HUD Secretary Ben Carson to propose raising rent for low-income Americans receiving federal housing subsidies
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson testified
before a Senate Banking Committee hearing March 22.
(Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)
U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson on Wednesday proposed raising the amount that low-income families are expected to pay for rent — tripling it for the poorest households — as well as encouraging those receiving housing subsidies to work, according to a legislative proposal obtained by The Washington Post.
The move to overhaul how rental subsidies are calculated would affect 4.7 million families relying on federal housing assistance. The proposal legislation would require congressional approval.
“There is one inescapable imperative driving this reform effort,” Carson said in a call with reporters. “The current system isn't working very well. Doing nothing is not an option.”
Tenants generally pay 30 percent of their adjusted income toward rent or a public housing agency minimum rent -- which is capped at $50 a month for the poorest families. The administration’s proposal sets the family monthly rent contribution at 35 percent of gross income, or 35 percent of their earnings working 15 hours a week at the federal minimum wage. Under the proposal, the cap for the poorest families would rise to about $150 a month -- three times higher than the current minimum -- affecting about 175,000 families currently paying the minimum rent, HUD officials said.
The bill would also allow public housing agencies and property owners to impose work requirements. Currently, only 15 housing authorities in about a dozen states require some sort of work or job training in return for benefits, HUD officials said. In Atlanta and Charlotte, at least one adult needs to work 30 hours a week for a household to receive housing benefits. Chicago requires able-bodied beneficiaries to work 20 hours a week.
Seniors over the age of 65 and individuals with disabilities would be exempt from the rental increases for the first six years. They would also be exempt from any work requirements. HUD officials said that group makes up more than half of the 4.7 million families receiving subsidies.
“Every year, it takes more money, millions of dollars more, to serve the same number of households,” Carson said, citing years-long waiting lists for federal housing assistance. "It's clear from a budget perspective and a human point of view that the current system is unsustainable."
Carson said decades-old rules on how rent is calculated are "far too confusing" and convoluted, often resulting in families who earn the same income paying vastly different amounts of rent "because they know how to work the system."
“They know how to include certain deductions that other people may not be aware of,” Carson said. “We really want to level the playing field and make it much more even for everyone.”
HUD also seeks to eliminate deductions for medical and child-care costs when determining a tenant’s rent.
Carson said the current rules that require an annual review of beneficiaries' household income also creates “perverse consequences” that discourage people from earning more income. Under the proposed bill, income verification would only be required every three years, which Carson said would encourage residents to work more without immediately facing a rent increase.
The Trump administration has long signaled through its budget proposals and leaked draft legislation that it seeks to increase the rents that low-income tenants pay to live in federally subsidized housing. The White House budget proposal for the 2019 fiscal year indicated that it would “encourage work and self-sufficiency” across its rental assistance programs.
“When we are in the middle of a housing crisis that’s having the most negative impact on the lowest-income people, we shouldn’t even be considering proposals to increase their rent burdens,” said Diane Yentel, president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
Carson laid out the administration’s plans in a press call about an hour before a Wednesday afternoon House Financial Services subcommittee hearing on rent reform.
“Changes that are made to the rental structure ultimately have to be approved by Congress,” Carson said. “These are the suggestions that we are making.”
Extract from the Original article by Tracy Jan , in Wonkblog .
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Gee! The Trump administration is going to make life a bit harder for poor people.
That's a surprise...
If Democrats had their way the poor would always stay poor and dependent on the govt. That makes them a reliable voter base.
You know your little memes don't show up on a cell phone screen, right?
You mean the meme's don't show up on your little cell phone screen. It's ok. Perhaps time to purchase a computer?
Sounds like the good doctor needs a new dining room set for his office.
There is zero chance that this "suggestion" will go into effect as proposed, unless Mitch McConnell is prepared to invoke the "nuclear option" in the Senate in order to charge poor people more in rent. I uh, don't see that happening.
So what is the point? To make the deplorables feel better about themselves.
I'd like to know why an able-bodied (mentally and physically) person is working only 15 hours per week.
Can't find a job?
Can find a job, but a nanny for the kids costs more than the job pays?
Unemployment is very, very low.
The vast majority of people who want to work already are working.
people shouldn't be responsible for providing for themselves and their offspring?
We rented a house out for 3 years. We had a property manager that handled it for us, and she took Section 8 clients. The two we had trashed the place and left it a mess. Also, I know that one of them had their boyfriend (perhaps the father of the 3 kids?) move in. I made them go by the lease and they got all pissy saying "Everyone does it like this".
I guess it is easy to have a car with $1000 wheels and a $1000 sound system in it if you don't have to pay rent and for food and medical.
Poor people don't have the luxury of employing nannies. Try again.
