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HUD proposal may prolong the wait for federal housing subsidies

By Christian Murray | Staff Writer

March 11, 2004

Cora Jones at her home in Hauppauge. She's moved to the top of the list for federal housing subsidies. (Newsday Photo/Michael E. Ach / March 11, 2004)

Cora Jones is one of the lucky ones. After four years, the 28-year-old mother of two has moved to the top of Long Island's waiting list for a federal housing subsidy. That means Jones and her two children can move off of her relative's couch in Hauppauge and they won't have to return to living in her car.

For many of Long Island's poor, the waiting list for Section 8 housing subsidies may get longer, housing advocates say.

Local housing advocates are blasting a proposal from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to change the way rental subsidies are administered beginning in 2005. The change is likely to undermine the housing needs of the poor, they say, leaving even more of the Island's most vulnerable out in the cold.

The Bush Administration has proposed to eliminate the Section 8 voucher system, which guarantees that low-income residents pay no more than 30 percent of their income in rent. They want to replace vouchers with a system that will allocate funds to local agencies and give them greater freedom to distribute housing money. The new plan still needs Congressional approval.

Currently Long Island has about 12,000 Section 8 vouchers at its disposal, administered by several local agencies in both Nassau and Suffolk counties. A renter is able to use the voucher for a portion of their rent, determined by a complex calculation taking into account their rent, earnings and other resources.

Local housing authorities are concerned that the agencies will have fewer resources under a cash system.

"The funds won't keep up with the rents," said Marianne Garvin, executive vice president of the Centereach-based Community Development Corp. of Long Island, which administers 3,000 vouchers.

"We estimate that the pool of money will be $1.8 billion less in 2005 than if the voucher system remains in place," said Jonathan Zimmerman, Housing Policy Analyst with the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials in Washington.

The New York City Housing Authority estimates that it would lose $45 million under the Bush plan, and that would equate to the loss of 5,500 Section 8 vouchers -- of the authority's 90,000 vouchers.

But HUD Assistant Secretary Michael Liu said the current system and the proposed system shouldn't even be compared and that they are totally different.

Liu said the new system will give agencies a flexibility they don't have now.

Currently, the Section 8 voucher system requires 75 percent of the vouchers to be awarded to applicants who make less than 30 percent of the median income, or $25,600 for a family of four on Long Island. Agencies will not be restricted by this requirement under the Bush proposal.

Garvin worries that with fewer funds available in general and the loss of the mandates to help the poor, "Many of the extremely poor will wind up in shelters shifting the burden to local governments."

There are currently 2,650 homeless people on Long Island; 1,600 are children.

And there are plenty of people teetering on the edge, Garvin said. The Community Development Corp. currently has 3,000 vouchers that are in use, with a waiting list of 11,000 applicants.

And many applicants, such as Jones, are working-poor.

"I always maintained my job as a certified nurses' assistant at St. James Nursing Home," she said.

With the voucher in hand, Jones is now looking to rent a three-bedroom house in areas such as Central Islip, Ronkonkoma and Hauppauge.