Latest news with #Section8
Black America Web
5 hours ago
- Politics
- Black America Web
Low-Income Families Face Homelessness Under Proposed HUD Changes
Source: Ralf-Finn Hestoft / Getty A study from New York University projects that 1.4 million low-income families could lose their homes if the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) sets a two-year time limit for residents living in government-subsidized housing. According to AP, the Trump administration submitted a discretionary budget proposal for the 2026 fiscal year that would introduce drastic changes to how HUD has traditionally operated. One of the biggest changes is introducing a two-year time limit for people living in government-subsidized housing. Housing Secretary Scott Turner argued time limits are necessary during a congressional hearing in June, saying they would mitigate fraud and waste, as well as spur low-income families to become self-sufficient. Turner said HUD is 'broken and deviated from its original purpose, which is to temporarily help Americans in need. HUD assistance is not supposed to be permanent.' I've said it before, and I'll say it again: if the government has billions of dollars to sink into their Tubi Gestappo (ICE, should you need the clarification), they have the money to provide housing for our most vulnerable citizens. They're not making the hard call, and no one would ever accuse the Trump administration of being the adults in the room. They're simply being a word I can't use due to editorial standards (hint: it rhymes with 'brass pole'). Despite Turner saying the move is designed to curb 'waste and fraud,' there's no evidence that imposing time limits would save money. NYU's study found that 'if currently assisted households are subject to a two-year limit, that would lead to enormous disruption and large administrative costs,' and would result in public housing authorities having to 'evict all of these households and identify new households to replace them.' From AP: The NYU researchers dove deep into HUD's nationwide data over a 10-year period, analyzing nearly 4.9 million households that have been public housing and Section 8 voucher tenants. Of that, about 2.1 million could be affected by the time limits because they include at least one adult who is not elderly or disabled and about 70% of those households had already been living on those subsidies for two or more years. HUD spokesperson Kasey Lovett pushed back on the NYU study. 'There is plenty of data that strongly supports time limits and shows that long-term government assistance without any incentive disincentivizes able-bodied Americans to work,' Lovett said in a statement. Source: The Washington Post / Getty As per usual with the pro-life party, the HUD proposal would wind up hurting children the most, as an estimated 1 million children could become homeless should it go into effect. While the GOP pushes a narrative that the people living in government housing are unemployed freeloaders, the reality is that many of these people living in subsidized housing are working. They're simply not making enough to keep up with the average cost of living in their area. There's been a growing cost-of-living crisis across the nation, with rents, groceries, and gas prices becoming unsustainable for much of the working population beyond just those in subsidized housing. The Trump administration's erratic tariff policies aren't helping either, with inflation spiking 2.7 percent last month. No one wants to be poor, and being poor is not a matter of work ethic or laziness. For example, I was making far more than most of my peers as a TV producer. It was a job I worked incredibly hard at and came after years of busting my tail. Things were great until I found out I got laid off via tweet. That would set off a solid year of unemployment, which led to another year of underemployment. Not because I was lazy, not because I wasn't applying for jobs, but because wages are really that bad and the job market is a nightmare. Mind you, this is the experience of someone with a college education, who's child-free, and spent most of their 20s working jobs that allowed them to be self-sufficient. So, imagine how stressful life already is for the folks who have to live in subsidized housing and don't have a potentially lucrative skill set to rely on. It took me two and a half years to finally make two-thirds of my previous income, and they're expecting our most vulnerable groups to be fully self-sufficient in that time frame? So is everyone in the Trump administration doing ketamine now? If the Trump administration really wanted to help put these families on track for self-sufficiency, it would improve current skills training programs, not try to kill them. It would expand student loan assistance programs, not gut them completely. Make no mistake, these proposed moves at HUD are not about promoting self-sufficiency, but are yet another attempt by the Trump administration to punish the poor. SEE ALSO: HUD And The History Of Racist Housing Policy Trump's HUD Is Undermining Housing Discrimination Cases SEE ALSO Low-Income Families Face Homelessness Under Proposed HUD Changes was originally published on
