HUD Rolling Back Cuts in Rent Aid

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The government is restoring millions of dollars that were to be cut in the program that helps poor families pay the rent. The Department of Housing and Urban Development is putting back about $156 million after reviewing public housing authorities' appeals of a decision in the spring restraining spending on Section 8 voucher financing. The money will be distributed to 379 of the 398 housing authorities that appealed. The voucher program helps nearly 2 million families through about 2,500 local agencies. [more ] Pictured above: Bush and his flunkey, HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson, who said "being poor is a state of mind, not a condition".  The following is a snippet of  a Housing Committee hearing (5/20/04) shortly after Jackson made his comments. Here, he is being questioned by Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who represents Oakland, CA.
  • LEE: First, Mr. Secretary, let me just say quite frankly I am very amazed at some of the callous nature of your responses. When I was out of the room, and I just want to clarify that you said or did not say that being poor was not a condition, but a state of mine. Is that an accurate statement that you made, first of all, as the secretary of HUD who is responsible for providing a safety net for the poor?
  • JACKSON: I do. I think "poor" is really a state of mind, not a condition, because if that was the case, I would not be sitting here.
  • LEE: Yes, oh boy. Mr. Secretary, do you know there are over 3.5 million people who will experience homelessness. I guess that is the reason that you guys are cutting the homeless budget, the McKinney- Vento budget. I know there is $50 million in this new Good Samaritan initiative and it is something you are going to respond to, but that still does not get us to the $128 million that we need every year to end chronic homelessness. I assume that is why you seem to be just dismantling programs for the homeless.
  • JACKSON: We are not dismantling programs.
  • LEE: Well, cutting programs for the homeless.
  • JACKSON: We have not cut. We have level-funded all of the programs
  • LEE: But don't you know that that is a cut?
  • JACKSON: No.
  • LEE: Mr. Secretary, OK, you know, the second point. In California, 12 percent of the Black population is unemployed; 7.9 percent of Latino population unemployed. The average income, for instance, in some areas, $38,000 or $39,000 a year; average cost of a house, $400,000 to $450,000. Now, how do your initiatives which you are focusing on in terms of homeownership address these people who are barely surviving and need you?
  • JACKSON: I do not think necessarily that, if you are talking about homeless people, it addresses that.
  • LEE: I am not talking about homeless. You answered on the homeless issue. I understand it is a state of mind. You clarified that in your budget.
  • JACKSON: No, I did not say that about homeless people.
  • LEE: I am talking about now the working poor, and African Americans and Latinos in high-income areas where they need HUD, they need safety net, they need Section 8, they need low-income housing assistance, they need shelter-plus, they need HOPE VI, they need all of the programs that your agency is supposed to be responsible for, and here you see these numbers just in California alone. Excerpts from the House Financial Service Committee Hearing  on 5/20/2004.