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{"id":717,"date":"2013-12-02T12:53:00","date_gmt":"2013-12-02T12:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/12\/food-and-housing-section-8-vouchers.html"},"modified":"2013-12-02T12:53:00","modified_gmt":"2013-12-02T12:53:00","slug":"food-and-housing-section-8-vouchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/12\/food-and-housing-section-8-vouchers.html","title":{"rendered":"Food and housing – Section 8 Vouchers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

So here\u2019s the thought for the day:<\/p>\n

Food stamps are an entitlement program. If you meet the eligibility requirements, you\u2019re automatically accepted upon application.\u00a0 There\u2019s minimal wait and no cap on the number of recipients.<\/p>\n

The equivalent program to aid low-income individuals in being able to afford housing is the Section 8 voucher, described here<\/a>.\u00a0 But, as this HUD fact sheet notes, there are waiting lists and potentially waiting lists so long that they are closed to new applicants.\u00a0 Just as a check, I looked at the programs in some nearby towns.\u00a0 In Elgin, Illinois, their website says the waitlist is closed; the same is true in Springfield and Peoria.\u00a0 In Chicago itself, there\u2019s more detail: the\u00a0waitlist was last opened in 2008, with spots on the waitlist filled via lottery.<\/p>\n

So\u00a0Food Stamps and food pantries become a safety valve\u00a0not for people who can\u2019t 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.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Instead of pushing for food stamp vouchers to be all the more generous for the working poor, wouldn\u2019t 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\u00a0at the\u00a0100% benefit level, or those already in subsidized housing, who live with family, or who benefit from rent control) in order to reach the others?<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, one would expect that \u201cSection 8 fraud\u201d is harder to perpetrate than food stamp fraud \u2014 sure, there\u2019s 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\u2019t happen with housing vouchers which are paid directly to a landlord!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"