Cape housing advocates decry federal subsidy cuts :Cape Cod Times. April 10, 2004

But a Bush official says unused Section 8 dollars indicate problems with the program.

By ROBIN LORD
STAFF WRITER
HYANNIS - The federal Section 8 housing program has lost government funding because there is a perception in Congress that it is broken, according to Philip Mangano executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness.

Mangano spoke yesterday to the local working group for the federal council's "Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness" campaign at Community Action Committee headquarters in Hyannis.

The director said the fact that more than $1 billion of unused Section 8 money was returned to the government last year has made lawmakers question the program.

But, at least locally, the reason the money is returned is because the rents set by the federal government for Section 8 units is substantially less than what Cape landlords charge.

Local housing advocates said the cuts in federal rental subsidies to local low-income families - planned for this year and next - will be devastating.

"We don't care what the complicated reasons are," said Frederic Presbrey, executive director of the Housing Assistance Corp in Hyannis.

He said the Section 8 program has been "an unprecedented success," helping low-income families put a roof over their heads and integrate into the community.

Under the program, renters contribute no more than 35 percent of their income toward rent and get a government voucher to pay for the balance.

Section 8 vouchers provide the biggest chunk of subsidized housing on Cape Cod.

The program was created to move away from federal housing projects that lumped low-income families together leading to societal stigmatization and other problems.

New rental calculations from the Bush administration will cut $3.75 million from the program statewide in the next six weeks, Presbrey said.

On Cape Cod, that means more than 100 families will lose their vouchers.

"It's a rather dramatic hypocrisy for the Bush administration to say it has a 10-year plan to end homelessness, while cutting Section 8s," Presbrey said.

President Bush's fiscal 2005 budget calls for cutting the voucher program by more than $1.6 billion in 2005, with the cut rising to $4.6 billion or 30 percent by 2009.

But, Mangano, who was appointed by President Bush to head the Interagency Council on Homelessness, said Bush is responding to congressional doubts "on both sides of the aisle" about the program.

Lawmakers and the president question the need for more money when vouchers and their funding are returned each year.

He said when he took the post, he learned of Section 8 money was returned unused by communities all over the state, and he went to the Office of Management and Budget to see if it could be reallocated for some of his homelessness initiatives. But, the budget office already funneled it elsewhere, he said.

The Housing and Urban Development Corp., which distributes the Section 8 money, allocates the money to thousands of housing authorities around the country.

If one program does not find takers for all of its vouchers - because there either are not enough families or not enough landlords willing to take the government-set rental rates - they must send the money back to the government, Presbrey said.

They are prohibited from sharing the vouchers with other agencies.

Housing Assistance Corp. has returned vouchers in the past because there have not been enough landlords willing to rent their units for what the federal housing department pays, Presbrey said.

The Housing Assistance Corp. has not issued a Section 8 housing certificate in 15 months, because of scarce affordable units, Allison Rice, the agency's director of family housing services, told the group yesterday.

Federal housing assistance vouchers for Cape Cod, which are based on fair-market rent plus 10 percent for utilities, are about $760 for a one-bedroom unit, $1,084 for a two-bedroom unit and about $1,200 for a three-bedroom unit.

But typical rents on the Cape are about $1,000 for a one-bedroom unit, $1,100 to $1,300 for a two-bedroom unit and $1,300 to $1,500 for a three-bedroom. These rents do not include utilities.

With the Bush administration's decision to use last year's rental prices for this year's vouchers, the problem will only get worse, she predicted.

Despite his harsh words for the administration's Section 8 cuts, Presbrey praised Mangano as "the lone voice in the wilderness to create a national commitment to end homelessness."

Mangano recently bought a second home in Eastham.

The director said 45 states, including Massachusetts, have signed on to the council's "Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness." The plan calls on cities and towns to come up with ways to house all of their residents within 10 years.

"You are not alone here on Cape Cod," Mangano said.

His council is made up of 20 federal departments and agencies who will share information about measurable and proven programs to end homelessness.

"There is more political will on this issue (homelessness) than has ever been constellated before," he said.

Mangano, told housing advocates that whether they are lobbying for more Section 8 money or for federal homelessness funds, they must give data to prove their case.

"One thing I know about advocacy now is that the anecdotal information will not get the job done," he said.

Staff writer CYNTHIA MCCORMICK contributed to this report.

(Published: April 10, 2004)

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