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1. Is there a waiting list for Section 8? Last I heard there was a waiting list for local rent assistance, so I wonder if this is now also true of HUD?
2. Fair market for these units then (late 70s) was $365 month, but the city allowed $395. I think city paid $330 for each unit, tenant paid the difference.
1. "Housing choice vouchers are administered locally by public housing agencies(PHAs). The PHAs receive federal funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to administer the voucher program." (AKA Section 8.) So whether it's administered by the City or the County (I don't know if there are State programs) the money is apparently all coming from HUD.
"Since the demand for housing assistance often exceeds the limited resources available to HUD and the local housing agencies, long waiting periods are common. In fact, a PHA may close its waiting list when it has more families on the list than can be assisted in the near future. PHAs may establish local preferences for selecting applicants from its waiting list. For example, PHAs may give a preference to a family who is (1) homeless or living in substandard housing, (2) paying more than 50% of its income for rent, or (3) involuntarily displaced."
My aunt was able to get Section 8 assistance quite easily because after my grandmother died (they shared an apartment) she was no longer able to afford the full rent. I assume she got priority treament because that was an example of (the threat of being) "(3) involuntarily displaced" .
2. The only way I can make sense of the figures is if your typical tenant had an income of around $215. 30% of that would be $65 which was the difference between the city standard and the assistance amount. But obviously that's wrong because prior to receiving assistance they were paying more than that in rent, right? Must be something more going on there that I'm not aware of.
That's my goal in life: Paying $65/mo for rent. That and the moon.
Last edited by SelflessGene; 10-21-2010 at 03:42 PM..
Reason: changed text
Those who talk don't know, those who know don't talk.
Tazzman,
1. the concrete ...
$500/mo. is not my price point. My expected S.S. benefit isn't much more than that. That's why I'm looking into assistance that could get it down to $300 or less. Saw an add for a basement apartment (utilities included) in Saint Paul, MN for $340. Sounds cozy. I could settle for that. Free Internet? Not exactly one of my overriding concerns.
2. the rant ...
My vision of the future is actually much darker than anything you've mentioned. My worldview is completely Darwinian. 99% of all species that ever existed are now extinct. Ours is a failed species and will join them sooner than anyone can imagine. I don't talk about it much though. It's not what people want to hear and there's nothing anybody can do about it at this stage of the game anyway.
My vision of the future is actually much darker than anything you've mentioned. My worldview is completely Darwinian. 99% of all species that ever existed are now extinct. Ours is a failed species and will join them sooner than anyone can imagine. I don't talk about it much though. It's not what people want to hear and there's nothing anybody can do about it at this stage of the game anyway.
yep, most of what happens in the near term is not that relevant considering the not too distant future.
back when we were "citizens" instead of "consumers." libraries are closing, bus routes eliminated, public services unfunded, outdoor resource budgets cut, unions busted … ad infinitum. there will be enormous competition for the crumbs, so best be gettin' yourself in a good place now.
tazzman-your entire post.
Yep, SG, starve the best mentality is taking hold big time in this depression (it's not a recession, it's a depression) and governments going broke are fodder for the propaganda grist mill. Soon to be new, very draconian governor in WI, presently Milwaukee County Exec. Walker, is ruthless and has no care at all for the collateral damage. Right now cutting back on public transit, so 2nd shift workers have no means to get home from work, proposes to privatize county mental institution after he cut back staff to the point the feds have got the facility on its watch list and County is about to be sued for negligence (long story), now wants to privatize the zoo and the airport - it is never ending here in Milwaukee County. Next target is the state - think Medicaid, BadgerCare (medical for the working poor), food stamps - everything.
When I was growing up, City of Milwaukee had a Socialist mayor and the Socialist Party had been a dominant political force for almost 50 years until the 60s. Always has been a Socialist/Democratic County, with Socialist/Democratic mayors and county execs. This present GOP exec, Walker, is a political anomaly for us and a sign of the times.
Next American City » Magazine » Frank Zeidler’s Milwaukee (http://americancity.org/magazine/article/frank-zeidlers-milwaukee-mccarthy/ - broken link)
Sooner, rather than later - like within the next 6-12 months - so at least you're grandfathered might be worth considering. The programs of today will be eviscerated fairly rapidly I would think, much harder to qualify for, and the waiting lists very lengthy for everything.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SelflessGene
"Since the demand for housing assistance often exceeds the limited resources available to HUD and the local housing agencies, long waiting periods are common. In fact, a PHA may close its waiting list when it has more families on the list than can be assisted in the near future. PHAs may establish local preferences for selecting applicants from its waiting list. For example, PHAs may give a preference to a family who is (1) homeless or living in substandard housing, (2) paying more than 50% of its income for rent, or (3) involuntarily displaced."
2. The only way I can make sense of the figures is if your typical tenant had an income of around $215. 30% of that would be $65 which was the difference between the city standard and the assistance amount. They would get priority treament due to "(2) paying more than 50% of [their] income for rent". Anyway, that's my crackpot theory.
That's my goal in life: Paying $65/mo for rent. That and the moon.
Well, sounds like all the programs are HUD funded. Yep, they closed the waiting list for rent assistance here eight years ago at least, and only open it very briefly every couple of years for like two weeks.
