Letter calls on Bush to rescind cuts to housing

BY CHRISTINE VARNO
Staff Writer

Letter calls on Bush to
rescind cuts to housing

BY CHRISTINE VARNO

Staff Writer

LONG BRANCH — Residents of Monmouth County gathered at the McLaughlin Pentecostal Church in Long Branch on May 21 to sign a letter calling on President George W. Bush to rescind proposed cuts to the Section 8 housing assistance fund.

Section 8 is a program that is run by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that assists low-income families, seniors and handicapped individuals in affording decent, safe and quality housing.

Bush’s proposed federal budget for 2005 would reduce the funding for Section 8 by $1.6 billion. That drop in federal aid is expected to translate into a loss of approximately 250,000 existing housing vouchers nationwide. The impact in Long Branch alone would be $530,000, according to Tyrone Garrett, the executive director of the city’s housing authority.

The Rev. Carolyn Bennett, from the McLaughlin Church, one of the eight people to sign the letter, said something needs to be done to stop the planned cuts to the program. She said the only way to keep the cuts from happening was to speak out.

"I could see all these things happening and I wasn’t saying anything," Bennett said. "There is no one left to speak for people being displaced because they have no money and no lawyers. Each community should be providing to the poor."

The letter also was signed by Bill Davis from the Interfaith Hospitality Network in Keansburg, Terry Blair from the Long Branch Concordance, Connie Pascal from the Anti-Poverty Network in Edison, Julia Wheeler from the Concerned Citizen Coalition in Long Branch, Donna M. Rose from the Monmouth Housing Alliance in Eatontown, Lorenzo Dangler from the NAACP in Long Branch, and the Rev. Aaron Gibson from the Urban Ministerium in Long Branch.

Wheeler said she signed the letter because "yesterday is gone, tomorrow is not promised to us, so we have to do whatever we can today."

The letter requested that the HUD notice, issued in April to implement the Section 8 voucher provisions in the fiscal year 2004, be canceled.

It read, "It is unacceptable for HUD to deny funding voucher costs that housing agencies incurred under program rules. This notice will force or has forced agencies to consider tragic actions such as evicting families with vouchers or raising rents on families who cannot pay more. If your notice is not rescinded, we will have a serious housing crisis nationwide and particularly in New Jersey and Monmouth County."

Toi Collins, the Section 8 housing manager at the Monmouth Housing Alliance in Eatontown, said if this budget is passed with the housing voucher cuts, it will be a huge problem.

"They [the Bush Administration] are not looking at the big picture," Collins said. "Too many people in Monmouth County are either homeless or cannot afford the costs of housing. People will not be able to make rent and will experience eviction."

Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-6th District) sent a statement that read, "Please know that I am opposed to the Bush Administration’s continued attempts to dismantle public housing assistance programs across America.

"This program is a vital component of service for extremely low-income people who rely on it to make housing affordable, thereby freeing up family income for other vital necessities like food, medicine and transportation," Pallone said.

The decrease of Section 8 funding would have a dramatic economic impact on the area due to loss of employment and social and emotional support services, according to Pallone. It would end support for 7,775 New Jersey families who are currently relying on the program to pay rent.