Latisha Thomas is 23, five months pregnant and desperate for a job. She needs one by Friday to avoid being evicted from public housing.
The Atlanta Housing Authority says it will begin kicking out residents who aren’t working, in school or in a job training program. Last October, residents between the ages of 18 to 61 and not disabled who lived in the 13 traditional public housing units and in Section 8 houses were informed they would no longer be allowed to live there without working or studying.
Thomas said some people won’t be able to make the cutoff.
“Most people are trying to find jobs, but can’t,” she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “They are being too strict on us. I don’t think it is possible for everybody to find a job by their deadline.”
One former public housing resident, 72-year-old Louise Watley, predicted the new rules would simply create a new wave of homeless people. “This is going to mean that you will have so many people on the streets homeless because the job market is so bad.”
Housing Authority Executive Director Renee Glover, however, defends the tougher rules, called CATALYST.
“I am expecting that most people are going to step up to the requirement and achieve it,” Glover said.
The housing authority reports that of the 2,845 households in government-built dwellings affected by the rules, fewer than half are in compliance. In Section 8 housing, where tenants get federal vouchers to rent private dwellings, only about 3,498 of the 8,826 affected households are complying with the rules.
“The worst thing you can do is set expectations at a lower level,” Glover said.
Glover has torn down several crime-ridden housing projects and replaced them with mixed-income apartments with swimming pools, tennis courts and manicured lawns.
The notorious Techwood Homes became Centennial Place. Carver Homes is now the lush Villages at Carver. East Lake Meadows, once known as “Little Vietnam,” is now a golf course community called the Villages of East Lake.
Once a complex is razed, anyone who previously lived there has the option of coming back. But fewer than 50 percent of the units are earmarked for them, and moving back in comes with rules.
At least one public housing resident is happy to see the new rule requiring residents to work or go to school. Verna Mobley, 76, called the work rule “the greatest thing that has ever happened.”
“This new generation can wear hairdos and walk around smoking dope, but can’t pay their rent. I am glad, and all the older people think it is great,” she said.
The Associated Press – ATLANTA
http://www.accessnorthga.com/news/ap_newfullstory.asp?ID=62276
I suggest that people living in public housing both actively and not actively seeking employment should be working for the state for at least 20 hrs a week or attend some sort of school or technical program. There is always a job to fill in the public sector whether it be pushing papers or pushing a broom, the later being the most obvious as these projects are often not the well kept areas.
Some of these families have lived in the same projects for generations and the only effort they have put forth to better themselves is to get the most expensive car on the block. Which leads to my next point, I believe the state should be going through these “projects” and running the license plates of the luxury cars to catch the people who are abusing the welfare system. Whether these people have multiple identities or are working under the table they need to be taught accountability. If they are getting assistance from the state and getting a paycheck they aren’t suppose to use this money to get a bigger set of rims or the most expensive Nike sneakers. Put the money in the bank or under the mattress and save to get out of the projects. Also, don’t say there are no jobs available. A basic search of Monster.com in would result in hundreds if not thousands of entry level jobs. Don’t complain that these jobs won’t allow you to get by because unlike you abusers millions of other Americans have done it and it wasn’t easy for them either.
I am not saying that they should make an example of this young women with children as these children are already starting with two strikes against them. You could find the guy with the $50K mercedes with $5k rims who is collecting welfare and examine every dollar he is spending. Then you charge him with every possible crime he has committed such as tax evasion ,identity theft, or fraud and you take his car and you kick him out on the street in the middle of the day in front of all his neighbors.
“This new generation can wear hairdos and walk around smoking dope, but can’t pay their rent. I am glad, and all the older people think it is great,” she said.
And some of us younger people think it’s great too.
Mike – well said!
I can think of at least five temps or permanent employees I’ve had who received section-8 assistance and were living their lives like they were still kids. Women in their 20s with kid(S) who’d fall asleep in their cube and whine like they were still in high school when you needed them to do something. CSR jobs mostly, but there were also the ones driving mercedes.
I’ve got friends who milk this system, and while I love them – sometimes it makes me stop to think about things a bit. While we don’t have projects on par with Baltimore, Philly, Fort Worth or any number of other cities in the country, we still have some shady neighboorhoods in the Boston area.
The projects that are crime factories need to be broken up, blown up, and this ‘war on drugs’ needs to be less about imports and more about putting cops on a beat in these areas. Mike, I know you’ve seen the HBO series The Wire, but for anyone who’s not familiar with it – this issue right here is really what it’s all about.
Drugs, poverty and infastructure are what it’s all about. If you build low cost housing in these 100+ units in a specific section of a city, you’re never going to make any headway. The schools in these districts are piss poor compared with schools in the suburbs, and as a society we simply ignore these areas until there are headlines.
The initiative here, to force section-8 recepients to get jobs, it’s what has to happen…but consider this – – – we’ve approached the problem in the wrong way for a long time, and I can bet you a dollar to a dougnut that the ones who end up on the streets will turn Atlanta into a super shady place…there are stories all the time about the problem with panhandlers in the city. Instead of asking for money, some of these people are going to just cut and grab.
The solution isn’t to just let them continue to play the system, but alongside this initiative there has to be other strategies we’re using to take care of this. If this solution turns out bad for the city, it’ll be because they tried to apply a band-aid to a problem that has been gushing for years and years.
