Food and housing – Section 8 Vouchers

So here’s the thought for the day:

Food stamps are an entitlement program. If you meet the eligibility requirements, you’re automatically accepted upon application.  There’s minimal wait and no cap on the number of recipients.

The equivalent program to aid low-income individuals in being able to afford housing is the Section 8 voucher, described here.  But, as this HUD fact sheet notes, there are waiting lists and potentially waiting lists so long that they are closed to new applicants.  Just as a check, I looked at the programs in some nearby towns.  In Elgin, Illinois, their website says the waitlist is closed; the same is true in Springfield and Peoria.  In Chicago itself, there’s more detail: the waitlist was last opened in 2008, with spots on the waitlist filled via lottery.

So Food Stamps and food pantries become a safety valve not for people who can’t afford food, but for people who pay amounts for housing far in excess of what would be considered reasonable, and have no money left over for out-of-pocket spending on food. 

Instead of pushing for food stamp vouchers to be all the more generous for the working poor, wouldn’t it make more sense to direct more money to Section 8 vouchers to remedy the actual problem, rather than provide overly-generous benefits for a portion of the population (those at the 100% benefit level, or those already in subsidized housing, who live with family, or who benefit from rent control) in order to reach the others?

What’s more, one would expect that “Section 8 fraud” is harder to perpetrate than food stamp fraud — sure, there’s the fraud of underreporting income or other sorts of lies on the application itself, or, I suppose, subletting a room in the apartment to another tenant for extra income, but the fundamental gripes of people getting more benefit than they need and selling the excess for cash just can’t happen with housing vouchers which are paid directly to a landlord!