Axios
14 hours ago
- Business
- Axios
Atlanta public housing rent hike "pause" could shock Section 8 stock
Atlanta Housing is telling Section 8 landlords to pause plans for rent increases as federal funding uncertainty spreads to local governments. Why it matters: Roughly 11,000 Atlanta households will receive Housing Choice vouchers this fiscal year, according to the housing authority's budget. The vouchers help eligible residents spend no more than 30% of their income on rent and play a vital role in keeping tens of thousands of Atlantans in their homes. Between the lines: The rent hike pause could push some landlords to switch to market-rate tenants, short-term rentals or sales — shrinking Atlanta's supply of affordable housing and creating housing instability. The latest: In a July 15 message to landlords, Alan Ferguson, AH's chief housing and real estate officer, said the authority would not process rent increase requests for Housing Choice Voucher Program participants with contracts renewing on and after July 1 of this year. AH could "reconsider and reinstate" increases if Congress approves new funding or federal officials offer new guidance, Ferguson wrote in the message obtained by Axios. Context: Public housing authorities have been put on notice to expect funding cuts after President Trump called for sweeping changes to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, including a two-year limit on housing aid, according to the Associated Press. AH's 2026 fiscal year budget approved in early July is roughly $80 million less than the previous years' spending plan, WSB reports. The Housing Choice Voucher Program bore the brunt of those cuts; its funding dropped from $389.7 million to $338.58 million. Yes, but: Authority officials said their "goal is to keep our residents housed." They declined to immediately say whether funding earmarked for rent increases would fund other AH programs or operations. Stunning stat: Roughly 20% of Atlanta's multi-family rental housing is supported by AH assistance programs, Ferguson said. What they're saying: Dan Immergluck, a Georgia State University professor emeritus who's studied Atlanta's affordable housing crisis for nearly two decades, told Axios the pause would make it more difficult to find landlords to accept vouchers.
Daily Mirror
3 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mirror
Your legal rights as a tenant from how to avoid unexpected landlord visits to eviction
The Government has issued fresh guidance designed to give tenants in England confidence to challenge bad practice and ensure homes remain safe, secure, and affordable Tenants have been urged to brush up on their rights after the Government published fresh guidance aimed at protecting renters from unfair treatment, hidden costs, and illegal evictions. The advice, released by spells out in detail what landlords must – and must not – do when letting out a property in England. It is designed to give tenants confidence to challenge bad practice and ensure homes remain safe, secure, and affordable. From avoiding surprise visits by landlords to understanding rules on rent rises, evictions, safety standards and deposits, here is what every tenant needs to know. Your key rights as a tenant A safe home: Your landlord must ensure the property is in a good state of repair and free from health hazards. Quiet enjoyment: You have the right to live undisturbed – landlords must give 24 hours' notice before visiting unless there's an emergency. Protected from unfair eviction: Tenants can only be evicted through proper legal procedures, and only with adequate notice. Deposit protection: Deposits must be kept in a government-approved scheme if you're on an Assured Shorthold Tenancy. Rent fairness: Rent must be realistic and in line with local market rates. You can challenge unfair increases. Know your landlord: You're legally entitled to know who owns the property. If they don't tell you within 21 days of asking, they can be fined. Landlords are legally required to: Repair structure, plumbing, heating, and electrics Maintain gas appliances with annual safety checks by a Gas Safe engineer Ensure electrical systems and appliances are safe Fit smoke alarms on every floor and carbon monoxide detectors where needed Provide safe escape routes and fire-safe furnishings If problems like damp, mould, faulty wiring, or broken heating aren't fixed, tenants can contact their local council's environmental health