My little old ladies were living on very small SS payments, widows pensions and probably were drawing from savings and getting help from their kids. They were happy as clams with their $65/month rent. Probably one of the sons got tired of subsidizing mom and looked into the program. No waiting list in those days. It didn't go on for more than a few years though, as one went into a nursing home, another one died, etc. and there were no comparable tenants to replace them quality wise.
I just would like to say one more time, get your name onto all the senior subsidized housing lists you can find, and now. Don't worry about whether the lists are long, etc. Eventually, your name WILL come up, even if it takes a couple of years. If you don't apply, you will never get called, ever. Look a few years down the road. No one knows what the future will bring and how bad things can get, but I think we kinda get the picture...
The rent will always be 1/3 of what your income is, whatever it is. How can you go wrong with that? If you systematize the search, you might land in a very desirable location indeed.
Entitlement mentality - at what point does it go beyond the pale?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ariadne22
My little old ladies were living on very small SS payments, widows pensions and probably were drawing from savings and getting help from their kids. They were happy as clams with their $65/month rent. Probably one of the sons got tired of subsidizing mom and looked into the program. No waiting list in those days. It didn't go on for more than a few years though, as one went into a nursing home, another one died, etc. and there were no comparable tenants to replace them quality wise.
(The above is referring to tenants of the poster who were receiving Section 8 housing assistance, which benefitted both them and the landlord/poster). Yes, I bet they were happy as clams with their $65 per month rent. Who wouldn't be? Is that supposed to make the rest of us happy too, those of us who are paying for our own housing and then also paying for the housing of other people through Section 8? Those of us who are paying for our own food and then also paying for the food of others through food stamps? Up to a certain point I don't mind it, as a certain level of safety net protection is desirable and maybe even necessary in society, and so I am happy my taxes contribute to that. However, the extreme entitlement mentality which is becoming more and more prevalent can be quite galling, and more that a little bit scarey.
However, the extreme entitlement mentality which is becoming more and more prevalent can be quite galling, and more that a little bit scarey.
We are talking about old people, after all...folks who can no longer work. What would you say their alternative would be? The magnitude of the problem has not even begun to surface, as the enormous BB gen is poised to overwhelm the senior housing market, and many will be without the means to pay market value for housing.
Those rents were from 40 years ago, so not really comparable today. However, that neighborhood has deteriorated considerably and the building has aged in those 40 years. Today, HUD max market rent would be $600 (real market more like $545), I would think. Probably someone could live there for $200-$250 using the HUD parameters listed above - that is if they could get on the waiting list. At one time, these were very nice one-bedroom units.
I understand the concern about an entitlement mentality. I never in my entire life, even as a single parent, ever collected a dime for anything until I was laid off a year ago. Somehow managed to send my son to private schools - Montessori elementary and Catholic high school as public schools were way too lax for my taste. Three years in public middle school was not desirable - I would find out at the end of a semester that he had never turned in his math or language work. Never heard from anybody. And I live in a suburb known for its school system. So, I never got that return on the HUGE property taxes I paid and am still paying. Gee, I'm almost beginning to sound like a tea partier.
In those years, Milwaukee was a real welfare magnet until the 90s because Wisconsin paid more than any adjacent state. We'd get people moving here from Illinois and Mississippi and have baby, after baby, after baby and be rewarded with more money each birth. That has ended, thank heaven. However, we still have the fallout from that as we are 4th highest in poverty in the nation. 50% of our black males are unemployed (and uneducated). Descendants of all those welfare mothers. They do know how to work the system, too. Disability, Medicaid, food stamps, child care ripoffs defrauding the govt of millions. Stories in our papers weekly.
That said, I think the betrayal of the big corporations for the welfare of its workers is what has moved me to the place now where, although I don't like it, it's almost as though you're stupid if you don't take advantage of the safety nets because so many are gaming the system. I was one of the victims of completely unnecessary corporate greed - my promised retirement benefit cut 75% while the business partners, numbering in the 100s, earned individually millions for themselves. So, cynical is a mild adjective for my view on capitalists.
When people like SG, who worked hard, got educated and ended up unemployed in this corrupt capitalist system we have, can avail himself of benefits - I say, go for it. He deserves it.
Last edited by Ariadne22; 10-21-2010 at 05:38 PM..
Actually, I never think about whether I'm entitled to anything or not. I don't feel the need to justify myself in this regard. Tomorrow I'll be going to the county hospital and applying for about $3K-worth of diagnostic testing at no cost. I'm not doing this as an expression of my political views but simply because I'm sick and I want to get well. Last night I was watching a documentary on TV about that Uruguan rugby team whose plane crashed in the Andes and who resorted to eating each of their friends as they died. They didn't do that because they felt they were entitled to. They did that because they had no other choice if they wanted to survive. And everyone wants to survive. So it is in modern-day America. Every man for himself. Get while the gettin's good. Everyone knows the ship is sinking and all the rules have been suspended. It was the folks at the top who tought us all the value of gaming the system. Like their economics, their values have also "trickled down".
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Those who talk don't know, those who know don't talk.
tazzman-your entire post. 