ONE QUARTER OF ONE MILLION

If President Bush has his way, 250,000 Housing Vouchers will be taken in 2005. By 2009, another 600,000 families will lose their homes. In Colorado alone, 3,337 families would lose their vouchers in 2005 and another 8,010 by 2009. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the Section 8 Housing Voucher cost under the current program would be nearly the same through 2009. Despite this fact the Bush Administration is suggesting 850,000 people be cut from the program by 2009.

That's a lot of people on the streets, folks. That's a lot of women and little kids forced to stay in abusive situations because they have nowhere else to go.

For me, it means a return to the banks of the San Miguel River which is okay in the summer, but no damn fun at all when the snow flies. I get just a little over $600 a month from disability. There's no way I can cover rent and utilities on that without a housing voucher. Right now I'm scared to death. I don't have the stamina to handle being homeless again, and there's a quarter of a million Americans just like me out there. PLEASE write your congressman and ask them to vote against this cut.

And, Radar, I don't want to read one single word from you on this subject, so don't even think of replying.

[elSicomoro]

Where are you getting this info from, Mari?

I was alerted to this fact thru an online newsletter I get from the Colorado Cross-Disability Association. You can read the news straight from the horse's mouth at this site:

http://www.cbpp.org/pubs/housing.htm

Right now I am so bummed out I want to cry.

[MrKite]

I'm writing some letters now but single voices are hard to hear

[DanaC]

Damn Marichiko. Thats awful. Not much point my writing to anyone but my goodwishes go to you nonetheless. This is all yet more reason for people to vote and vote well

Originally posted by MrKite
I'm writing some letters now but single voices are hard to hear

That's what keeps us all quiet, Mrkite. We feel disenfranchised by the system. I know that I certainly do. Still, I'll be damned if I go down without offering so much as a word of protest. These proposed housing voucher cuts by Bush hit the very people who most need help the hardest - seniors living on low incomes, the disabled, and single Mom with kids trying to get out of abusive situations. We consider ourselves a generous people, yet we are willing to turn a quarter million of our own people out onto the streets to fend for themselves as best they can. Its an outrage! Thank you for writing and tell your friends. In the words of John Donne,

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main... Any man's death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. . . "

[wolf]

If they would drop people off section 8 who are violating the terms of their rental agreements, this wouldn't be a problem ... people who fail their inspection, have other adults living in the residence, or test positive for drugs/alcohol use should be O-U-T.

I agree, Wolf. There are some people who abuse the system, but for every individual who is abusing it, there are 100 who desperately need the help. And many of the people who illegally have someone live with them do so out of dire financial need. SSI only pays $530/month, and its very hard to live on that, even with a housing voucher. People with housing vouchers are still required to pay 30% of their income toward rent. 30% of $530.00 is $159.00, leaving the individual with $381.00/month to cover the rest of their expenses. Can you wonder that they might take another person into the household to help with expenses?

Punishing the innocent for the crimes of a few is NOT the solution to the problem. The clever cons will continue to manipulate the system. The honest old lady on a tiny pension will have nowhere to go.

[smoothmoniker]

It's not Bush. It's not "The System". It's not "The Government".

It's me. You come over to my house every month, take a third of every dollar that I earn, and use it to pay your rent. Regardless of how needy, how tragic your life circumstances, how difficult it may be for you to go out and earn a living, the basic reality is that I'm paying your rent for you. The fact that the IRS and SSI act as your agents doesn't obviate the fundamental exchange.

Given that reality, don't I have a right to argue against it? Shouldn't I vote for people who pledge to fight for my right to not pay your rent? And when those people follow through on their promises, shouldn't I applaud them?

I think I'll start a letter writing campaign of my own.

-sm

[Yelof]

Perhaps Mr smoothmoniker those people you wish to elect to strip people of benefits would have more credibility if they didn't then blow any savings on government savings they made on pointless missile defense systems and foreign adventure.

I for one would rather have money 'stolen' by the likes of marichiko then return to the sort of 19C paradise were the poor die on the streets without help, as they die of their own faults

[DanaC]

Not to mention the billions of $$$$'s given away to th'likes of McDonalds in "corporate welfare"
If smoothmoniker really wants his tax burden reduced there are much worthier targets than housing stamps which account for a very very small part of that tax

[elSicomoro]

Originally posted by smoothmoniker
Given that reality

Eh, no, that's not reality. That's your perception.

[xoxoxoBruce]

marichiko, are you sure that YOU will be cut? It sounded to me like there will be all sorts of different outcomes in different areas. It will probably affect you in some way, but it may not be as bad as you apparently feel it might.
Maybe it's time to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, and become self sufficient,....sell drugs.

Originally posted by smoothmoniker
It's not Bush. It's not "The System". It's not "The Government".

It's me. You come over to my house every month, take a third of every dollar that I earn, and use it to pay your rent. Regardless of how needy, how tragic your life circumstances, how difficult it may be for you to go out and earn a living, the basic reality is that I'm paying your rent for you. The fact that the IRS and SSI act as your agents doesn't obviate the fundamental exchange.

Given that reality, don't I have a right to argue against it? Shouldn't I vote for people who pledge to fight for my right to not pay your rent? And when those people follow through on their promises, shouldn't I applaud them?

I think I'll start a letter writing campaign of my own.

-sm

I'd rather camp on the San Miguel until I'm 95 than take as much as a penny from you, your excellency. The money I now recieve is from SSDI, MY OWN money that I paid in to Social Security from MY earnings from MY work over an almost 30 year period.

By the way, of that 1/3 that the government takes from your paycheck, much of it goes to other things rather than social security. The government has been robbing social security for years and using it for things like George Junior's fiasco in Iraq. The American public, including you, is so ill informed that they don't even realize where their money is really going.

You have obviously never heard of the concept of enlightened self interest. You are too busy out there in fantasy land to look around you at the real world except maybe to kick a homeless person out of the way if he gets too close to you as you step into your limo.

Originally posted by xoxoxoBruce
marichiko, are you sure that YOU will be cut? It sounded to me like there will be all sorts of different outcomes in different areas. It will probably affect you in some way, but it may not be as bad as you apparently feel it might.
Maybe it's time to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, and become self sufficient,....sell drugs.

No, I can't know that I will be cut, but I am a single person. If resources become as limited as the Bush administration wants, vouchers will most likely be given to families, and rightly so, in my book. I couldn't stand buying my well-being at the expense of say a Mom and her two year old son and three year old daughter or even an elderly women who is going blind and has a hard time hearing.

And I am doing everything I can to get medical and voc-rehab help, but these things take time and the cuts are already starting now. Actually, selling drugs is beginning to look good. I know a dealer and he has a nice standard of living and doesn't even have to pay taxes. I'm sure SM would approve of that!