As Program Moves Poor to Suburbs, Tensions Follow

[groovedaddy]

ANTIOCH, Calif. — From the tough streets of Oakland, where so many of Alice Payne’s relatives and friends had been shot to death, the newspaper advertisement for a federally assisted rental property in this Northern California suburb was like a bridge across the River Jordan.

Ms. Payne, a 42-year-old African-American mother of five, moved to Antioch in 2006. With the local real estate market slowing and a housing voucher covering two-thirds of the rent, she found she could afford a large, new home, with a pool, for $2,200 a month.

But old problems persisted. When her estranged husband was arrested, the local housing authority tried to cut off her subsidy, citing disturbances at her house. Then the police threatened to prosecute her landlord for any criminal activity or public nuisances caused by the family. The landlord forced the Paynes to leave when their lease was up.

Under the Section 8 federal housing voucher program, thousands of poor, urban and often African-American residents have left hardscrabble neighborhoods in the nation’s largest cities and resettled in the suburbs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/09/us/09housing.html?th&emc=th

[sandnsea]

1. There's been Section 8 for 30+ years

What a strange basis for a story. Everybody should be required to live in a small town for some period of time where Section 8 and housing projects are in the same block and everybody goes to the same schools, stores and churches. People would quickly figure out that the kid of the mayor gets in trouble with drugs and crime just as often as the low income kid.

[mrcheerful]

2. But that goes against the us vs them strategy that pukes have been using to

get rid of programs like section 8. Just like the belief that welfare queens are running rampent in stores buying steak and lobsters plus pop and chips how dare they, they should be buying chitlins and greens with those food stamps given to them free. Or the belief that welfare queens are running down to the social security office for SSI nut cheaks. After all they only need to show up at the SS office and claim they have a mental illness and they recieve a check as they walk out the doors.