USA, New York Times: Sezione 8

L'amministrazione Bush ed il problema della casa per i lavoratori poveri.

Si chiama Sezione 8 ed è il programma che consente alle famiglie di lavoratori a basso reddito di integrare la somma dovuta per l'affitto di casa con un assegno (un voucher) versato dal governo. In sostanza, questi lavoratori pagano al loro padrone di casa il 30% del loro reddito: il rimanente è versato dalla "Sezione 8". Il voucher interessa più di due milioni di nuclei familiari. Ma il bilancio dello stato è in forte deficit e l'amministrazione Bush ha deciso di intervenire proprio sulla "Sezione 8".



January 20, 2004
An Assault on Housing Vouchers

The Bush administration, which created a record budget deficit partly through tax cuts for the rich, is threatening to make up some of the difference by cutting desperately needed programs aimed at the poor. One candidate for the chopping block is Section 8, the federal rent-subsidy program whose main purpose is preventing low-income families from becoming homeless.

The Section 8 voucher program subsidizes families who rent apartments in the private market. The renters, most of whom live at or below the poverty level, pay 30 percent of their incomes toward rent, and the voucher covers the remainder.

At the moment, the program covers about 2.1 million households. Most of these families include minor children; 40 percent include elderly or disabled people. Section 8 came about during the 1970's, when the government began to move from housing needy people in publicly owned developments to housing them in private housing, through rent vouchers and construction subsidies. The most recent data from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, based in Washington, shows that the average rent on a two-bedroom apartment has risen by 37 percent since 1999. The yearly cost of the voucher program has reached $14 billion - and will grow as long as housing costs continue to rise faster than incomes.

Like health care, housing has become a necessity priced out of the reach of many families, particularly the working poor. It is understandable that the government should look at the cost of housing programs with concern. But the one unacceptable option is simply to decide to let people fend for themselves.

Even now, families sometimes wait for years for vouchers, which become available when current voucher holders die or get better jobs and become ineligible for subsidies. By some estimates, only one in four families who actually qualify for Section 8 vouchers receives them. Given that the affordable housing crisis is likely to become worse as time goes by, anything that makes it harder to house poor families is by definition a disastrous idea.