Omaha's poor to lose rental help

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/article/20090723/NEWS01/707239846/1009

Published Thursday July 23, 2009

By Cindy Gonzalez
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

The Omaha Housing Authority will halt rental assistance for 432 low-income households and raise the rent for most of the other 3,500 families in the Section 8 voucher program.

The cost-cutting measure — more drastic than OHA officials could remember in at least two decades — was announced today in response to a shortfall faced by the government agency that serves the poorest of Omaha households.

“Every (Section 8) family gets affected,” said executive director Stan Timm, “it’s just the degree.”

The federal government did not let OHA know of its scaled-back appropriation for the $26 million Section 8 rental voucher program until about two months ago. By then, OHA already was grappling with recession-related rising operating costs.

Plus, the federal government also took away some of OHA’s reserves.

Under the Section 8 program, participants rent from private landlords. The tenants have generally paid 30 percent of their income for rent, and OHA covers the rest.

FULL story at link.

[BlooInBloo]

1. Sigh.

[ananda]

2. More sadness with human faces.

Does Congress care? Do corporations? The rich?