RRHA freezes rent subsidies for 43 more families
The Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority has frozen rent subsidies for an additional 43 low-income families because of a federal funding crunch.
The families were notified last week that housing vouchers issued to them no longer were valid and that they would remain indefinitely on a waiting list for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Housing Choice Voucher Program, known as Section 8.
"Until HUD is able to provide the funding that RRHA needs to fully operate the Section 8 program, we must recapture the voucher issued to you," RRHA officials said in a letter to families. "The reality is we simply do not have the money to cover your voucher at this time."
The families were closer to new housing than the 120 families who were notified Sept. 4 that their rent subsidies had been suspended. The newly affected families may have found a place to live already and started talking with a landlord, RRHA spokeswoman Valena A. Dixon said yesterday.
"It's really a result of our ongoing analysis of the operation," she said. "We're just freezing the process rather than get them in the housing system" and possibly be unable to cover rent payments.
Dixon was unable to say whether additional families might be affected. "We don't want to alarm, but we do need to be realistic," she said.
The federal funding crunch is affecting housing authorities across the country.
The Section 8 program involves a three-party agreement. After a low-income family qualifies for the program and finds an apartment, it signs a lease with the landlord and pays 30 percent of its income as rent. The housing authority then covers any difference between the family's payment and the total rent.
RRHA is in contact with federal officials "to discuss every strategy and how we together can fight for every dollar and resource to make it possible for us to secure adequate funding for this program," RRHA Chief Executive Officer Anthony Scott said in a memo yesterday to families and landlords.
City Councilman E. Martin Jewell, a longtime housing advocate, said the frozen rent subsidies are another example of poor management by RRHA, which he said needs greater oversight by the city. "There's nothing that they do that's being done right," he said.
To work through its financial squeeze, RRHA has approached the city about a possible advance payment of $420,000 later this year to cover rent subsidies for 84 families that have found places to live and may have moved already.
Mayor Dwight C. Jones is receptive, although it's not clear how much money may be needed and how it could be provided, press secretary Tammy D. Hawley said.
Contact Will Jones at (804) 649-6911 or
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Reader Reactions
To:the1nonlyme86: When I posted that last night it wasn’t toward those who have tried and the system didn’t help them. My response was to those who have never been in hard times nor who have even walked into RRHA or social services. Believe me, I’ve had my shares in dealing with them and being turned away. They once told me we didn’t qualify for help because my husband made $60 over the limit and they never take in consideration your net income, only your gross. So I’m not going against that part of the problem. Like you I agree with you on those who have been receiving help for many years and still have the chance to get help now. It’s sad because it’s generational curses in the different housing areas because so many won’t do what is needed to make a better life for themselves. And if you think about it, of course they have the better of everything. Why wouldn’t they? I don’t understand the system nor the rules they so call have. To me, the people with all the power just want a check and really don’t care about the people who lives are being affected. Maybe we’re wrong but I know that somewhere we are right. Hopefully one day this whole system will be revamped and so many people will be able to get their feet off the ground.
In response to your “What if I needed help one day?“, guess what, there have been times in my life that I desperately needed help and did I get any assistance?? NO..I was still told I did not qualify. I was pregnant, I was out of work due to too many complications, had thousands of dollars or medical bills piling up. Yet the only help I could receive was that of my family. Yes, I agree that there are some that don’t abuse the system, but when you see all these chicks in the projects that make a living off the system, it makes a person sick. I get tired of seeing females running around with 3 or 4 kids, ain’t got a job, but you better believe they got on the hottest clothes out there while their kids run around in rags and live in roach infested apartments all because you don’t want to get a job. I’ve seen this first hand many times. And no, it won’t because they couldn’t find a job, it was because they would be too lazy in the morning to get their butt up and go to work so they ended up loosing their jobs. There should be a limit on how long one can stay on such a program to prevent people from abusing it. My point is that there seems to be more people abusing this program than not.
