WP,p1: Bush Aims to Localize Rent Aid("relax " Sec.8 regulation)

[DeepModem Mom]

Bush Aims to Localize Rent Aid
Money-Saving Plan Would Relax Regulation of Section 8
By Amy Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 13, 2004; Page A01


The Bush administration is proposing to transform a cornerstone of the nation's housing policy for the poor, replacing a federal program that provides rent vouchers to 2 million families with a system that would give broad new powers to local housing authorities.

The idea, which is intended partly to save money, is a sequel to the administration's failed attempt a year ago to convert federal rent vouchers -- the government's largest form of housing subsidies -- into block grants run by states. It would bypass states, giving lump-sum payments directly to the nation's 3,000 public housing authorities, along with more freedom from federal rules than the White House envisioned last year.

This year's version would eliminate a long-standing rule that families in the program, known as Section 8, pay no more than two-fifths of their income in rent. It would erase a requirement that three-quarters of the vouchers go to families who are extremely poor. And it would omit the federal quality standards that have covered all the apartments and houses in which participants live.

In his second attempt to redefine Section 8, President Bush has changed important details but kept the philosophy behind the plan that was quickly decried last year by lawmakers of both parties and by many affordable-housing and anti-poverty groups....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6498-2004Apr12.html

[jarab]

1. Another end-around

"...It would bypass states, giving lump-sum payments directly to the nation's 3,000 public housing authorities
...."

And if those direct grants were insufficient, or a pittance (the agenda), what next?
Let's see ... forty percent of a $1000 income (e.g.) is more appealing to a suddenly financially-strapped PHA than forty percent of (a lesser income).
So, who's going to get the housing with the 75% rule voided? An end to public housing as we've known it.
...O...

[joeunderdog]

2. This will be another huge hit to a program that has been frozen already.

Giving it to the states whose budgets are already slashed would be like cutting directly. The state budgets will be hit again if Shrub has his way and gets in next term. It'll be all over then. No quality standards means slumlords will be out in full force. Relaxing the standards for how poor you have to be should only happen when no one meets the more stringent poverty standard.

This is bad in so many ways. Stock up on tents.

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Kicking, as a reminder that "compassionate conservatism"...

marches on, even as war and scandal grab most of the headlines --