Public Housing Funds Spent on Middle-Class Families

[Atlanta Housing Authority CEO Renee] Glover said that pushing out chronic public housing residents is the only way to break the cycle of poverty, and she has led many of the nation's housing authority leaders to the same conclusion.

Thanks to the Associated Press, I finally get some hard numbers on HOPE VI's - and our nation's housing authorities - impact on reducing deeply affordable housing in the U.S.  As we've covered here previously,  Atlanta is nearing the final demolition of its public housing projects.  It's doubly sad to read about this as I learn that Atlanta was home to the first public housing project in the U.S.: Techwood Homes.  As ATL abandons its developments for mixed-income complexes, we have also abandoned the original spirit and intent of the program, evoked by a former President:

President Franklin D. Roosevelt heralded the project as "a tribute to useful work under government supervision" and the first step in building a safety net for the working poor during the Depression.

These days, the US Dept. of Housing & Urban Development spends its money building housing for the middle class.

The article offers these sad facts about the program:

Hope VI...reversed long-standing HUD policy by letting housing authorities replace demolished units with Section 8 vouchers, coupons that low-income families can use to cover rent with private landlords off site...vouchers would prevent homelessness.

At least in theory.

[snip]

HUD estimates that Hope VI eventually will demolish 95,998 public housing units [nationwide]. A little more than half of those will be replaced with traditional public housing. HUD also is building more than 50,000 other units in mixed-income communities, which will range from semi-subsidized apartments with higher income requirements to market-rate houses. (my emphases)

You know what this means, don't you?  It means that HUD is spending the majority of its low-income housing production funds on homes for middle- and upper-income households.  Technically, I guess, this is a-ok, given HUD's mission includes "community development." Considering that "housing officials say" "Mixing higher-income with lower-income families spurs the poor into self-improvement...while deconcentrating poverty", it seems the Cabinet agency born during the Great Society, offspring of the 1937 Act to create housing for low-income families, is leaving to us middle-class types the job of pulling our neighbors out of poverty by the sheer impact of our model behavior.  What shirkers - doesn't seem like HUD's modeling much personal responsibility now, does it?

But wait, there's more!

So far, 17,911 displaced families have returned to revitalized communities. HUD expects a total of 22,510 families to return, a fraction of those displaced. [23%, to be exact. - LG]

HUD records show that the whereabouts of 12,595 families, many of whom faced eviction for lease violations, is unclear.

"Unclear."  Funny, that's the word I always use as a synonym for "I don't know" or "I'm not sure" or "No f'ing clue."  I wonder how much overlap there is between these 12k families and all those low-income households dropped from the welfare rolls over the last 13 years?  As far as we know, they're all successfully working.  Really, what we should be admitting is, "Off my docket, not my problem."  "Out of sight, out of mind."  "What poor people?"

I'll just leave you with this concluding thought, based on the final remark in that article: how is a housing unit a "way of life?"

There's so much off about this program I don't even know where to begin...countless blog posts and one dissertation later, I'm still trying to work it all out...

(Photo of "Techwood Homes, housing project in Atlanta,1993," from Southern Spaces)