Do The Right Thing, HUD Secretary Donovan!
During the past eight years, almost 100,000 units of public housing have been approved for demolition, and fewer than 40,000 units of public housing have been constructed, meaning that over 60% of public housing units demolished have not been replaced. In 2007, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD ) approved a request from the San Diego Housing Commission “to get out of the public housing business” by vouchering out its entire stock of over 1,300 units. Vouchers allow residents to rent a unit in the private market. In 2008, the housing authorities in Las Vegas and Atlanta submitted applications to HUD to dispose of all their public housing units.
While most displaced residents receive Housing Choice Vouchers in which to move, the vouchers do not compensate for the loss of public housing to a community. Public housing is a commitment from the government that there will always be a housing resource for our most vulnerable populations—a commitment that the private sector cannot make. Even though vouchers are an important part of the nation’s affordable housing supply, they are not a permanent replacement for hard public housing units.
On June 15, 2009, the Chairman of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, Representative Barney Frank, and the Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity, Representative Maxine Waters, sent a letter to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan asking him to impose a one-year moratorium on the approval of applications for demolition or disposition of public housing units. The Committee noted that, “Until such time as housing authorities are required to replace demolished or disposed units on a one-for-one basis, we risk losing the crucial investment and significant asset these units represent.”
We applaud the decision of Representatives Frank and Waters in making this request and in working on legislation to require one-for-one replacement of demolished public housing units. In order that the nation not lose any more public housing units, it is imperative that HUD Secretary Donovan declare a one-year moratorium on public housing demolitions so that legislation can be enacted to preserve the nation’s supply of low-income public housing.
Bill,
This move by the government under G. Bush is no surprise, as every, it seems mayor wants to dump public housing because of the cost. Under B. Obama it should be different however. But, given the conditions of public housing at least in Chicago it is no surprise there are few supporters of PH.
One thing I believe firmly in is the need for supportive housing. It was proven with Lakefront SRO, a group I started in 1984, Sh works and may be the only way of saving housing for the poor and disenfranchised.
Supportive housing for the homeless, mentally ill and addicted has taught us is just housing alone will not do the job. Housing has to be combined with supportive services to break the cycle of the demise of property. Stem that demise , then we build support for housing for the very poor.
One thing we need to keep in mind, is supportive housing costs money - it's not free. Supportive housing takes human workers as social workers and many other jobs to support people put into housing to avoid crime, build abilities to hold and have jobs and raise families. But, it's money spent on avoiding troubles rather than jailing people after the horses have left the barn.
Until this country learns that, we are doomed to seeing PH disappear.
I welcome your comments.
Doug Dobmeyer
Interim Executive Director
Housing Options - Evanston
Doug: I agree totally that the need for supportive housing is great and is not being met. Lakefront SRO has done a great job over the years of meeting the needs of its clients, and we need more facilities like it to be successful. However, there will always be poor persons who will need public housing, so the effort to require one-for-one replacement is still needed. And we are working hard at the Henry Horner public housing development (now called Westhaven) to increase the opportunities of residents for employmeht and training to meet the challenges of the future. Bill Wilen