Blog

“What’s this voucher problem all about?”

Over the past few months, there have been stories in the newspapers and on TV about the housing authorities’ “freezing” of Housing Choice Vouchers. What does this mean and why should anyone be concerned?

Housing Choice Vouchers (HCV), more commonly referred to as Section 8, are basically housing subsidies for low income families who do not have enough income to pay the Fair Market Rent. The voucher enables a family to pay 30% of their income for rent and utilities, while the remainder of the rent is subsidized by the voucher.

This 30% rule is standard in the housing industry to gauge housing affordability. If you are paying more than 30% of your income for housing expenses, you are most likely not going to have enough money left to pay for other necessities such as food, transportation, child care and health care expenses. For families whose incomes are very low because they are on disability or have minimum wage jobs, affordable rent is between $175 and $400 per month. There are few, if any, apartments in the market with rents this low. Therefore, families with this type of income typically need HCV to help subsidize the rent.

The problem is that we’re in a recession where one out of every ten people in the Richmond area is unemployed. So, like everyone else, current voucher holders have been impacted. As families either lose their jobs or their hours are cut, their income is reduced—and the amount of the rent subsidy they need increases. Unfortunately, the housing authority has run out of HCV funds for the approximately 2,500 families who currently hold them.

This is also a problem for any family who was approved for, but has not yet received a HCV, including the 12 families who live in VSH’s Family Apartments who had previously been homeless. Most of these families are paying much more than 30% of their monthly income for housing expenses and our rents are well below the market rent. On a monthly basis, these families have to decide “Do I pay my rent or my light bill, or do I feed my kids?”

There is a solution; Congress needs to appropriate additional funds for the HCV program. We either pay now or later. An increase in the homeless population has negative social and economic consequences. Additional funding for the HCV program will help keep families in their homes, preventing them from becoming homeless.

For More Information:
National Low Income Housing Coalition
Housing Vouchers Are Critical for Ending Family Homelessness

And the award goes to…

I’m excited to announce that VSH Board Member and former tenant, Orville Banks is the winner of Homeward’s 2009 Steve Neathery Award for “successfully overcoming homelessness and helping others to make the same transition”.

The award will be presented at the Homeward’s 2009 Trends and Innovations Awards reception as part of this year’s Best Practices Conference on September 24th.

Having struggled with alcoholism for years, Orville became homeless in 2002. After spending 2 months at a shelter, he moved into VSH’s South Richmond Apartments in November of that year. With the help of the on-site support services staff, he began to address his alcohol dependence.

Having successfully dealt with his alcoholism and obtained employment, Orvillee moved out of South Richmond in 2004 to become the live-in Night Manager at New Clay House. New Clay is another VSH supportive apartment building for single adults who have been homeless.

Orvillee is passionate about giving back to his community. He serves on the VSH Board of Directors and has spoken at events, including Affordable Housing Awareness Week, to share his story with the public. He actively seeks opportunities to help others overcome addiction and homelessness, and routinely shares his story to inspire the tenants at New Clay to continue their efforts toward recovery.

Also, with the assistance of VSH’s Financial Foundations asset development program, Orvillee is working to achieve his financial management goals and is approaching the stage of pre-qualifying for a home loan.

Congratulations Orvillee! The award is well disserved.

It’s rough out there

Last week I got a call from a friend who has just become the latest victim of the economic crisis. The business she had worked for abruptly closed its doors leaving hundreds of people without jobs. With one out of ten people unemployed here in Richmond and in South Hampton Roads, it’s rough out there.

But my friend has a college degree, lots of marketable skills and a great work history. Since her husband works, she also won’t be hurt too severely if she has to collect unemployment for awhile.

It could be worse. What if she hadn’t graduated college or even high school? What if she lacked marketable skills and a solid work history? What if she had a history of homelessness, possibly a criminal background and bad or no credit? “Rough” wouldn’t begin to describe her chances of finding a job.

If you were an employer looking for employees, would you hire someone like my friend, or would you hire someone who has none of her favorable attributes? What is happening right now is that people who are homeless, or those who are stably housed but living on the edge, are getting pushed out of the very low end jobs they normally are able to find.

We are seeing this with individuals and families that live in Virginia Supportive Housing properties. A few VSH residents had steady jobs at restaurants, but business slowed down and they lost their jobs. Another resident’s time was cut from thirty-two hours a week to just six. She was told, “There are just too many people competing for work.”

We have many residents looking to work any type of job. If they are lucky enough to find something, it may be only a few hours a week; not even enough to pay our minimum rent of $50 per month, especially after paying bus fare to get there and back. Those “odd jobs” our folks used to find, such as detailing cars or doing minor home repairs, are no longer available. When is the last time you saw a line outside a day labor place?

Our goal is to keep people stably housed, which is very difficult these days. Our support services staff spends much of their time helping our residents scrape up enough money to pay rent by going to congregations or asking for help at crisis assistance programs like ACTS, Salvation Army, and the Homeless Prevention Program in Norfolk. We even have several residents giving blood every week to make ends meet!

We are hoping that the economy will turn around soon and that the Stimulus funding is distributed quickly. In the meantime, we continue to rely on the generosity of the public to help keep our residents stably housed. It’s rough out there, especially for those at the bottom.

The Impact of Anita

My dear Mother, Anita, passed away two months ago. I was with her and some of my siblings in Florida when it happened. Was it difficult? Yes, but it was also a remarkable experience and life-changing.

