Re: Public housing vacant despite long waiting lists. Your solution?
mikala bembery (mikalabeit@hotmail.com)
Thu, 11 Nov 1999 18:58:23 PST
Hey all,
I lived in Public Housing once and the vacant apts would stay empty for
months. The HA said that they were short handed and couldn't turn they over
quickly, I say they were just inefficient. I got tired of waiting so after 1
1/2 months I told them I would clean and paint myself, it sucked but I got
in there.
Another solution is to hire contracted workers to to the turn over the apts
more quickly. It would be a good way to make "extra" money in the evenings
and on the weekends.
P.S I got my apt after waiting on the list for over a year when my friends
mother in-law (she had pull) called the HA and told them she had someone for
them to put in 13b. I immeadiately moved to the top of the list. This was
one time when curruption worked in my favor so I took it but I did used to
think about who I aced out.
And, no shit people are of welfare but still poor, like we need research or
news reports to tell us this. I met a woman who was forced off aid so she
had to find a job, she was luckey and found a pretty good full-time job.
Then she was tols she had to leave the shelter cause her income exceeded the
limits. Her job was not good enough to pay rent so she needed to consider
her housing workers suggestion drop to part-time.
The moral is work or don't either way if you are poor you will be punished.
Mikala
P.S. thank you Grame for distingushing the difference between anger and
hate. sometimes i get fuzzy on that one. this is why I love being able to
share opinions/ideas, when things look dark there is always someone else who
has a light - Group process has it's definite benifits.
>From: Tom Boland <wgcp@earthlink.net>
>To: HOMELESS PEOPLE'S NETWORK list <HPN@aspin.asu.edu>,
>homeless@csf.colorado.edu
>Subject: Public housing vacant despite long waiting lists. Your solution?
>Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 12:53:29 -0800 (PST)
>
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>Many people go homeless while public housing units remain vacant.
>
>How would you solve this problem?
>
>See below for a related article:
>
>http://newsfinder.arinet.com/fpweb/fp.dll/$stargeneral/htm/x_dv.htm/_ibyx/cg0302
>6/_itox/starnet/_svc/news/_Id/622943161/_k/89ZqmIRauha83BEu
>FWD Associated Press - AP Wire Service - Nov 09, 1999 17:53
>
> STUDY FINDS MISSOURI'S PUBLIC HOUSING INACCESSABLE OR MISMANAGED
>
> By DAVID SCOTT
> Associated Press Writer
>
>ST. LOUIS (AP) _ It's the kind of situation that leaves people
>just scratching their heads.
>
>In the city of St. Louis, there isn't enough public housing to
>go around. More than 1,000 low-income households _ which may be a
>single senior citizen or a family with children _ are on a waiting
>list to get in.
>
>But at the same time, just 83 percent of the city's public
>housing is currently occupied _ and another 852 units are
>considered ``off-line.''
>
>The numbers are the same all over the state. In Kansas City,
>there are 4,440 households waiting for a spot in a system with 11
>percent vacancy. In Columbia, there are actually more empty rooms
>(93) then there are people on the waiting list (50).
>
>``That's just being a good landlord _ you have to keep most of
>your units filled up to offset your operating costs,'' said Laura
>Barrett, executive director of Housing Come First, a housing
>advocacy group.
>
>And that's her point _ these aren't good landlords.
>
>``There are people who could be in their own apartment in a safe
>and stable environment if people would just do their job,'' she
>said.
>
>For the third year in a row, Barrett and her organization
>surveyed 12 public housing authorities in the state to come up with
>the statistics, and got responses from 11. Only in St. Louis city
>did they have to track down the information through public records.
>
>Among the study's other findings:
>
>_ Just two of the state's public housing authorities _ St. Louis
>County and Springfield _ meet the 90 percent occupancy rate
>required by the government
>
>_ At the same time, 9,700 households are waiting for a spot in
>one of the St. Louis county's 519 units. The county does a
>``great'' job of managing it's public housing, Barrett said, it
>just needs to build more.
>
>_ In the last year, 660 public housing units have been
>demolished in the state of Missouri. In St. Louis city alone, there
>are 1,300 units scheduled for demolition in the housing authorities
>five-year plan.
>
>``Because we don't have enough housing to replace this stuff,
>we're ending up standing out here with tenants who are thinking
>where am I'm going to move to,'' Barrett said.
>
>``Homeless,'' Lillie Daniels corrected Barrett, ``Homeless.
>That's what we're thinking.
>
>Daniels lives at Vaughn Elderly public housing complex, just a
>few blocks from downtown St. Louis. Vaughn Elderly is one of the
>buildings the city plans to demolish. Even though it is surrounded
>on three sides by smaller, townhouse style apartments that replaced
>high rises from an earlier era, there is no plan to replace the 112
>units lost when Vaughn Elderly closes.
>
>``It's like a nightmare. It's like a nightmare come true,''
>Daniels said, who has lived at Vaughn Elderly for ten years. ``This
>is our home.''
>
>The study also examined problems in voucher-based public housing
>programs. In several cities, demand for housing vouchers is so
>great, waiting lists have been closed. In other areas, notably St.
>Louis County, voucher recipients have a hard time finding landlords
>who will accept them.
>
>``There are a lot of reasons for that,'' Barrett said. ``What
>happens to the person who is on that waiting list? They wait two
>years to get a worthless piece of paper.''
>
>AP-CS-11-09-99 1853EST
>Received Id AP993130258EC9F on Nov 10 1999 20:41
>
>END FORWARD
>
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