Audio clip
Douglas Rice
PDF: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Nearly 1,500 federal Housing Choice vouchers in Tennessee would not be renewed if Congress approves President Bush’s proposed fiscal 2009 budget, according to a report from a nonprofit center on federal budget priorities.
“There’s certainly the potential for cuts,” said Douglas Rice, housing policy analyst for the Washington, D.C.-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “It’s worth making people aware of the situation now, because what Congress does in the next coming months is influenced by what they hear from constituents back home.”
Chattanooga Housing Authority officials said the funding shortfall would affect them locally if the president’s budget is approved as is, but it’s too soon to tell what Congress or the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will do.
“We are not currently aware of any need to reduce the number of (Housing Choice) vouchers locally,” said Bill Lord, CHA’s chief information officer.
There are now more than 3,500 people on a waiting list for the vouchers from the local housing authority. The Housing Choice Voucher Program, formerly called Section 8, provides rental assistance for low-income households.
The report from the nonpartisan center, which according to its Web site was founded to analyze how budget priorities affect low- to moderate-income Americans, states that 1,486 vouchers in Tennessee may not be renewed.
“The budget situation for HUD is especially bad this year,” Mr. Rice said.
The Bush administration has cut the budget for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in years past, but Congress always has restored some of the money, he said.
Still, there is a $2 billion shortfall just for the project-based Housing Choice Voucher Program, Mr. Rice said. A $1.3 billion shortfall also is expected in the tenant-based program, he said.
The report estimates $15.5 billion will be needed in 2009 to renew all vouchers in use across the nation, an increase of $868 million over what was provided in 2008.
Chattanooga Housing Authority officials said there are no plans to decrease the number of vouchers locally, and it’s too soon to tell if there will be a need for future cuts.
“We will have to wait and see what Congress and HUD do,” Mr. Lord said.
U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., said because this is a presidential election year, Congress may ask for a continuing resolution in Oct. 1 when the 2009 fiscal year is scheduled to begin.
The resolution would allow all programs to be funded in 2009 for six months at the same levels as in the 2008 fiscal year, he said.
Even though the spending amount has to remain the same, it is possible to redirect money based on legislators’ priorities, Rep. Wamp said. So if more money is needed for housing vouchers, it can be shifted from other areas, he said.
Bobby Paris, one of 3,140 people who receive vouchers from CHA, said that without them some people would be homeless.
“They’re taking away low-income housing and building what they call affordable housing, but it’s not affordable for us,” Mr. Paris said. “If people can’t live in low-income housing, they can’t pay for an $80,000 home or a $130,000 condo.”
Dena McNabb, who has an 8-year-old daughter, received a CHA Housing Choice voucher in February 2007 after she lost her home in a foreclosure.
“Without Section 8 (the Housing Choice Voucher Program), me and my daughter would be on the street,” she said.
Yolanda Putman has been a reporter at the Times Free Press for 11 years. She covers housing and previously covered education and crime. Yolanda is a Chattanooga native who has a master’s degree in communication from the University of Tennessee and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Alabama State University. She previously worked at the Lima (Ohio) News. She enjoys running, reading and writing and is the mother of one son, Tyreese. She has also ...
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