0 HUD--the Homelessness Creation Agency?

My good faith gets shaken on a regular basis, and when it involves the US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, aka HUD, it really flaps wildly. What I'm yammering about is a policy that leaves a formerly homeless family damned if they do, damned if they don't.

Tina, the courageous mother I've written about over the past couple years, and her 6 young boys, live in a modest house trailer in Las Cruces, NM. First I blogged about the family's bleak situation after I found them living in a 13' beater-camper-trailer--mom and her 5 baby boys. Stimulus money came about, giving communities funds to help move families like Tina's into housing. Then  I blogged about the difficulties finding a landlord to rent to this large family. She finally found the landlord with the trailer. But...

Her next struggle came transferring into Section 8 (subsidized housing), not because she wasn't in need or qualified (she got through the eye-of-the-needle exam at the HUD-regulated public housing authority), but because...she has bad credit. Yup. Bad credit.

In her previous married life, she incurred a penalty of about $5,200 for unreported income with the public housing authority. She was in the process of getting her then-husband reinstated on the lease (he apparently talked her into it after putting her in the hospital), and Tina's brother moved in before being okayed by the PHA. Tina and her kids left her abusive ex, but now she gets saddled with that past debt--a barrier to keep her and the kids from qualifying for public housing.

Hubby (now ex), 1/2 the gene pool, apparently doesn't have to assume his share of this debt. Mom and kids struggle mightily, comply with copious regulations, scrimp and scrape to keep together and out of the shredded child welfare "system," and she's got to pay the whole $5,200. It gets worse.

HEAR US negotiated a payment plan and found donors to help pay off the debt, Tina and her boys got their Section 8 certificate allowing them to stay in their humble trailer. Then, the Las Cruces housing authority diligently does an income review and finds, gasp, that $180 a month is being paid on the prior debt by HEAR US so Tina and the kids wouldn't be homeless. According to HUD regulations, they need to factor in this money--that Tina never touches--into her income, more than doubling her rent.

Tina protests, attends a hearing and is shot down. I write to the old HA and ha-ha. They shoot me down, claiming HUD regulations. So now, after all this time--mid-2010 till now--Tina, saddled with the care of her 6 little boys (try to get a job under her conditions), has no way to increase her income enough to pay the increased rent that HUD says she needs to pay because she's lucky enough to have someone paying her past debt with the old HA so she and her 6 boys won't be homeless in Las Cruces.

How's that for stupid? Now, without being able to pay the money both housing authorities are demanding, this family teeters on the precipice of homelessness in a city that has no emergency shelter for families. So then, for want of about a $2,000 balance on the past debt and $100 a month on the current housing, this family will get churned up in the same system that found it in its heart to bail out rich bankers, hedge fund traders, and the rest of the sleazy bums.

The ex--father of 4 of her children--may get stuck with half the debt in a pending divorce agreement. But HUD will factor that into Tina's rent, raising it further. This gets dumber and dumber as I type. 

HEAR US will again try to collect money to help Tina and the kids, fighting for a change of policies in the meantime. It feels really sleazy sending money to a housing authority that's making life this hard on her, but she has no option--other than the unacceptable one of homelessness. If you want to donate, here's the secure link. It's tax-deductible. We don't take a penny and it all goes directly to pay that stupid debt.

My delirious hope out of all this...that we get to a point where HUD agrees to "do no harm" for Tina, and for scores of other housing-vulnerable decent human beings in this country--that would be the majority of us. Sigh.

Detail: HUD--the Homelessness Creation Agency?

0 What Do We Expect?

My plan to sit down in my 87 degree motor home and complain about the heat was disrupted by a brief email from a friend here in Naperville, an Illinois city ranked as one of the nation's most family-friendly cities.

diane, there's brief video news clip  at this link showing i heard like 2400 or 24000? people nearly rioting in line for public housing applications in georgia yesterday.if you get permission, use a clip of this as part of documentary as it walloped me as to how serious america is underwater

In just that brief moment I was connected to thousands of desperate people in the Atlanta area, and the invisible millions across the country.

In Atlanta right now, 9:00 p.m., it's 93 steaming freaking hot degrees. I join most people who grumble mightily when it's hot, cold, windy, foggy...you get the idea. People standing on a hot asphalt parking lot for hours or days...now that's something to complain about.

Let's get one thing out of the way right now. For those who use this as an opportunity to paint the pushing and shoving during this application distribution with an ugly black racial brush, let's just use our vivid imaginations and picture any race and/or class of people desperate for what is going to be given away (much less a CHANCE to get a vital housing certificate that would greatly relieve your housing cost burden and perhaps improve the environment you and your family live in), set you for hours or days on a brutally broiling parking lot in an extremely overcrowded and unorganized setting, hmmm....wonder what would happen?

We all get a little crazy when forced to stand in line for 5 minutes in an air conditioned McDonald's! What if it could mean something better for our families? People tough it out. Incredibly, over 75% of the entire population of this beleaguered town of about 40,000 may have gathered for this event.

Section 8 certificates are like gold for the ever-growing income challenged population in our previously wealthy country. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development oversees the Section 8 program on the broad level. Local housing authorities deliver on the community levels, with citizen board members appointed/elected to supposedly oversee the process.

I'm sure I would get boo's from the crowd (that are probably too poor to have Internet and read blogs) by asking if this is a well-run public housing authority. Most PHAs I've encountered are infuriatingly abysmal, and I'm not depending on them for my housing. Another story for another post.

The fact that the applications for vouchers haven't been made available for 8 years in this income-ravaged area, well, I'd suppose things could be a tad, um, insanely difficult in many households, not to mention the homeless families. Remember, these applications are just the 1st step. They have to be reviewed and applicants must be able to crawl through the eye of a needle to qualify. Even people with bad credit are winnowed out. When my friend said "America is underwater," she ain't kidding.

So much galls me about this display of blatant disregard for the "customers" of this tax-payer funded housing service organization that I am, well, hot. To hear the head of the EPHA say she thinks they did a good job considering...well, I'd have her head on a platter, or at least make her stand in the heat among a riotous crowd for a few days if I were the mayor. To that point, here's the city of East Point's official form for reporting problems. If you're as outraged as I am about how our sisters and brothers were treated in this process, take a few moments and share your feedback with Mayor Earnestine Pittman. Ask her to go up the food chain to Congressman Lewis and find out how to get more housing certificates.

Seems to me that if we have this wonderful (sometimes) tool called the Internet, we could do a better job making it work for the good of people. Writing this post, with my sweaty fingers sticking to the keyboard and perspiration cascading down my face has been good therapy. Next month when I'm in the Atlanta area, I might just see if I can meet with East Point's mayor and the EPHA director. I want to hear their secret for staying  cool in these hot times.

Detail: What Do We Expect?