SOUTH CAROLINA: Section 8 Cuts in Charleston
Jan 27, 2005
By Adam Ferrell
The Post and Courier, Charleston, S.C.
Nearly 1,200 poor families receiving federal rent help through the city of Charleston Housing Authority will have to scrounge for an extra $25 a month starting March 1.
Public housing providers blame it on government shortfalls.
"The people in Washington aren't the ones sitting here making these decisions, and they won't get the phone calls," Charleston Housing Authority Director Don Cameron told the authority's Board of Commissioners Monday after it unanimously, though tentatively, approved an assistance reduction.
They didn't have much choice, as the authority faces a $350,000 shortfall in its Section 8 federal rental assistance budget.
Even with the flat-rate, $25 per-family funding cut, the authority will end up in the hole, according to James Heyward, the authority's chief operating officer.
It already has had to tap $160,000 of administrative money to float the program for the past several months, he said.
The cash shortage in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's largest program was made clear during the fall when Congress appropriated some $13.3 billion for voucher renewals this year.
The program needs $600 million more, Cameron said, who is the incoming president of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials.
Cameron said that since early December his staff has received three different letters of commitment from HUD, each promising less money.
Earlier this month, Cameron believed the shortfall to be about $30,000.
When the last letter came Monday, he learned the situation was much worse.
The city's public housing woes come weeks after the Charleston County Housing Authority announced that its shortage meant that 160 Section 8 families will be forced out of the program in February. The North Charleston Housing Authority also may consider similar cuts.
The Charleston housing board also approved a moratorium on rent increases by landlords participating in the Section 8 program. Some commissioners and authority staff members expressed fears that if the measure stays in effect too long, some landlords may withdraw from the program.