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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Sept. 5, 1996
issue of Workers World newspaper
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Congress takes a swipe at public housing

By Pat Tucker in New York

Public housing is not popular with anyone except those who live in it and those who are trying to get in. Despite its negative public image, public housing plays a vital role in the lives of poor people.

Since the enactment of the Brooke Amendment decades ago, public housing has provided housing for a large portion of the poor minorities, large families, families on AFDC, the homeless and people with disabilities. They have been able to find shelter when other landlords receiving federal housing subsidies considered these groups undesirable.

Earlier this year the full House and Senate approved housing authorization bills (H.R. 2406 and S. 1260), which rewrite large portions of the public housing and Section 8 programs. Section 8 provides that individuals who qualify pay only 30 percent of gross income for rent, with the rest subsidized by the government.

Both bills consolidate many public housing programs and provide funding through two block grants. They merge Section 8 certificates and voucher programs into one assistance program and give local housing agencies more control over program, policies and actions.

This legislation is in conference committee now, but when enacted will dismantle the Brooke Amendment. Under the amendment a family living in subsidized housing had to pay 30 percent of their yearly income for rent.

Removing the 30-percent cap provided by the Brooke Amendment will cause a monthly rents to skyrocket for most people.

Under H.R. 2406, eligibility for occupancy is limited to families with incomes less than 80 percent of the area median income. S. 1206 proposes the same provision.

Under the new bill contracts have to be signed as part of the lease. This contract requires public housing tenants to participate in any educational, service support or job training it provides.

Each adult is required to contribute eight hours a month to volunteer work in their communities. This is forced labor, something people must do, not left to their voluntary choice. It might also compete with union labor.

This contract/lease also sets a date when the family is supposed to move out of public housing. In other words, it puts "time limits" on their occupancy. This may limit a family to say, four years in public housing, when the family must "graduate" to private housing.

These two bills have many provisions. While S. 1206 has some provisions softer than H.R. 2406, they both are geared to force the working class and working poor out of their homes.

Gov't for the rich

In a time when most social programs that feed and provide income for the very poor are being taken away, the government under a Democratic president has turned its assault on housing. Once again the rich landlords have called and the government has answered.

The real estate kingpins are looking to gain control of the prime real estate that most of these developments are on. By using rents and making it impossible for the average worker to pay, they hope to drive us out. Once this is accomplished, ownership can be turned over to private landlords who can demolish, rebuild, renovate and convert these into profit-making apartments.

What happens to those who lack money, cannot afford to live in these buildings? They join the ranks of the thousands already homeless.

These bills have all the overtones of racism, economic oppression and all the components of capitalism written in them. In the capitalist quest for wealth and power, once again the masses of the people will suffer.

Many in the movement to defend welfare and public housing say they have never seen such a wide range of assaults upon the poor as is going on now. They want to reach out to the masses of people with a renewed message of struggle.

Around New York several coalitions have been set up to fight for public housing. There is a demonstration planned on Sept. 11 to begin at East 10^th St. and Avenue D and to rally in front of 250 Broadway.

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