team, which must act if conditions are dangerous. Rent increases and arrears: For rolling tenancies, rent can usually only go up once a year unless you agree otherwise. For fixed-term contracts, rent rises must wait until the term ends unless the agreement allows increases. Landlords must give at least one month's notice for changes, or six months if you pay rent annually. If you can't afford rent, help is available through Universal Credit, discretionary housing payments, or council support. Missing rent payments puts your tenancy at risk. Landlords can issue a Section 8 or Section 21 notice and apply to court for eviction. But they must follow legal procedures and give proper notice. Avoiding illegal evictions Landlords cannot evict you without proper notice or harass you into leaving. A Section 21 notice gives at least 2 months; a Section 8 notice (for rent arrears) requires 2 weeks. If you're taken to court, a judge will consider if the eviction is fair. You may be allowed to stay if you repay arrears or agree to conditions. Deposits and what you're owed Maximum deposit: 5 weeks' rent (or 6 if annual rent is £50,000+) Holding deposit (to reserve a home): 1 week's rent To get your deposit back, you must: Meet tenancy agreement terms Not damage the property Pay your rent and bills Landlords have 10 days to return your deposit once the tenancy ends. Disputes can be taken to the deposit scheme, First-Tier Tribunal, or letting agent redress scheme. When you start a tenancy Landlords must give you: A copy of the How to Rent guide (in England) Confirmation of deposit protection Contact details of who manages the property Gas safety, electrical safety, and energy performance certificates Tenant responsibilities Tenants must: Pay rent on time Look after the property (e.g., turn off water when away in winter) Report repairs and allow access with 24 hours' notice Not sublet unless agreed Pay for any damage caused by themselves, family or guests What to do if things go wrong Try resolving issues directly with your landlord or letting agent If that fails, contact your local councillor, MP, or a tenant panel Seek help from: Shelter Citizens Advice MoneyHelper Civil legal advice The new guidance is part of a wider government effort to crack down on rogue landlords and improve conditions for England's 11 million private renters. For full details, visit here or contact your local housing authority.
Los Angeles Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
More than one million of the poorest renters risk losing their homes with Trump's proposed policy
Havalah Hopkins rarely says no to the chain restaurant catering gigs that send her out to Seattle-area events — from church potlucks to office lunches and graduation parties. The delivery fees and tips she earns on top of $18 an hour mean it's better than minimum-wage shift work, even though it's not consistent. It helps her afford the government-subsidized apartment she and her 14-year-old autistic son have lived in for three years, though it's still tough to make ends meet. 'It's a cycle of feeling defeated and depleted, no matter how much energy and effort and tenacity you have towards surviving,' Hopkins said. Still, the 33-year-old single mother is grateful she has stable housing — experts estimate just 1 in 4 low-income households eligible for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development rental assistance get the benefits. And now Hopkins is at risk of losing her home, as federal officials move to restrict HUD policy. Amid a worsening national affordable housing and homelessness crisis, President Donald Trump's administration is determined to reshape HUD's expansive role providing stable housing for low-income people, which has been at the heart of its mission for generations. The proposed changes include a two-year limit on the federal government's signature rental assistance programs. At a June congressional budget hearing, HUD Secretary Scott Turner argued policies like time limits will fix waste and fraud in public housing and Section 8 voucher programs. 'It's broken and deviated from its original purpose, which is to temporarily help Americans in need,' Turner said. 