For every bad tenant there is a good one. A friend of mine rents a cottage house to a section 8 mother. She keeps that little house so clean that you could eat off of the floors. She works two jobs to support herself and her 9 yo daughter. As tired as she is, she spends quality time with her child, who makes straight A's in school.
I am quite sure that there are lots of people who get Section 8 assistance who are clean, good people.
I was just relating my personal experiences and wasn't implying that my experiences were the norm.
We had another tenant that wasn't Section 8 and he was a pig.
I had much more of a problem with the person who wanted to move her boyfriend in without me letting Section 8 know.
People who need some help from time to time aren't a problem for me. People who take advantage of the system and free-load are.
After all of that, my wife and I decided we weren't cut out to b landlords and sold the house.
I think we might have been a little too attached to the house because it was the first house we bought.
hated to see how other people left it.
I'm impressed!
So many people in such a hurry to do harm to poor people. MAGA!
Sounds like Trump wants to pay for his tax cut for billionaires by driving up the homeless rate.
I wonder if Trump himself will benefit because he owns many apartments?
I wonder if he even rents to black folks or poor people these days? I doubt he owns or operates any section 8 housing.
I think Trump is just doing what pretty much ALL modern Republicans do - they try to give money to the rich and pay for that by cutting services to the poor, the sick and the elderly. Plus you can't give money to billionaires and increase the military budget by $217 billion per year without gutting social services.
Yes, those deplorables want to keep the poor in high crime projects, failing schools and no incentive to improve. And by deplorables I mean liberals.
Interestingly enough Dave Ramsey, whom has financial awareness classes all over America, mainly in churches, professes not to exceed 25% of your take home for Mortgage or Rent. The cap is already 35% which is beneficial for the lower income family to still be able to pay for insurance, food, clothes, electricity, water..etc. Increasing that amount only takes the money from another bill and ultimately hurts them.
Some on this site act like they are living in a luxurious home in the suburbs or something and that they are getting a free ride. Wake up call, HUD housing is in the shittiest part of town (the ghetto, the hood, white trash central)...call it what you will. If these people had the means, opportunity, or ambition to get the hell out of the shitty circumstances they are in they would have already and some still will.
Increasing their rent does not make them go "Oh shit, i better get a better fucking job so i can continue to pay for this shit hole." It is in fact the shithole they live in should make them want a better job. Fact is there may not be better jobs and the money they make now barely keeps them living so they do not have the money to be economically mobile to move to a new town or state or go to vo tech or college or study for the GED, they may in fact just be in a really big fucking hole and don't know how to dig out and it has wore on them physically and mentally to a point of despair.
Increasing rent and lowering benefits will not help them dig out but cause more pain and suffering and more feelings of despair and drive them deeper into the ground.
There are very, very few people with the intelligence and fortitude to claw up the side of that hole without the proper assistance or support. We do not currently provide the proper assistance or support needed for this to happen, we provide the minimum we can and say good luck to you, so most people just end up sitting in the hole, not going up or down but just looking up and saying, "hello, anyone there? I could use a rope."
I don’t care if they live in a tent in the woods. I don’t want to be their slave. If they want payment from me then they need to be doing work for me. They can eat poke salad and shack up ten to a room it’s not my problem.
You sound like a good and caring soul.....
Even the mayor of San Francisco said he's had enough of people living in tents and leaving minefields of poo. Compassion is becoming a luxury the left can't afford.
Yes I care about the victims of this theft and redistribution of their earnings against their will. If someone wants to subsidize another’s housing with charitable contributions I have no problem with that.
You live in a ski town and are well aware of all the ski bums that are looking for us to subsidize their housing so they can spend all day skiing and work for a few hours in the evenings waiting tables.
Look on the bright side, Deano, if they're skiing, at least they're not pulling break-ins or shooting people!
This coming from the guy that bought a $31,000.00, (taxpayer funded), hardwood dining room table.....and thinks that pyramids were for storing grain. Honestly, of all the structures I can think of to store grain, a pyramid is like the LEAST efficient. Carson is an idiot.
How qualified are you to perform neurological surgery?
That's just sympathetic legend.
Modern Neurosurgery started with Cushing in 1913 and Franc Ingrahm started pediatric neurosurgery under Cushing's direction in 1929.
Other notable contributors were Donald Darrow Matson and Dr. Lenke Horvath.
Carson is a Affirmative Action MD.
He got lucky once and quit.
I like how the left feels comfortable trashing successful black men if they don't agree with their politics. And the left wonder why no one cares what they consider "racist".
?????????????? What the fuck does that have to do with anything?
Carson is only 80% black.
So he is more black than Obama is.
Now. WTF difference does it make of Carson is 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% or 100% black?
You tell me, all I heard from the right for 8 years was that Obama was only half black.. They usually said it right after they made a racist comment. Weird huh?
I have never said crap about it, I don't care as much as you do about race, I guess.
