Rent-subsidy cuts squeeze the poor

Dawn Yardley flopped on her couch in a dark two-bedroom apartment, surrounded by stacks of moving boxes headed for the trunk of her Ford Escort.

“I’ve got a lot of work to do before tomorrow,” said Yardley, a 24-year-old mother of two, who must move out of her rent-subsidized apartment today.

In December, Yardley learned that her share of her rent would increase from $70 a month to $255 – a tremendous jump for the Wal-Mart cashier. The tiny Ford loaded with toys and dried foods is headed to her father’s home, where she’ll live rent-free until she can save money for a place of her own.

For two years, Yardley relied on a federal housing program that provides rent vouchers to the nation’s poor, elderly and disabled. But in the past two years, the Spokane Housing Authority has lost federal funding for more than 250 housing vouchers, forcing the agency to lower its monthly subsidies and add names to a waiting list already 4,000 households deep.

In Washington state, public housing authorities lost $9 million in funding this year, down to $312 million, according to data released Tuesday by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In North Idaho, 757 households receive vouchers, a number that will gradually be pared down through attrition, according to a spokesman for the Idaho Housing and Finance Association, the largest of four administrators of the program in Idaho. The association lost about $300,000 in funding this year.

The Spokane Housing Authority, which overseas the Section 8 housing voucher program, said the federal government will provide $800,000 less this year, about a 4 percent cut. Bush administration officials say the cost of the voucher program, which serves 2 million households across the country, has spiraled out of control in recent years, driven by rising rents and inflation.

In Eastern Washington, the number of households waiting for help has grown steadily, topping more than 4,700 this year.

“We are squeezed at both ends,” said Dianne Quast, the housing authority’s executive director.

On one end is Yardley, who earns $8.55 an hour as a cashier at Wal-Mart, and relies on her brother to baby-sit her children, ages 6 and 2. Last year, she shut off her phone to save money, though a neighbor takes calls for her and walks his phone over to her apartment.

After six months of full-time work, Yardley has yet to qualify for health insurance, though she has received raises and recently was promoted to work in the store’s photo department.

After being notified of the lower federal subsidy, Yardley chose to leave the housing program.

“I didn’t know what to think, I just knew I couldn’t afford it,” she said. “The food. The diapers. The kids are constantly growing out of clothes. I just can’t make it on this.”

Housing officials said the 2005 budget will likely create longer waits for families seeking vouchers, as well as decreased service. The federal government also cut administrative spending in local offices by 6 percent last year and 5 percent this year, forcing layoffs.

On Tuesday morning, a HUD spokeswoman in Seattle said Washington state will receive $312 million in 2005. Last year, the state received more than $321 million.

“We have urged the housing authorities to contact our offices before they take any actions to cut vouchers,” said Pamela Negri, a HUD spokeswoman. “We have to live within the budget constraints, but we do have some administrative flexibility.”

The Section 8 program, the largest subsidized housing program in the country, provided $20 million for rental assistance – including administrative costs – to more than 4,300 low-income households in Spokane County last year.

Tenants pay between 30 percent and 40 percent of their salary toward rent, and the voucher covers the remainder of the cost. Nationally, families with children account for more than 60 percent of the participating households, according to a recent study from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal Washington think tank.

In August, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Alphonso Jackson said the program was “broken” and that “costs have spiraled out of control.” Jackson said costs have increased 41 percent in the past four years, to $20 billion a year.

Two years ago, in a review of several public housing programs, the U.S. General Accounting Office found the Section 8 program to be the most cost-effective, advocates said.

Joe Blumel, the owner of the apartment building where Yardley lives, manages about 20 subsidized units. As a participating landlord, he receives part of the payment from the tenant, and the remainder directly from the program. His apartments must pass quality inspections by the housing authority.

“Poverty is such a major issue here in the city of Spokane,” Blumel said. “We need some way to address the problem. We can’t just turn our backs on it.”