'HUD assistance is not supposed to be permanent.' But the move to restrict such key subsidies would mark a significant retreat from the scope of HUD's work. Millions of tenants moved in with the promise of subsidized housing for as long as they were poor enough to remain qualified, so time limits would be a seismic shift that could destabilize the most vulnerable households, many unlikely to ever afford today's record-high rents. New research from New York University, obtained exclusively by The Associated Press and published Thursday, found that if families were cut off after two years, 1.4 million households could lose their vouchers and public housing subsidies — largely working families with children. This would lead housing authorities to evict many families, the report said. A broad time limit would cause 'substantial disruption and dislocation,' it said, noting the policy is largely untested and most of the few housing authorities to voluntarily try it eventually abandoned the pilots. A break from HUD's long-held purpose of helping house the poor could also jeopardize its contracts with private landlords, who say they're already feeling the uncertainty as public housing authorities from Seattle to Atlanta announce they're scaling back in anticipation of federal funding cuts. Critics fear the restriction could derail those working towards self-sufficiency — defeating the goal time-limit supporters hope to achieve. HUD spokesperson Kasey Lovett pushed back on the NYU study. 'There is plenty of data that strongly supports time limits and shows that long-term government assistance without any incentive disincentivizes able-bodied Americans to work,' Lovett said in a statement. She primarily cited statistics suggesting low employment among HUD-subsidized tenants. Hopkins said the policy would likely leave her and her son homeless in an economy that often feels indifferent to working poor people like her. 'A two-year time limit is ridiculous,' she said. 'It's so disrespectful. I think it's dehumanizing — the whole system.' Researchers from the Housing Solutions Lab at New York University's Furman Center analyzed HUD's data over a 10-year period and found about 70% of households who could be affected by a two-year limit had already been living on those subsidies for two or more years. That's based on 2024 estimates and doesn't include elderly and disabled people who wouldn't be subject to time limits. Exempted households make up about half of the roughly 4.9 million households getting rental assistance. In the first study to examine the proposed policy's possible impacts, the NYU researchers found time limits would largely punish families who are working but earning far below their area's median income, which would ultimately shift federal rental assistance away from households with kids. 'Housing assistance is especially impactful for children,' said Claudia Aiken, the study co-author and director of new research partnerships for the Housing Solutions Lab. Their health, education, employment and earnings potential can 'change in really meaningful ways if they have stable housing,' she said. It would affect people like Hopkins, whose family was on a years-long waitlist in the expensive region where she grew up. In July 2022, she and her son moved into a two-bedroom public housing unit in Woodinville, Washington. She pays $450 a month in rent — 30% of her household income. A market-rate apartment in the area costs at least $2,000 more, according to the King County Housing Authority, which in June announced it would pause issuing some new vouchers. Hopkins knows she could never afford to live in her home state without rental assistance. It was a relief they could stay as long as they needed. She had been struggling to scrape together hundreds of dollars more a month for her previous trailer home. 'There's no words to put on feeling like your housing is secure,' Hopkins said. 'I feel like I was gasping for air and I'm finally able to breathe.' She credits the housing subsidy for her ability to finally leave an abusive marriage, and still dreams of more — perhaps her own catering business or working as a party decorator. 'We all can't be lawyers and doctors — and two years isn't enough to even become that,' Hopkins said. Since learning of Trump's proposal, Hopkins said she's been haunted by thoughts of shoving her possessions into a van with her son, upending the stability she built for him. The average household in HUD-subsidized housing stays about six years, studies show. HUD funds local public housing projects where nearly 1 million households live and the Section 8 vouchers that about 4 million households use to offset their private rentals. There's been little guidance from HUD on how time-limited housing assistance would be implemented — how it would be enforced, when the clock starts and how the exemptions would be defined. Both Democrats and Republicans have acknowledged the potential for time limits to help curb HUD's notorious waitlists. Hard-liners contend the threat of housing loss will push people to reach self-sufficiency; others see limits, when coupled with support and workforce incentives, as a means to motivate tenants to improve their lives. Yet there are strikingly few successful examples. NYU researchers identified just 17 public housing authorities that have tested time limits. None of the programs were designed for only two years and 11 abandoned the restriction — despite being able to use federal dollars for services to help people achieve self-sufficiency. Several agencies that dropped the limits said tenants still struggled to afford housing after their time was up. 