September 8, 2005


---CALL IN DAYS TO SAVE THE DOMESTIC HUMANITARIAN
PROGRAMS---

Talking Points For Call In Days Of Sept 8-9

Toll Free #1-800-426-8073
[Phone number only good on Sept 8 & 9]

The Coalition on Human Needs (CHN) is organizing
Call-In Days to oppose budget cuts for Thursday,
September 8 and Friday, September 9. CHN is calling on
people to let their Congressional representatives know
that they oppose further cuts in essential health and
human needs programs. The American Friends Service
Committee is donating a toll-free line to connect
people to Capitol Hill on the call-in days:
1-800-426-8073.

The House and Senate plan to take
funding from SSI for the disabled and money from The
WICK Program which feeds infants!

---$35 Billion In Budget Cuts Expected For Domestic
Programs---

(The final votes take place during mid to late
September)

On April 27, 2005 -- Congress approved a $2.6 trillion
federal budget for Fiscal Year 2006 that lays the
groundwork for $10 billion in cuts to Medicaid, as
much as $3 billion in cuts to Food Stamps, and
billions in other mandatory program cuts.

The budget would make room for $100 billion in tax
cuts - while cutting $212 billion over the next five
years to domestic discretionary programs. Cuts to
education, veteran's health care, community
development, workforce training, child care, Head
Start, nutrition assistance for pregnant women and
children, home energy assistance and environmental
programs, and many others fall under this category.

1) The budget includes instructions to specific
committees in the House and Senate to find $35 billion
in cuts to mandatory programs over the next five
years. (Mandatory programs are not appropriated
annually.)

2) Under the budget resolution, Medicaid must be cut
by $10 billion over the next five years. The Senate
Finance Committee and the House Energy and Commerce
Committee are directed to produce a bill by September
that will make these cuts.

3) Food Stamps are also at risk. The House and Senate
Agriculture Committee have instructions to cut $3
billion from programs under their jurisdiction – which
includes farm subsidies as well as Food Stamps and
other nutrition programs.

4) The resolution also assumes cuts to other
committees including $12.7 billion in cuts to the
House Education and Workforce Committee and $13.7
billion to the Senate Health Education, Labor and
Pensions (HELP) Committee.

5) Student loan programs, also within the jurisdiction
of Education and Workforce and HELP, could be tapped
for cuts. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
estimates that student loans could be cut as much as
$7 billion over five years.

Call your Representatives now to oppose further budget
cuts!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Call Now To Save Section 8!!!

House Bill Places 28,000 Section 8 Vouchers At Risk
[Big Difference Between House & Senate Housing Bills]

[Activists support Senate Bill over the House Bill]

Call Representatives To Oppose House Bill, -- HR
3058

Tell Representatives to support Senate Bill, -- S
1446

[Toll Free # 1/888/818-6641 Is good immediately]

[Final vote to reconcile both bills into one bill,
takes place during mid to late September]

[The House Bill, HR 3058 and Senate's bill, S 1446]

The Housing Choice Voucher Program (Section 8)
provides roughly two million low-income households
with vouchers they can use to rent housing in the
private market.

A) [On August 24, 2005 -- According to the Center on
Budget and Policy Priorities]

The Center's analysis of HUD data shows that under the
House approach, more than 1,000 agencies would receive
less than the amount they need to maintain vouchers
currently in use, placing nearly 28,000 vouchers at
risk of being cut. At the same time, some 541
agencies would be overfunded by a total of $79
million. Since agencies are not allowed to use excess
funds to create additional vouchers, this $79 million
— enough money to fund nearly 12,000 vouchers — would
essentially be wasted.

Call your Representatives now to oppose further budget
cuts!


HOUSING NEWS UPDATE


---Katrina Victims Move Ahead In Section 8 Lines---

Katrina's victims are flooding the Section 8 program
across the nation, as those presently on the Public
Housing/Section 8 waiting lists must now wait that
much longer... See articles below from Omaha World
Herald and Salt Lake Tribune...

New Katrina victim Section 8 voucher holders may soon
find themselves being double crossed, because when the
cuts take place from a lack of funding from HUD, it
has been the practice to take the vouchers from the
newest voucher holders across the nation...

Meanwhile, the House & Senate are about to place
28,000 vouchers at risk and underfund 1,000 housing
authorities across the nation unless people speak out
in opposition. Oakland Housing Authority Director, Jon
Gresly, favors the Senate bill over the House bill
because it saves 1,000 Section 8 vouchers from being
cut from Oakland. See article, "Evacuees may find
Section 8 aid is lacking"...

