Poor and homeless face discrimination under America’s flawed housing voucher system

[KamaAina]

https://theconversation.com/poor-and-homeless-face-discrimination-under-americas-flawed-housing-voucher-system-52480

We’ve spent months researching how poor and homeless people struggle to find permanent housing. It’s become clear that Carly – and thousands of others like her – are trapped in a system that fails to acknowledge the realities of the housing market, requires navigating a maze of bureaucratic hurdles and allows landlords to easily discriminate against voucher holders....

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) allocates funding to states through the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program, which provides government and social service agencies with funds to help pay the monthly rents of low-income people.

The agencies that distribute housing choice vouchers pay the housing subsidy directly to the landlord, but most of the housing search is left to voucher holders, many of whom lack the skills and perseverance of savvy apartment hunters.

For example, in Massachusetts in 2014, 4,000 people who received vouchers didn’t end up using them, typically because they couldn’t locate an affordable, acceptable apartment.

[uppityperson]

1. I had the choice of a moldy singlewide 10 miles from town or an uninsulated tiny place in town

in a row of other such cabins with rats. If there was an opening, which took only 3 months. I fixed up the tiny place, but it was very cold in the winter, all the outer walls would have moisture dripping down them and the beds could not be against them because they were too cold. Fortunately I didn't have to use the service for long and could pass it on to another single parent.

It was better than living in my car, but it was seriously discouraging, trying to find somewhere that would accept the voucher.