Student use of Sec. 8 housing comes under fire

[Judi Lynn]

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Student use of Sec. 8 housing comes under fire

Most getting subsidized rent at Am.F. complex are collegians

By Jared Page
Deseret Morning News
AMERICAN FORK — Jennifer Nicholes was an almost-homemaker. She had a husband, a daughter and a belly that indicated another child was on the way.
(snip)

To be clear, Nicholes wasn't homeless in 1994; her in-laws made sure the young family had a roof over its head. But they couldn't afford a place of their own.

"My husband was going to school," Nicholes said, "and the vacancy rate was out of this world. Honestly, a two-bedroom, horrible, roach apartment was about $800 a month, and we just couldn't pay that."

That's when Nicholes found out about Maple Village, 445 E. 500 South, an apartment complex in American Fork at which qualifying low-income families, including students, receive rent assistance from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Those participating in HUD's Section 8 program pay about 30 percent of their household's income, and HUD pays the rest. Under HUD guidelines, neither student loans nor Pell grants are considered income.
(snip/...)

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635156459,00.html

[DBoon]

1. why the hell should student loans be considered income?

Why should anyone care if a few students legally obtain subsidized housing when Halliburton is eating billions of dollars?

The RW would rather deny a few pennies in public assistance than go after billions in fraud.

Lastly, I think there is a public benefit to higher education. College degrees benefit the community at large by creating a more educated citizenry possessed of better analytic and critical think skills. We SHOULD be subsidizing this.

[Terran]

9. I ask myself that every day...

Why should anyone care if a few students legally obtain subsidized housing when Halliburton is eating billions of dollars?

I work with HUD subsidized housing programs--not Section 8 but many others--and I could go into why students shouldn't be able to access Section 8 asisstance (there are good reasons, given the population Section 8 is intended to serve). But your question really expresses the bottom line. HUD spends a paltry few billion a year on housing, and a fraction of that on homelessness, and yet we spend, what seven billion a WEEK?? in Iraq, and for nothing at all.

And HUD monitors the expenditure of its funds like a hawk; you have to account for every penny. So all the fraud and waste in the military is nothing but a slap in the face to those of us who grovel for federal funds just to keep people from living in their cars. If we threw all that Iraq money at housing, we'd end homelessness and have enough affordable housing for everyone in this country.

[ender]

2. oh for the love of god.

so, these assholes would prefer that the father drop out of college, so he can get a crap job and not advance himself or his family?

i dont get it. most likely, this family is going to produce much more tax revenue by being better educated than they would if they were working.

[SoCalDem]

4. Nope, those assholes want the families of these students

to house them..

I can actually see both sides of this issue..

Lots of people put off the children part of their family until they are finished with school, just for that reason.. Whne parents are students, they often have no time available to work full time. If students are occupying section 8 housing, those places are no longer available for people who may actually have way less resources than the students..

What's needed is for colleges to provide enough married student housing .. It's taking longer and longer for people to finish school, so I can understand why they might not want to wait years and years to have a family..Lots of people are needing 6 or more years to finish..

Regardless..there are too few affordable places of ANY kind for people to rent :(

[IChing]

3. America heading toward feudal fascism

So it creates an educated repug.

and leaves others without the financial means into dead-in service jobs.

[hallc]

5. wow - i wish i knew you could do this

before i took out extra money in my school loans and pushed myself further and further into debt.

Colleges and Universities need to understand that people getting a Grad degree can't work (in certain programs)- therefore, no income = more loans = higher debt. There is NO Grad housing at my school.

[knitter4democracy]

6. I knew kids in college who did it.

Frankly, the rental managers preferred college kids and married college students in our town. I'm not really sure why, but they sure seemed to and frankly pushed kids to apply for Section 8.

Until our government pays for college, I think this sort of thing should stay available. If any RW'er would read the latest Atlantic and the article on how freakin' hard it is for anyone lower in status than middle class to actually go to college and complete their degree, they might change their minds (but probably not).

[geoshelby]

7. Do what you gotta do.

My last two years of college were spent in the same kind of Sec.8 housing. The town in which my university is located has zero jobs for college students because they are all filled by the local High School population which lives there year round. I went to school full time and worked as a custodian on campus. At that time my immediate family had two kids working on undergraduate degrees, a mother working on a masters and a father killing himself to pay for the bulk of all our bills. It was a blessing to qualify for sec.8 housing at that time and it is still the only public assistance I have ever taken. I have never felt bad about living in that apartment because I have always payed my taxes and none of Bush, or Clinton's tax cuts/benefits have ever equated to more cash in my pocket.

I guess I should have just quit school when I could not afford housing and had 5 kids by the time I was 24.

[newyawker99]

13. Hi geoshelby!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[pop goes the weasel]

8. The real reasons to oppose student Sec. 8

It means that poor people are going to college, it shows other poor people that they could possibly go to college, it puts educated people among folks who are poorly educated, it provides the potential for leadership against exploitation.

Now, those may sound like good things to Democrats, but we know those are the real reasons Republicans don't want students to qualify.

[Igel]

10. My financial aid covered my living expenses.

Apartment in West Los Angeles. Food.

Has this changed?

[WindRavenX]

11. yes

My aid only covers tuition. I pay everything else.

[Igel]

12. That's pretty much outrageous.

Do they still use the unified FAF?

My aid was mostly loans.