Nearly 3.7 million Americans, many of them elderly and/or disabled, are facing the threat of losing their government-subsidized housing as a result of the partial federal government shutdown that is the longest in U.S. history.
There are a number of government programs that provide subsidies for people to have affordable housing. Two primary ones are the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Section 8 program and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Housing Service.
Michael Kane with the National Alliance of HUD Tenants said the situation is particularly dire for USDA tenants.
“The most at-risk tenants are the 282,000 in rural housing subsidized by the USDA,” Kane said. “Unlike Section 8, Rural Housing subsidies are paid retroactively, after an owner incurs expenses. There are at present no funds available for expenses incurred in February. Owners could, and may have already, issued demands to tenants to pay full rent as soon as February 1, in any of these apartments.”
Subsidized housing tenants are living under the threat that their rent will go up, they will not be able to pay it and will face possible eviction, Neil Sealy, spokesman for Arkansas Community Organizations said.
“Watch out,” he said. “This is a mess. With HUD and USDA, for millions of people, their housing is uncertain. The longer the shutdown continues, the bigger the threat of it going into March. We are already seeing that the Little Rock Housing Authority will be sending out a notice to Section 8 tenants.”
Nationally it is estimated there are 3.4 million people who live in Section 8 properties whose contracts with HUD have expired or are expiring, and more who have Section 8 Housing Choice vouchers that may not be funded in March. There are 41 privately owned multi-family Section 8 properties in Arkansas.
“What it means is they have to renew their contract and there is no one at HUD to do that,” Sealy said. “The owner may decide to wait it out, but the people who could be homeless are the renters. Many of them are elderly and handicapped. So, they will be the ones to suffer the most. There is uncertainty. It is pretty clear you can’t just evict people. But this is uncharted territory, so we don’t know what will happen.”
Sealy said the amount of subsidy varies depending on the individual or family’s income. In addition to public housing projects owned by housing authorities, with the HUD Section 8 Choice vouchers, someone can rent wherever they want if they can find a landlord who agrees to be part of the program.
“The idea behind the Housing Choice Vouchers is that no one should pay more than 30 percent of their income in rent and the government will pay the rest,” he said. “We know that Section 8 Choice Voucher program is good through March 1. But if the shutdowns last beyond that, it depends on the lease the tenant has and how long they have had it. It is not legal for the landlord to require the full rent. But as it goes to the end of that lease, the owner could request for business reasons that the contract be terminated.”
If tenants can’t pay rent, landlords might not be able to afford their mortgages, causing defaults. Other government assistance programs are also endangered. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps) is only funded through the end of February. If people don’t get SNAP assistance, it would not only impact the ability of poor families to feed their families, but would cut sales at local grocery stores. Representatives from hunger relief organizations have warned this is a potentially catastrophic situation.
Another problem is the estimated 800,000 federal workers who are not receiving pay, in some cases while still being required to work. Sealy said some of the federal workers are not paid well.
“They have benefits, but their wages are low,” Sealy said. “For most federal employees, it can be a decent middle-class job with benefits and retirement. But the pay is lower than in the private sector. There are many minimum wage employees who are employed by contractors of the federal government who are also affected by this.”
Sealy urged people who are concerned to contact their representatives in Congress and ask them to end the shutdown.
Kane said it is particularly important for advocates and reporters to connect these evictions to the pending USDA and HUD Appropriations bills, passed by the House and currently before the Senate.
“Congress can end this shutdown by passing these bills with enough votes to override Trump’s veto,” Kane said. “Republican Senators in particular need to pass these bills and end this shutdown now!”
Sealy said Arkansas Community Organizations is forming a statewide group called Arkansas Renters United, “both to change our awful landlord-tenant laws and also to push for making affordable housing more available.”
For more information, see the website arkansascomm.org or join the Facebook Group, facebook.com/groups/ARrenters/.