Why is the 20-something mother of two falling asleep at work, showing absolutely no motivation or desire to make the best of an opportunity? The answer to that question has more to do with solving this problem than to pull funding.
Private Social Security Accounts!!!!
There has got to be some sense of self help. I do not have any objections to helping the elderly and disabled, but 20 year old crackheads with two or three children should help themselves. If they can buy dope it means that they are getting the money somewhere!
This program seems like a good idea, but childcare is necessary with a program like this, Even if you cannot get a job you can at least go to school as long as you have someone to watch the kids.
Able bodied people without children really should not be in subsidized housing.
At first I thought I was turning into a republican based on the last two paragraphs, but wouldn’t a good republican argue that subsidized housing in any form is wrong? This story shows that through the use of governement incentives people can be encouraged to make choices that are better for themselves and society. In addition, this story also shows where community planning through the use of condemnation may be necassary. many people called the old projects home just like many people call rent by the hour motels home, by tearing them down and creating places with standards they have bettered the entire area.
At first I thought I was turning into a republican based on the last two paragraphs, but wouldn’t a good republican argue that subsidized housing in any form is wrong?
No, a Republican would say subsidized housing is a temporary fix, either to give people a fresh start or as a transitional environment. Conservatives are about teaching the man to fish for himself for life, not giving him a fish every day and making him addicted to handouts.
So your on the right track to being a moderate, throw in some states rights and you’ve got conservative libertarian. A great combination.
I wonder how many able bodied people spend their entire lifes in subsidized housing? Is it a transition for most people or is it a way of life?
Seems like you are always going to have people that need some help, and once a women has a kid then you can see how she would be stuck in the system. Especially because of childcare and other support services that single parents need. I have a feeling that unless we start putting birth controll in the water(an idea I am wholly in favor of) subsidized housing or something that provides many of the services is going to be a fixture of our society.
One more thought on subsidized housing. Isn’t part of the problem with transitioning out of publicly assisted housing, the cost of housing in some markets. For example the average cost of a house in Denver is about $300,000. Even if you can get down payment assistance you are still looking at a $2000 a month payment. So even if you work hard to get out of public housing you need to get a job that pays well above average to afford a house.
I wonder if a lot of people get stuck in between, where they make to much for public housing but not enough to move anywhere that is not scary. The end result is no incentive to move out of public housing.
Plenty of people get stuck in the very situation you described karl. The Fed has taken a lot of steps to push the value of property higher, which makes it even harder to facilitate that transition. Especially when the largest clusters of poor are living in cities. That’s where the idea of building projects came from in the first place. If you move the low cost housing outside of the cities, people then need cars and child care.
The cost of day care often gives me heartburn.
These problems aren’t often part of national politics. Why? The problem is complicated and involves people that aren’t white. In fact, the politician that campaigns on the idea of helping these people out generally doesn’t win.
Keep in mind what areas of Ohio had the faulty voting machines.
but 20 year old crackheads with two or three children should help themselves
How in the world is someone who’s brain is half gone going to help themselves?
karl: but 20 year old crackheads with two or three children should help themselves
mark: How in the world is someone who’s brain is half gone going to help themselves?
Very good point mark. What most of us fail to realize with addicts is that they’re in hell whether they know it or not. We often make the mistake of assuming that the only reason they continue to do drugs is to have fun.
I’ve got a whole lot of ideas concerning the ‘just say no’ campaign for the next generation, and part of it is to get real about the effect this poison has on your body. Children should be exposed to the effects, in the form of videos in health class of a junky going through withdrawal. The state pays for their rehabilitation in exchange for recording it for this purpose.
Kids need to see things like ‘meth mouth’, a teenager with AIDS who got it from sharing needles. We find nothing wrong with showing them programs on the dangers of drinking and driving, but fail to take the next step. It’s a problem that the entire country is facing, and in terms of crystal meth, the midwest especially.
One nice aspect of mixxed income devolopements is that people are exposed to different perspectives and lifestyles. Hopefully this shows people how they can do better.
I don’t know what you do with people who are unemployable due to drug use, at that point they are no longer able bodied and should be treated as disabled. I know that last statement will probably drive right nuts but I cannot think of anything else.
The righties don’t want to take the necessary steps to really address the drug problem in this country. It’s too offensive – so all we get is spots of surfers explaining why they don’t smoke pot.
Some of the anti-smoking spots are so dumb that they make me want to smoke, and the ant-drug ones are not much better.
The drug war places to much emphasis on scare tactics and punishment and not enough on honest education.
The emphasis on abstinence education produces a lot of parents and some interesting choices in sex acts.
ok so im 29 with 3 kids, unemployed and homeless,cannot find work nor get assistance finding a place to live, now that im in this position i can apply for sunsidized housing but theres a 3-6 year waiting list.i apply to 5-10 places a week,denied for unemployment because of some BS misconduct deal. city human recources say they can help me pay a deposit and theres a program for first months rent upon approval from a landlord but without a job nobodys gonna rent to me,without a job and a landlord that will rent to me i cannot get assitance. what is a person supposed to do in this type of situation? no family or friends to stay with, no shelters close by(theres one on a waitlist) no car or liscense because of an unpaid ticket while unemployed,sold the car to feed my kids…. whats next?