Boston, MA: BHA plans cuts in rent subsidies
Boston Globe
By Adam Jadhav
Globe Correspondent
June 30, 2005
Citing the promise of fewer federal dollars, the Boston Housing Authority announced yesterday that it plans to cut payments to landlords on behalf of 3,500 poor households and force more than half of those tenants to chip in as much as $200 more each month.
The moves are in response to a $6.1 million cut in funding from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, said housing authority spokeswoman Lydia Agro. ''We're trying to do everything that we can to not kick people off the program," Agro said.
HUD spokeswoman Donna White denied that the housing authority's funding was cut, and attributed the agency's fiscal woes to over-budgeting and giving out too many subsidies.
White added that the department's national budget for Section 8 housing increased $300 million from fiscal year 2004 to fiscal year 2005, and HUD has asked for a $1.1 billion increase for 2006.
Agro flatly disputed that.
''HUD's assertions are nonsense. Any second-grader can do the math," Agro said. ''We received $6 million less in this calendar year."
US Representative Michael E. Capuano, a Somerville Democrat, said the issue is murky, but he blamed HUD for the subsidy reductions, saying that Section 8 tenants have decreased nationally.
''The number of people served and the amounts of money they are getting is significantly less than it was a couple years ago," Capuano said.
The housing authority subsidizes rent for 11,000 households in Greater Boston with HUD money. Tenants pay about 30 to 40 percent of their monthly income and the authority pays the rest, up to 110 percent of the fair market value established by HUD.
But HUD sharply decreased its valuations last October -- to $1,266 for a two-bedroom, $1,513 for a three-bedroom, $1,676 for a four-bedroom. Critics say tenants are left to scrounge for cheap apartments in Boston's expensive housing market.
Beginning Sept. 1, the authority will reduce the total rent by 4 percent on 3,500 units that cost more than 110 percent of HUD's standard. Of those, 1,800 will still be above the 110 percent mark. Those tenants, who Agro said are in larger apartments than necessary, will have to pay an average of $40 more -- but as much as $200 more -- or search for cheaper housing.
Even $40 would be too much for Philip Askew, 62, of Roxbury, who lives in a subsidized $937-a-month studio apartment. After paying for his portion of the rent ($220), medicine ($106), food ($280), bills ($154), and transportation ($64), Askew has about $32 left of his $856 federal disability check.
''And I consider myself completely fortunate," said Askew, co-chair of the Resident Advisory Board, which represents low-income tenants citywide.
Though Askew will not be affected by the cuts, he and others worry about anyone who is.
''It's going to be very difficult for some of the low-income tenants to make ends meet," said Aaron Gornstein, executive director of the Citizen's Housing and Planning Association, an advocacy group.
The housing authority also does not plan to turn vacated subsidies over to new tenants -- as many as 700 by the end of the year.