Our ordeal started that Wednesday night seeing Mom on a ventilator at St. Anthony’s Hospital. We finally got her off the ventilator on Saturday. She was breathing on her own, but her heart had been damaged and after two and half years in a nursing home, she was tired and ready to go and see her husband and son in heaven.

But, keeping her on the ventilator had given us a reprieve – we all had a chance to say goodbye and tell her we loved her. She told us she loved us too and tried to smile. My sister and I cancelled our flights home because we thought it would be any day for her death.

I had now been in Florida for eight days. I had said goodbye to Mom and reminisced with my family. We had lots of family dinners and conversations; laughed and cried, although I still had not cried very much. We’re a pretty quirky family (isn’t every big family?) and we can get on each others’ nerves. But, for some reason, we were very good to each other, understanding it was really hard on some of us more than others.

On Thursday morning, the hospice nurses visited and we asked how Mom was doing? Well, she’s still hanging in there. They told us it could be today or days. Frankly, we were not happy. My brother and one of my sisters went back to work. A couple of my sisters and I had our nails done and rented a movie—the Secret life of Bees, which I suggested.

That movie was the turning point for me. It was about strong women and the Virgin Mary. Didn’t I remember that I had given the book to Mom because it screamed Anita? She was crazy about the Blessed Virgin Mary.

I finally let go. I could not stop crying. I cried even more when my sister came over and gave me the prayer of St. Theresa that her teacher friend had given her. One of the lines was especially poignant for me—“you are where you are supposed to be”. So, I cried and was sad and was in it for the long haul. I didn’t care how long it took but I was going to be here keeping vigil with Mom.

At 9:30 that night, we were sitting around the bed. Mom was breathing as if she was sleeping. I felt drawn to her and just laid my head on her shoulders and rested with her. She stopped breathing while I was holding her and passed to the spirit world to see Dad and my brother, Paul. In that moment, she had given me the most remarkable gift of my life. She taught me so many lessons in dying. She taught me and all seven of my siblings about our priorities and the importance of family. She taught me to stop trying to control every situation. I needed to let go, get in the moment, have faith and take in her love, which I finally did.

So, you might be wondering what this has to do with my job or Virginia Supportive Housing. While we are struggling in this economic crisis, I am so mindful about what really is important. Non-profits need to be good to each other and collaborate. As my family stuck together and made it through that difficult time, we can make it if we work together.

Equally important, if not more so, is our mission and the people we serve. If I focus my efforts on why we are doing what we do, everything will work out alright. I cannot control the economy or the fact that funding is tight, but I can work with a passion and love that Anita taught me. I can see the effects of our housing and services on our most vulnerable populations and know that we are doing good.

So, let’s work together and remember why we’re here in the first place.<-->

Feeling guilty…don't

“You did what?” I remember my husband asking me incredulously when I told him I had given $20 to a woman asking for money outside the grocery store. “But, she really seemed genuine. I mean it was a very believable story,” I retorted defensively, all the while secretly kicking myself for being a sucker and realizing I had just been taken.

I have always considered myself a level-headed person with common sense and not a bleeding heart. So his reaction deeply bothered me. Why had I given the woman $20? Like thousands of other good-hearted Americans would — I believed her story, felt sorry for her and wanted to help.

I no longer give money to people who ask me on the street; and I don’t feel bad about it. Whether it’s triggered by substance abuse, mental illness, con artistry or honest misfortune, panhandling is not a healthy lifestyle. It doesn’t help the panhandler, sympathetic citizen or community. There also can be serious and deadly consequences of panhandling. A few years ago, one of the residents of the supportive housing apartments we operate was killed while panhandling. A motorist struck him on the median of a busy street. His needless, wasteful death could have been avoided.

So, why are people in our community still panhandling? The answer is not simple. Over the last fifteen years, our public income safety net for low-income single adults has been eroded. Many panhandlers have disabilities that prevent them from working, but they also have trouble navigating the bureaucratic maze to secure disability benefits. Others have multiple barriers to employment (limited education, lack of transportation) and have difficulty securing jobs that continue to migrate into the counties. Some have active and untreated problems with addiction. Lastly, the presence of con artists who see an easy mark in the sympathetic public cannot be discounted.

What can be done about it? Many communities have passed ordinances banning panhandlers, resulting in some arrests and upsetting civil libertarians. (Isn’t it our right as Americans to stand on a corner asking for a handout?) But that hasn’t stopped the problem.

Homeward, our regional coordinating body, whose mission is to reduce homelessness by initiating creative solutions and coordinating regional resources and services, recently got a grant for a marketing campaign to try and stop panhandling. They have launched a multi-level media campaign, trying to get citizens to stop giving to panhandlers and to invest in local non-profits like VSH who are providing solutions for people with very low incomes.

For panhandlers who are homeless, some community resources exist. Richmond has 1,000 shelter and transitional housing beds for those who are homeless; we serve meals daily; and we have a program for people with substance abuse problems, The Healing Place, that is peer driven and takes into account the fact that people relapse numerous times before they become serious about recovering. VSH also has an array of permanent supportive housing programs for individuals who’ve experienced homelessness.

Panhandling actually undermines the work that we do. So, if you do feel the need to help panhandlers, tell them where they can eat or sleep for free, get them to one of the many non-profit agencies that exist to help folks like them, or donate to a non-profit to invest in providing real solutions to these difficult community problems. We are here, not to enable people, but to empower them.