Feds raid Public Housing units of New Orleans... See
article below...

Corruption in Public Housing Authorities... See
articles below...

Eminent Domain testimony on government treachery...
See Eminent Domain testimony below...

Plus plenty more...


Roll Back The Rents


In todays report...


Evacuees may find Section 8 aid is lacking

By Rebecca Rosen Lum
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Posted on Wed, Sep. 07, 2005

Congress is considering big cuts in the federal
Section 8 rental voucher program as the thousands of
people who fled Hurricane Katrina are expected to seek
new shelter.

Already, Southern housing authorities are getting
calls from residents with newly homeless relatives in
Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

But the vouchers -- which subsidize monthly rent
payments -- may not be there to accommodate storm
victims. Housing authority directors say the program
has been taking incremental cuts even without the new
bills.

The plans -- one in the Senate, the other in the House
-- are versions of the State and Local Housing
Flexibility Act of 2005. Both would slash the number
of vouchers granted to local housing authorities.

"We favor the Senate version because we would lose
about 1,000 fewer vouchers," said John Gresley,
director of the Oakland Housing Authority.

Section 8 was created during the Nixon administration
as a marketplace alternative to the hulking public
housing projects that had come to symbolize an
entrenched culture of poverty.

It limits low-income families' rent payments to 40
percent of their incomes. The federal government,
through local public housing authorities, subsidizes
the remainder.

But cuts have steadily whittled the program, critics
say. In one switch, the federal department of Housing
and Urban Development stopped paying higher subsidies
in high-rent areas.

"This has put huge pressures on housing authorities,"
said Robert McEwen, director of the Contra Costa
County Housing Authority. "We're scrambling."

Last time the agency opened its Section 8 rental
vouchers waiting list to new names, the line coiled
around the block. In 10 days, the housing authority
added 8,500 families to the list.

"We could give people vouchers, and they could go out
and find housing right now due to the soft market,"
said Ophelia Basgal, director of the Alameda Housing
Authority. "We just don't have the money."

The 30-year-old federal subsidy program helps 6,700
families in Contra Costa, 270,000 statewide and more
than 2 million across the nation pay for private
rental housing each month.

Now thousands more will need rentals -- and fast.

"Housing will be a huge part of what comes out of this
(hurricane disaster) story," Basgal said. Offering up
"is usually what we do in response to a disaster.
There's always something set aside for housing in a
disaster, but nothing of this magnitude. There will be
tremendous pressure on the Texas market."

The Senate proposal would base funding on housing
costs in the most recent 12-month period, which some
say is more realistic since it takes in seasonal
market fluctuations. It would also free up more money
for agencies that have been underfunded.

The House plan would calculate funding based on a
three-month snapshot of housing authorities' demand. A
new report by the national Center on Budget and Policy
Priorities says it would result in a loss of some
28,000 vouchers among 1,000 housing authorities --
leaving them with less than they need to maintain
their current load.

"We are calling it reform," said HUD spokeswoman Donna
White. "It will potentially allow housing authorities
to serve more families."

The act, if passed, will allow housing authorities to
stop calculating the income percentage, which "places
a lot of administrative burdens on housing
authorities," and is "prone to error," White said.
Instead, they would offer a flat rent amount.

Republicans have championed the program over the
years.

But critics such as McEwen say it's getting harder to
achieve the program's original mission, which was to
scatter qualified low-income earners throughout
diverse neighborhoods rather than in concentrated
poverty pockets.

Some East Bay residents tell of finding housing only
in areas where they fear for their safety.

Lynda Carson, 53, made her living crafting and
repairing stringed instruments until a devastating
injury curtailed her working life. The Oakland Housing
Authority awarded her an emergency Section 8 voucher
-- a two-year process. With a six-week window to find
a willing landlord, she looked at 30 apartments.

"That's the place where most of us panic," she said.
"Unfortunately, some of the landlords accepting
Section 8 are in the worst parts of town."

She settled on a one-bedroom unit in East Oakland
where she does not feel safe venturing out at night.

For the past 21/2 years, Warnell Reid, a former Kaiser
clinician whose illness forced him onto disability in
1985, has lived on a Richmond street where drug
dealing is epidemic. Cars roar in and out at all
hours.

"Section 8 is one big question mark now," he said. "I
don't know what's next. It doesn't matter if you're in
substandard conditions."

In 2003, the administration's Housing Assistance to
Needy Families Act moved to scrap the program entirely
and have states manage block grants instead.
Republicans, led by Virginia Sens. George Allen and
John Warner, opposed the changes. The administration
backed off.

