Last night, I read a story in the NYT which reported that NYC “officials announced Thursday that they had stopped issuing new federal rent subsidy vouchers and were terminating the vouchers of 3,000 families who had yet to fully use them.” What’s the Reason? O, simple: In 2008 and 2009, reports the Times “Congress and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), instructed the agencies that administer Section 8 vouchers nationwide to use money in their reserves to fill shortfalls in federal financing.”
In an era of TARP, Stimulus, Omnibus spending bills 8%-12% higher than just a year ago, how can there be a shortfall in federal housing financing? Worse, the FY 2008 budget was written in 2007 by the “pro-poor” Majority on Capitol Hill, led by Pelosi and Reid. Why didn’t THEY make sure that the program is well-funded? Since I was 5 years old, I, like all Jews and other minorities, was told that the Dems care for use, vs. the racist, angry, white guys of the Republican Party who want to expel us from the USA. Therefore, I am baffled that the all-caring, pro-poor, who-take the Jewish/minority voters for granted, Dem-Congress didn’t finance the section eight program.
What hurts me most is the fact that “Obama’s Stash” was not used to avoid cuts in the program.