'These policies are complex and difficult to monitor, enforce, and do well,' NYU's Aiken said. The city of Keene, New Hampshire, tried five-year time limits starting in 2001, but terminated the policy before fully enforcing it to avoid kicking out households that would still be 'rent burdened, or potentially homeless,' said Josh Meehan, executive director of Keene Housing. In California, Shawnté Spears of the Housing Authority of San Mateo County said the agency has kept its five-year time limit in tandem with educational programs she says have 'given folks motivation' to meet their goals. It also gives more people the chance to use vouchers, she said. NYU's Aiken acknowledged HUD's long waitlists make the current system 'a bit of a lottery,' adding: 'You could say that time limits are a way of increasing people's odds in that lottery.' HUD's Section 8 programs have long depended on hundreds of thousands of for-profit and nonprofit small business owners and property managers to accept tenant vouchers. Now, landlords fear a two-year limit could put their contracts for HUD-subsidized housing in limbo. Amid the uncertainty, Denise Muha, executive director of the National Leased Housing Association, said multiple landlord groups have voiced their concerns about HUD's next budget in a letter to congressional leaders. She said landlords generally agree two years is simply not enough time for most low-income tenants to change their fortunes. 'As a practical matter, you're going to increase your turnover, which is a cost,' Muha said. 'Nobody wants to throw out their tenants without cause.' It's always been a significant lift for private landlords to work with HUD subsidies, which involve burdensome paperwork, heavy oversight and maintenance inspections. But the trade-off is a near guarantee of dependable longer-term renters and rental income. If that's compromised, some landlords say they'd pull back from the federal subsidy programs. Brad Suster, who owns 86 Chicago-area units funded by HUD, said accepting subsidies could become risky. 'Would we have the same reliability that we know has traditionally come for countless years from the federal government?' Suster said. 'That's something landlords and owners want to know is there.' The diminishing housing stock available to low-income tenants has been a brewing problem for HUD. Between 2010 and 2020, some 50,000 housing providers left the voucher program, the agency has reported. It's up for debate whether lawmakers will buy into Trump's vision for HUD. This week the U.S. House appropriations committee is taking up HUD's 2026 budget, which so far makes no mention of time limits. HUD's Lovett noted the Senate's budget plans for the agency have not yet been released, and said the administration remains focused on future implementation of time limits. 'HUD will continue to engage with colleagues on the hill to ensure a seamless transition and enforcement of any new time limit,' Lovett said in a statement. Noëlle Porter, the director of government affairs at the National Housing Law Project, said Trump's fight for time limits is far from over, noting that legislative and rule changes could make them a reality. 'It is clearly a stated goal of the administration to impose work requirements and time limits on rental assistance, even though it would be wildly unpopular,' Porter said. Democratic Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina says there's no evidence time limits would save HUD money. 'This doesn't help families who already are working multiple jobs to become self-sufficient,' Clyburn said at a June hearing. 'Instead, it creates chaos, financial uncertainty and pushes these families into more severe trade-offs.' Time limits could imperil Aaliyah Barnes' longtime dream of graduating college and becoming a nurse, finding a job and a home she can afford. The 28-year-old single mom in Louisville, Kentucky, this year joined Family Scholar House, which provides counseling and support for people pursuing an education — and, to Barnes' relief, housing. Her apartment is paid for by a Section 8 voucher. In March, Barnes moved in and her 3-year-old son, Aarmoni, finally got his own room, where she set up a learning wall. Previously, she had struggled to afford housing on her wages at a call center — and living with her mom, two sisters and their kids in a cramped house was an environment ridden with arguments. The stable future she's building could disappear, though, if she's forced out in two years when her schooling is expected to take three years. 'I'd be so close, but so far away,' Barnes said. Ho and Kramon write for the Associated Press.