"Flexible vouchers," McEwen said. "Catchy title.
Sounds great. But when they say flexible, they mean,
'We'll leave it to you to figure out how you're going
to fund the program. What we're not flexible about is
the money. You're not getting any more.'"

www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/email/news/12579405.htm


************
Apartment operators vie to provide housing for
evacuees; 201 companies sign up to lease more than
10,000 units under a new voucher program

MATT STILES, DAN FELDSTEIN
The Houston Chronicle
September 7, 2005

Houston-area apartment landlords swarmed City Hall by
the scores Tuesday, vying for the opportunity to
provide housing to Katrina evacuees under a new
voucher program.

As part of a cooperative effort by several agencies to
get evacuees out of shelters and into their own
private spaces, the city began taking letters of
intent from apartment operators who promise to block
off units at set rates.

By Tuesday night, 201 apartment operators had signed
up to provide more than 10,000 units under the Katrina
Housing Task Force plan, Mayor Bill White said.

In many cases, the city would provide vouchers for the
apartments and later be reimbursed by either the
Federal Emergency Management Agency or the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The program is separate from HUD's "Section 8" voucher
program. Evacuees already enrolled in that subsidized
housing program are being allowed to transfer their
vouchers directly here.

Click below for full story...

www.chron.com/cs/CDA/rssstory.mpl/metropolitan/3342520


www.knowledgeplex.org/news/113177.html

************
HUD ESTABLISHES TOLL-FREE NUMBER (1-800-955-2232) FOR
SECTION 8 VOUCHER HOLDERS AND PUBLIC HOUSING RESIDENTS

States News Service
September 6, 2005

WASHINGTON

The following information was released by the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development:

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso
Jackson today announced that HUD has established a
Public and Indian Housing Resource Information Center,
and a toll-free number, 1-800-955-2232, to assist
displaced public housing residents and Section 8
voucher holders. Through its 80 field offices, HUD has
also provided policy guidance to the nation's 3,200
Public Housing Authorities on how to assist displaced
families as they relocate to other areas.

Click below for full story...

www.knowledgeplex.org/news/112872.html

************
Louisiana seeks housing grant; $1.4 billion will
provide shelter

KEVIN BLANCHARD, Acadiana bureau
The Advocate (Baton Rouge, Louisiana)
September 7, 2005

LAFAYETTE

Louisiana housing officials are pursuing a $1.4
billion grant to provide long-term housing to an
estimated 480,000 evacuees across the state.

Lafayette Housing Authority Director Walter Guillory
called a meeting Tuesday to ask area elected officials
to contact the Department of Housing and Urban
Development to voice their support of the grant.

"It's something new," Guillory said. "We've got to get
the powers-that-be at HUD to get on board."

The idea is to transition people as quickly as
possible into real housing, not "tent cities,"
Guillory said.

HUD will soon be making decisions on how to spend
relief money, so it's time now for local officials to
provide input, Guillory said.

Click below for full story...

www.knowledgeplex.org/news/113225.html

************
OHA making plans to house evacuees

Chris Olson
Omaha World-Herald (Nebraska)
September 7, 2005

The agency that provides public housing in Omaha plans
to be ready as early as Thursday to match victims of
Hurricane Katrina with available housing.

The effect will be minimal for Omahans on waiting
lists for public housing or federal Section 8 rental
vouchers, officials said.

The Omaha Housing Authority has 270 available
apartments for the hurricane evacuees, said Brad
Ashford, OHA executive director. An additional 250 or
more housing units could be available within the next
year, as OHA buys more buildings, he said.

Katrina victims who already were approved for public
housing automatically will transfer to OHA, Ashford
said. Others must apply and qualify for public housing
or the voucher program.

OHA has 200 to 300 people on a waiting list for
vouchers and 600 to 700 on its public housing waiting
list. Eighty percent of the available OHA housing
units, however, have been declined by local residents
because of the units' size or their designation as
housing for the elderly, Ashford said.

OHA also will give all 60 of its unused rental
vouchers to hurricane victims, so they can rent from
private landlords, he said.

Click below for full story...

www.knowledgeplex.org/news/113179.html

************
Evacuees may top SLC rent assistance list

Kirsten Stewart , The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune (Utah)
September 5, 2005

Rosemary Kappes says Salt Lake City has "a moral
obligation" to aid the homeless victims of Hurricane
Katrina who have been airlifted to Utah.

To that end, the housing authority director is
proposing to adopt an emergency policy to place New
Orleans evacuees at the top of the city's rent
assistance waiting list.