Well to comment on all the other posts on here I have to say this. Being that I am a former tenant of a HUD subsidized apartment(Section 8) I know first hand how RRHA works and does business. However, when receiving assistance from them, I had a full time job with two kids and paid my rent on time. Just because someone is getting help does not mean they don’t want to have a life or make something of their life. What you who have never received help from any agency fail to realize is that there alot of rules and regulations. You can say they should be going to school, however, alot of the programs or apartments don’t allow them to attend because of the tax credit. So to say they don’t want to do anything is WRONG and you should probably be in their shoes before you ASSUME!!! Even with social services, they make a lot of rules and going to school has so many barriers around it alot of people won’t do so until they can do better. They tell you that in order to attend school you have to take up a so called trade and be able to have a job AS SOON AS you finish school. Why wait for 18 months to receive the small amount they want to give you per month when you can continue to look for a job and go to school when you are ready. I don’t know where you all came from, or your life story but I do know that I am not lazy and I want something for my future. So instead of talking about the people who don’t abuse the system tell CONGRESS to use your TAX MONEY to help those who haven’t been on the system for many years and help those children who need somewhere to go. Before you say certain things you should look in the mirror and think “What if I needed help one day?“.
Ok, I want to set the record straight, because the comments on this post are out right ridiculous! First of all, after waiting for 7 years, I finally received my Section 8 voucher this year. Yes, I said it, 7 YEARS on their so called waiting list. I wont get into that, thats a story for another day. Anyway, I do receive assistance from them for my rent, and I am not ashamed of it. Contrary to your ignorant beliefs, I am NOT sitting at home popping out more kids just to feed off the system. I have a FULL TIME job for a local mortgage company, and I make pretty decent money, but according to HUD, I still qualify for assistance. After waiting 7 years, I was not going to turn it down. Do I pay $26 in rent…I wish I could, but I don’t. I pay my share of the rent, which is quite a bit more than $26. My whole purpose of posting here is to say that not ALL recipients are low class, ghetto, ignorant hood chicks, as you all so eloquently stated in your own words. I have one child with no desires to have any more. While I will agree that there are SOME that take advantage of the system, however I will not agree with the general statement that we all are using and abusing this system. I work, I am enrolling in school for the spring semester to finish my education in Criminal Justice, and I take care of my child, without Medicaid. I am highly offended at the rudeness of these postings, but I guess that’s the world we live in now.
The whole Section 8 program makes me sick. Like already mentioned, most people who take advantage of Section 8, take advantage of it for life. To me it seems that females look at it as ‘Oh the more kids I pop out, the lower my rent will be!‘. It’s ridiculous. I used to know a person who was 25 and had 6 kids under the age of 11. I work full time, no kids, and scramble to pay rent and bills, yet this chick had a huge 4 bedroom house. And guess how much she paid a month? A whole $26 and would complain about that. To me the whole Section 8 program needs to be reconsidered.
Well said drhoagie. What happen to the idea that you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you feed him for life?
These programs would be better run by non-profits held accountable by their donors rather than governments who by their very nature are not flexible or responsive to changing dynamics, needs or consequences. Once a program, always a program, never to be improved, much less suspended.
Time to revamp the whole system…who has the courage in our government to suggest that????
My friends Glenn Beck stated last night, “The county would be worse off had John McCain won.“ I suppose Ron Mexico would like the good ol days back where we borrowed money from communist china to fund tax increases to the wealthiest Americans, or where we borrowed from communist china to fund two wars. Hahahahahah RINOs are so funny. They claim they are republicans because they don’t fit in anywhere else but do not espouse any conservative values, mainly small government.
Thomas: The difference between a Conservative and a liberal is a Conservative welcomes limited programs to act as safety nets to temporarily assist the poor and disadvantaged. The liberal takes these generous programs funded by us hard working taxpayers and turns them into hammocks.
I feel for the children of these families, but why has the parents of the families already in housing for a long time not used the time on section 8 to get skills and a decent job - I know the market is tough, but a lot of people seem to think welfare and section 8 is an acceptable life style for many years - it really should only be temporary help until they can be self sufficient.
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