New York Post
4 days ago
- Business
- New York Post
These families are most at risk of losing HUD housing due to Trump's proposed time limits
More than one million low-income households — most of them working families with children — who depend on the nation's public housing and Section 8 voucher programs could be at risk of losing their government-subsidized homes under the Trump administration's proposal to impose a two-year time limit on rental assistance. That's according to new research from New York University, obtained exclusively by The Associated Press, which suggests the time restriction could affect as many as 1.4 million households helped by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The NYU report, which was published Thursday, also raises concerns about the largely untested policy, as most of the limited number of local housing authorities that have voluntarily tried the idea eventually abandoned the pilots. Advertisement 7 The time restriction could affect as many as 1.4 million households helped by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. AP 'If currently assisted households are subject to a two-year limit, that would lead to enormous disruption and large administrative costs,' for public housing authorities, the report said, adding that once the limit was up, housing authorities 'would have to evict all of these households and identify new households to replace them.' Defining temporary assistance 7 Map of U.S. public housing agencies with time-limited programs. Local Housing Solutions Advertisement Amid a worsening national affordable housing and homelessness crisis, President Donald Trump's administration is determined to reshape HUD's expansive role providing stable housing for low-income people, which has been at the heart of its mission for generations. At a June congressional budget hearing, HUD Secretary Scott Turner argued reforms like time limits will fix waste and fraud in public housing and Section 8 voucher programs while motivating low-income families to work toward self-sufficiency. 'It's broken and deviated from its original purpose, which is to temporarily help Americans in need,' Turner said. 'HUD assistance is not supposed to be permanent.' Elderly and disabled people would be exempted, but there's little guidance from the agency on how time-limited housing assistance would be implemented — how it would be enforced, when the clock starts and how the exemptions would be defined. Advertisement 7 'It's broken and deviated from its original purpose, which is to temporarily help Americans in need,' Turner said. 'HUD assistance is not supposed to be permanent.' AP The NYU researchers dove deep into HUD's nationwide data over a 10-year period, analyzing nearly 4.9 million households that have been public housing and Section 8 voucher tenants. Of that, about 2.1 million could be affected by the time limits because they include at least one adult who is not elderly or disabled and about 70% of those households had already been living on those subsidies for two or more years. HUD spokesperson Kasey Lovett pushed back on the NYU study. 'There is plenty of data that strongly supports time limits and shows that long-term government assistance without any incentive disincentivizes able-bodied Americans to work,' Lovett said in a statement. Working families most at risk Advertisement 7 About 2.1 million could be affected by the time limits because they include at least one adult who is not elderly or disabled. AP The time limits could displace more than a million children, as it would largely punish families who are working but still earning far below their area's median income. 'Housing assistance is especially impactful for children,' said Claudia Aiken, the director of new research partnerships for the Housing Solutions Lab at NYU's Furman Center who co-authored the study with Ellie Lochhead. Their health, education, employment and earnings potential can 'change in really meaningful ways if they have stable housing,' Aiken said. 7 The time limits could displace more than a million children, as it would largely punish families who are working but still earning far below their area's median income. AP Havalah Hopkins, a 33-year-old single mom, has been living in a public housing unit outside of Seattle since 2022, but now fears a two-year time limit would leave her and her teenage son homeless. The 14-year-old boy has autism but is considered high-functioning, so how HUD defines disabled and 'able-bodied' for the time limit could determine if their family will be affected by the restriction. Hopkins, who does catering work for a local chain restaurant, pays $450 a month in rent — 30% of her household income — for their two-bedroom apartment in Woodinville, Washington. Asked what she likes most about her home, Hopkins said: 'I like that I can afford it.' Few successful examples 7 'Housing assistance is especially impactful for children,' said Claudia Aiken, the director of new research partnerships for the Housing Solutions Lab. AP Advertisement Of the 17 housing authorities that tried time limits, 11 discontinued the trial. None tried two-year limits — the most common policy was a five-year limit with the option for an extra two and the limits usually applied to specific programs or referrals. Although there are over 3,000 housing authorities in the country, only 139 of them have ever been granted flexibility to consider testing a time limit while using federal funds for programs such as job training and financial counseling. 'Any conversation about time limits ends up being this really nuanced, hyper-local focus on what works for specific communities rather than this broad national-level implementation,' said Jim Crawford, director of the Moving to Work Collaborative which oversees that group of housing authorities. 7 Of the 17 housing authorities that tried time limits, 11 discontinued the trial. AP Advertisement Even with those supports, several housing authorities said rent was still too high and well-paying jobs were scarce, according to the study. Others said they didn't have enough capacity to provide enough supportive services to help households afford rent. Shawnté Spears of the Housing Authority of the County of San Mateo in California said the agency's five-year time limits have 'given folks motivation' to meet their goals in tandem with self-sufficiency programs funded by dollars Trump wants to cut. Time limits also give more households the chance to use vouchers, she said. But with the Bay Area's high rents, some tenants still have to spend more than half of their income on rent once their time is up or end up back on waitlists. 'I believe the program is very helpful in getting folks prepared but there lies this really, really significant rent burden here in our county,' said Spears. 'When folks do leave our time-limited program, they are facing an uphill battle.'
