness/Street Sheet, Building Opportunities for Self Suffiency, International Network of Street Papers, Free United Homeless Coalition, CHAM Deliverance Ministry of San Jose, Oregon Coalition on Housing and Homelessness, National Policy and Advocacy Council on Homelessness, Northwest Pilot Project, Neah CASA, Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless

Read more about the crisis in Oregon.

The letter, Street Roots

Cuts mean rude awakening, The Daily Astorian

Read Senator Wyden's letter to HUD.

Read Senator Merkley's letter to HUD.

Homeless by bureaucracy

If your organization would like to sign on to this letter please e-mail streetroots@hotmail.com

November 21, 2009

Subject:

Dear Mr. President, Congress, and HUD,

The Northwest Oregon Housing Authority, which distributed their Section 8 vouchers, said this termination was necessary because of a lack of adequate funding from the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD.

HUD’s 2009 funding formula is shortchanging housing authorities that have been pushed beyond their means by economic instability, rising rental costs and a growing number of impoverished families.

This is not an isolated case.

Walla Walla Housing Authority in Washington is reporting that it may have to cut up to 150 recipients because of a shortage in HUD funding.

The Brevard Family of Housing Authorities in Florida is reporting that it might have to cut 200 to 250 families from the Section 8 program because of the funding shortfall.

And in testimony before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity on June 4, Tony Bazzie, executive director of the Raleigh County Housing Authority in Beckley, W. Va., said that his agency is faced with possibly cutting 156 families from the program for the remainder of 2009, starting next month. In his testimony before the subcommittee, Bazzie says:

“There is a serious situation currently facing a large number of housing authorities in that Net Restricted Assets, which can be used to cover increasing HAP (housing assistance program) costs, are dwindling and will disappear altogether prior to the end of this calendar year. As a result, my agency and hundreds of others will have no choice but to reduce the number of families it serves because our HAP expenses exceed the amount of HAP dollars provided monthly by HUD. …The fact that the voucher renewal funding formula then requires HUD to use the new leasing numbers to determine how much we'll receive in HAP funding the following year results in a continually downward spiraling of families that can be served.”

In a matter of weeks, families will be discarded from the program, many facing nothing short of homelessness. They cannot wait. Emergency action is called for.

We are asking the President, HUD Secretary Donovan, and Congress to provide housing authorities with an immediate infusion of funding in the current fiscal year, to ensure that every current Section 8 tenant is able to keep their voucher.

Sincerely,

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