In the aftermath of the tornadoes, a post about public housing.

[GreenPartyVoter]

This is a repost of my reply to the heartbreaking OP by Syrinx: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1050037

We need public housing, now more than ever. Tell your Federal, State, and Municipal representatives to correct this shameful situation! http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt Get after the media for ignoring the situation: Amy Goodman and “Democracy Now!” http://www.democracynow.org/about/contact Rachel Maddow [email protected] More media: http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=111

• There are 9 million households in need of low-income housing. There are 6 million available units. http://www.nlihc.org/doc/FactSheet.pdf

• In the last several years, HUD has been tearing down thousands of low-income units across the country. http://www.cbpp.org/files/2-1-07hous2.pdf

• According to a 2001 HUD report, 1.14 million affordable housing units were lost between 1997 and 1999. There are many reasons for this loss, but among other causes, when HUD privatized the building of new units, the contracts stipulated that, at the end of the 20-year contract, the owner could opt to convert the units from subsidized to market value. As each development reaches this 20-year mark, many units are lost to conversion from low-income to market. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-lakoff/hud-is-trying-to-privatiz_b_585069.html

• After Katrina, 4,000 low-income units were destroyed in New Orleans, although they could have been made habitable. None of these lost units was replaced. http://www.cbpp.org/files/2-1-07hous2.pdf

• During the negotiations to demolish the former New Orleans St. Thomas Housing Project in 2002, developers started out promising that 50% of the units would be affordable. But in the end only 9% were affordable one study showed. http://www.atlantaprogressivenews.com/news/0218.html

• In Chicago, the Housing Authority demolished 3,300 units of public housing and planned to replace it with only 1,800 units, a loss of 1,500 units. http://news.change.org/stories/is-it-too-late-to-save-public-housing

• Over the past ten years, Atlanta has spent almost $15 million to bulldoze 15,000 units of public housing. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/us/21atlanta.html

• In many cities, there are no longer even waiting lists for subsidized housing. In Atlanta, although there were no vacancies available, an announcement was made that they would open a waiting list for one day. Thirty thousands people arrived to apply, some in line for days. 15K applications were handed out, and 62 people were taken to the hospital suffering from heat stroke. http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/housing-crisis-reaches-full-589653.html