The headline “HUD plan raises rents on poor”
covered the entire width of the front page of the April 28 edition of the
Connecticut Post. The story began with the following alarming lead:
"A plan by the Trump
administration to triple rents for the nation’s poorest families is running
into a wall of opposition from fair housing advocates and members of
Connecticut’s Congressional delegation."
Beneath the headline an insert quoted Connecticut’s
Governor Malloy claiming that the Trump “administration is proposing to triple
rent for low-income families.”
Reading deeper into the article one discovers
that rather than a plan to triple rents on the nation’s poor, the Trump
administration is proposing an overhaul of a subsidized housing act that dates
back to 1937. The proposed bill is entitled the “Making Affordable Housing Work
Act.”
In the original 1937 act a recipient of federal
housing support would have had to contribute 30% of gross income for rent, a
fact that no one ever complained about during the administration of President
Obama. The new bill would require a recipient of federal housing assistance to
contribute 35% of gross income for rent.
For example, a poor person with an income of
only $1000 per month would have had to pay a rent of $300 per month during the
Obama era, but under the new plan the rent would rise to $350 per month. An
extra $50 per month is a 16.7% increase, not a 300% increase. The rent will not
go from $300 per month to $900 per month.
It is true that a 16.7 % increase in rent is
significant but I wonder if many will feel its force. It is almost impossible
for a layman to read a congressional bill but it would appear that there are
all sorts of exceptions and carve outs included for the disabled, unemployed
and other needy persons.
Why then would the Governor make such an
alarming claim? The basis for his claim stems from the provision in the 1937
bill that sets a minimum rent for those receiving a subsidy at $50 per month.
That was over 80 years ago! The new bill replaces the old minimum with a
formula based on the current federal minimum wage that would effectively raise
the minimum to $150 per month.
I hope that as the “Making Affordable Housing
Work Again Act” works itself through Congress some legitimate discussion and
criticism of its many features will come to light. In his initial criticism
Governor Malloy seems either ignorant of the facts or just plain malicious in
his anti-Trump posturing.
###
No comments:
Post a Comment