City residents nervous over housing fate
August 06, 2004
The North Adams (MA) Transcript
By Susan Bush
NORTH ADAMS -- Uncertainty about homelessness is spawning real fear among federal Section 8 subsidized housing recipients.
Brayton Hill resident Marilyn Boesse, 62, said on Thursday that she's very nervous about her housing fate, and has heard other program participants are frightened as well.
"We're scared to death," Boesse said. "My son and I are both disabled and between the two of us, we get about $1,300 a month. Where would I go? And never mind about me, what about these people with four or five children? Where will they go? Why are they [HUD] doing this? I'm in panic mode."
Boesse said that sometime in January, she and several of her Brayton Hill apartment complex neighbors received letters that informed them of the potential loss of their Department of Housing and Urban Development subsidies.
Boesse said she no longer has the letter and cannot recall who sent it, but does remember that the letter instructed recipients to make phone calls and write letters protesting any cuts.
"And we wrote letters and we made phone calls and we've heard nothing from anyone," she said. "We need information, we need to make plans if we have to move. We can't live with 'oh, I'm ok this month and maybe I'm ok next month, but then maybe I'm on the street.'"
When asked if her voucher was issued through the North Adams Housing Authority, Boesse said yes, and when told that the authority's Executive Director Marlene Walsh had terminated 26 families living away from the area and did not anticipate further terminations for the rest of this year, Boesse said she was somewhat relieved.
But she noted that the current revenue cuts were unexpected, and noted that more changes have been predicted.
"Someone has to let us know what we have to do to plan for this eventuality," she said. "We need explanations, we need information. Is there another plan that will help us? It costs money to move and I couldn't do it. You have to find a place and pay those costs, you have to move, you have to turn all your utilities back on. I can't do it and I have nowhere to go."
Both of Boesse's daughters are also program beneficiaries, and Boesse said their families are struggling financially.
"I don't want my grandbabies, my daughters and their husbands out on the street," she said. "We send all this money overseas to take care of people over there, and we have homeless, hungry people right here. This only adds more. We are putting people out of their homes and onto the streets with piles of their belongings. Why?"
Area landlords and social service providers are predicting dire consequences if HUD doesn't back away from the cuts and resume 100 percent funding of housing vouchers.
"If HUD doesn't release the money for these vouchers, I think it will be disastrous for this area," said Marie Harpin, who directs operations at the Northern Berkshire Community Action Center.
The community center provides a slew of services to low- and moderate-income Northern Berkshire families.
Harpin noted that many housing program consumers are young single mothers and couples who fall under the "working poor" category.
"These young mothers are barely making it now," Harpin said. "How will they find apartments with what they can pay? We have husbands and wives working at minimum wage and barely making it. The [homeless] shelters are full; there are waiting lists for the shelters."
Harpin noted that at the city-based Mohawk Forest complex alone, about 35 families are using the vouchers for rent payments.
Property owner Charles "Rusty" Ransford said he currently does have Section 8 residents among his tenants.
"Funding cuts could be affecting a lot of people," he said. "If people can't pay their rent, we [property owners] can't hold up our end. Most landlords are not set up to be benevolent associations."
Ransford noted that in some cases, people are paying as little $7 per month toward the rent, with HUD paying the rest. People with incomes low enough to contribute such a small amount are not likely to find housing that they can afford, he said.
"I think folks will try to do their best to pay the rent [without a subsidy] but they'll end up having trouble paying the utilities," he said. "So the choice will be pay the rent or be cold. And I do try to work with people who get behind in the rent but sometimes you end up with someone owing six months back rent and that's a lot of money."
The local affordable housing market is already limited; adding more people to the list of those looking for living space will make things "very, very tight," Ransford said.
And if more families become homeless, community agencies and state human service providers already battered by budget cuts will be inundated with people seeking help, Harpin predicted.
"We will have more families needing more services
from a state with little left to give," she said.