Activists and Experts Plea for No More Section 8 Stipulations

• Author: Michael Bordonada
• Posted: 2023-12-20

Section 8 has been around for a century, whereas the Housing Choice Voucher Program has been around since the '70s.

Basically, this is a blank check, so to speak, which allows recipients of Section 8 to choose where they want to live, as long as a landlord is willing to accept the voucher.

In many locations, landlords are forced to do so.

Long story short, Section 8 has been a blessing and a curse for America's poor.

On one hand, it has helped to keep a roof over the heads of millions of people.

On the other hand, people who get on Section 8 very rarely get off and in fact end up with their children also in public housing when they grow up.

So, there's an undercurrent of a heated debate going on in America right now, beneath all the Ukraine and COVID news, where some lawmakers are proposing a new set of rules for housing voucher recipients.

As you might imagine, activists and left-wing economic experts are crawling out of the woodwork to call this racist.

Not that Section 8 is a minority-specific program, of course.

However, whenever someone wants to speak against proposed rule changes, Forbes and the New York Times and every corporate media channel show pictures of black Americans, run stories about black Americans, and claim that it's just white supremacist and racism to want to change anything about it.

According to the people who are proposing the changes, however, all they want is more accountability from the people receiving the vouchers, not to take them away.

This is met by the activists claiming that what poor people need is improvements, as in more money given and as a permanent status, or else the problems will persist.

How to Be Fair to Both Parties?

There really is a quandary here with Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers.

It's one part moral, one part fiscal, and one part motivational for self-reliance.

There are no clear cut answers, and despite the hysteria heard from activists every single time changes are proposed, there is no one trying to take Section 8 away from people entirely.

The fact of the matter is that we have over a million people in America (on Section 8 alone; never mind other programs) who have been on this program all of their adult lives, as their parents were, and their parents before them.

According to a few economic watchdog organizations, most of the people on Section 8 today, demanding more money and more freedom, are third-generation welfare recipients who have never gotten off of the program and instead just direct their children to it when they become adults.

The real issue here, according to the people who are proposing harsher restrictions on Housing Choice Vouchers, is that the math is so in the favor of those receiving Section 8 housing that they should have been middle class two generations ago.

Mathematically, there is validity to this claim, although it does sound cruel and harsh and as if it's attacking poor people.

However, statistical data show that those who are on Section 8 are also likely to receive maximum SNAP benefits, utility assistance, Medicaid, and monthly monetary payments.

The math done on this is really amazing, when you realize how much a lot of people get for free yet still remain in poverty.

The average rent is $1,200/month, with SNAP being $600/month. The average twice-monthly monetary payment is a total of $2,400/month on average. Utility assistance is usually up to $300/month.

In total, there's a majority of people on Section 8 collecting $4,500/month from the government, tax free. That's $54,000 per year, which is far, far above the poverty line and puts people in the middle class, at least mathematically.

So, what's gone so wrong?

We hear often about systemic racism and socioeconomic inequality and inequity and so much more.

According to critics of housing vouchers, the government just automatically throws money at people without stipulation, and that money is wasted.

Whether that's true or not, it is a fact that America has never been able to put stipulations on that money without people claiming some form of discrimination.

All Section 8 critics are asking for is more responsibility from recipients, just to see if that works.

What is true is that the federal government offers a lot of incentives to the poor in America, more specifically poor minorities, and activists are asking for more. Will that be a wise move or just create more of the same? Only time will tell.