I remember trump promising we would be building factories next to the ghettos so when assistance was withdrawn the poor people would have jobs. Looks like carson wasn't informed and it isn't happening after all.
Probably for the better trump also said they would have wages that competed with mexico and china. In other words IMO sweatshops.
I just watched the movie about him, if he's the Ben Carson who's a brilliant neurosurgeon, how is he qualified to make important decisions about housing? A good real estate agent might possibly be a better choice.
Did the movie show how his house is a shrine to himself?
I didn't notice it, but if I get to see it again I'll look for that.
Carson is best buddies with bathrobe Jesus:
Exactly, Buzz, there is always this debate about how good a surgeon Carson is, and there are some positive and negative things that can be said about his career, but this is all irrelevant anyway. Why the hell is a brain surgeon in charge of housing and urban developement??
You mean we agree on something Lenny? Here, let me give you a fortune cookie.
Because trump loyalty trumps the good of the common man.
LOL! [we agree on many things, haven't you noticed?] There aren't any stray cats where Buzz lives! [Sorry cat lovers, I'm one of you, honest!]
Real Estate Agents are out for how much money THEY can make off a transaction. Might not be a good choice.
Real Estate Agents earn a set percentage commission. If they do their job well, make sales, they get to earn commissions, and if they don't do their job well, they don't. Why does that make them pariahs? Are they different than any other type of agent, such as for musicians, authors, actors, etc?
At least they most likely have more knowledge about real properties and their use than neurosurgeons might have.
I am sure Carson is thinking about the greater good with his idea. But.................will taxpayers have to subsidize the employers who hire people they do not need? And what about all of those kids?
Then again, could this just be another Trumpian pyramid scheme.
This too, it has been reported that Carson still has not figured out where the light switches in his buildings are, nor does he know which buildings are for what. This explains Carson's penchant for wandering around in the dark. He's 'soft spoken' though, so that must mean something.
Hannity's go to guy for HUD welfare subsidized loans. No true Christian would even propose handing down such hurt to the disabled, elderly and poor.
So you are insinuating that Hannity gets HUD welfare subsidized loans.
Got any proof of such nonsense?
Because I know. If the owners of the property (Section 8 housing is not owned by HUD) the property owner uses as a measuring stick the price of rental housing in that area. If rent goes up in the area, the owners of the property HUD subsidizes sends in a change in pricing. A one bedroom apt, living room, bathroom and kitchen (no microwave, dishwasher or disposal) approx. 600 sq. ft. is valued the same as a one room, living room, 1 1/2 baths, laundry room, kitchen with dishwasher, microwave, disposal approx. 1000 sq. ft. in a private complex and rent is between $750 - $850. So, if you qualify for this housing your rent is based on your income, so, if your rent is $200 per month HUD pays the owner of the property the difference.
Once a year the group from HUD makes an inspection and EVERYTHING has to meet standards to receive this subsidy.
As we know, there is some really sub standard HUD housing. Why? I've got my opinion. Because one is income poor is no reason to live in squalor. The renter bares the responsibility of properly caring for their surroundings, i.e. removing garbage, no graffiti on walls, keeping trash out of hallways with proper cleaning of their apt. I am certain when HUD visits they take this into account. Being income poor does not equate to an excuse of living like an animal. Even a cat doesn't use his litter box if it is full of his own poo.
I may have gone along with this notion, had it not been for the recent gift to the wealthy that was just handed out.
Just keeping it fair.
There has always been rich.....at one time even I was!!!!!
On the HUD, that's the way it really is.
And, what, also, should happen. The people who live in Section 8 housing should be responsible for their surroundings. If that person violates the regulations requiring their "clean up" they should be evicted. No poor mouthing....evicted after proper warnings. No gang hangouts! No broken down cars just sitting around for months. And, the regulations should apply on number of people living in one unit.
Poor is a state of mind......not having proper money is being broke. I have never been poor, but sure lacked for money.
I guess my parents instilled this in me. When I was growing up we didn't have a pot to pee in. NEVER heard my parents begrudge anyone who had it better than us. We all ate the same thing. My Dad ate peanut butter and jam sandwiches for dinner like we did or we had donuts and milk. He had to "pull his tools" the next day and, sometimes, didn't have lunch because it went to the kids for their lunches. Mother didn't eat either.
But, yet, they saved enough money to build us a house and each week they bought something for the house they were building, like a door or window. I am so proud of them.
Yes there has been and most likely always will be.
I have no difficulty with wealth as it is in most cases the result of expended effort or intellect. I do have difficulty with adding to that wealth at the expense of those truly in need.
IMO....those truly in need are the homeless and disabled.
Yet, in CA residents of a particular area are protesting against the local government and investors building a homeless facility. I take great exception to the protestors! Hypocritical! No tents, no sleeping on the sidewalks, under bridges, park benches, etc. Where are our people suppose to go?