Doing so might give rise to complaints from some of
the 4,000 Utahns on the list now. Nine months ago,
city housing officials stopped accepting applications
for rent assistance, because the waiting list had
surpassed 8,000. Today, the average wait ranges from
six months for senior housing to three to five years
for federal Section 8 rent vouchers.

But Kappes believes Utah's most impoverished will be
willing to wait a bit longer if it means sheltering
families who have lost friends and relatives and are
now thousands of miles from anything resembling home.

Click below for full story...

www.sltrib.com/ci_3000320

www.knowledgeplex.org/news/112799.html

************
Disabled Mississippi residents face uncertain future
on the road

Kansas City Star - Sep 05 5:35 PM
GULFPORT - (KRT) - Four-week-old Markus Owens cooed
and smiled. While he couldn't realize it, the infant
born Aug. 4 was set to be the youngest refugee from
public housing for disabled persons on 35th Street in
Gulfport.

Click below for full story...

www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/12567602.htm

************
Police find suspect after gunfire reported near cell
phone workers

KBCI Boise - Sep 07 8:02 AM
NEW ORLEANS Authorities in New Orleans have found a
suspected sniper. Federal, state and local authorities
had turned out in force, after shots were reported
fired at telephone workers trying to restore cellphone
service. The shots came from a public housing project.


Officers from agencies ranging from the U-S Border
Patrol to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
went door to door, finding several men who'd taken
refuge there and eventually finding a man with two
guns.

www.kbcitv.com/x5154.xml


************
Craig's housing issue

Craig Daily Press - 1 hour, 12 minutes ago
Pipeline workers aren't the only ones wondering where
they'll live this winter. Several Section 8 housing
voucher recipients report trouble finding homes,
because of program guidelines and because suitable
rentals are filling fast.

Click below for full story...

www.craigdailypress.com/section/localnews/story/18639

***********
Local housing options open up for evacuees

News-Herald - 5 minutes ago
Despite current public housing shortages already in
place, housing authorities in Lake and Geauga counties
may temporarily amend their housing requirements to
give emergency preference to Hurricane Katrina
evacuees who relocate to this area.

Click below for full story...

www.news-herald.com/site/news.cfm

***********
Public Housing Tenants Find Voice, Get Community
Support

Dale White
Sarasota Herald-Tribune (Florida)
September 7, 2005

SARASOTA

Tenants of this city's dilapidated public housing
complexes know the wrecking ball is coming. They're
more worried than ever that they could become
displaced and homeless.

Still, for the first time, they don't feel their cries
and complaints are being ignored by the more
prosperous community that surrounds them.

A newly formed network of organizations and
individuals is offering its moral and political
support. Group by group, person by person, that
network continues to grow.

Click below for full story...

www.knowledgeplex.org/news/113072.html

************
EMINENT DOMAIN

Federal Document Clearing House Congressional
Testimony
September 7, 2005

Statement of Dana Berliner Senior Attorney, Institute
for Justice

Committee on House Agriculture

September 7, 2005

Thank you for the opportunity to testify regarding
eminent domain abuse, an issue that's finally getting
significant national attention as a result of the U.S.
Supreme Court's dreadful decision in Kelo v. City of
New London. This committee and the sponsors of H.B.
3405, which this committee is currently considering,
are to be commended for taking action to end this
misuse of government power.

Click below for full testimony...

www.knowledgeplex.org/news/113161.html

************
Housing-authority official charged with three felonies

Winston-Salem Journal - 2 hours, 19 minutes ago
A senior official with the Housing Authority of
Winston-Salem and a Virginia businessman were arrested
and charged with theft, embezzlement and money
laundering after a four-year federal investigation,
according to court records obtained yesterday.

Click below for full story...

www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite


************
Housing authority worker pleads guilty to taking
bribes

WFSB 3 - Sep 07 6:58 AM
BRIDGEPORT (AP) -- An intake worker for the New Haven
Housing Authority has pleaded guilty to taking bribes.
Federal prosecutors say 25-year-old Benita James took
cash or designer clothes to move people up on a
waiting list for Section Eight rental subsidies.

Click below for full story...

www.wfsb.com/Global/story.asp

************
Court Rejects Effort to Limit PHA Handicapped Housing
to Wheelchair Users

[Press Release] PR Newswire via Yahoo! Finance - Sep
07 1:38 PM
In a major court victory for the Philadelphia Housing
Authority, a federal judge has agreed that a tenant
does not necessarily have to require a wheelchair to
qualify for special accessible housing.

Click below for full Press Release...

biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050907/phw051.html