Darrius Joyner sees firsthand how potential rent increases could impact his life and those of the families around him.
The 27-year-old president of Pontiac’s Carriage Circle Apartments resident council has lived in the federally-subsidized complex for four years. He was homeless for three years before that, on disability due to health complications from a history of strokes and suffering from severe depression after the murder of his father.
From his conversations with other residents, Joyner said it’s the children who would be most affected by an increase in rent.
“The children will feel it the most. Instead of buying a pack of diapers or baby milk, that money is going to go to rent,” Joyner said. “The poverty isn’t the issue, it’s the lack of empathy for the impoverished. I understand (Ben Carson’s) sentiment to get people to be more self-sufficient, but you can’t do that by forcing them and increasing their rents without programs and skills workshops for jobs.”
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In a political climate where policy can change at the drop of a hat, or tweet, the future of federal rent assistance stands in a cloud of uncertainty for many low-income households who rely on it.
OVERHAULING HUD
In April, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson unveiled the “Make Affordable Housing Work Act” that would raise the average rent of more than 4 million low-income households by roughly 20 percent. Carson has since backed away from the plan, which was meant to encourage self-sufficiency, stating he wants to negotiate with Congress for funding to keep rents from rising.
But the proposal itself sent many low-income households across the country scrambling to figure out just where that extra 20 percent for rent would come from within their fixed incomes. Even if the rent increases don’t go into effect this year, the fear for many is that rent increases aren’t entirely off the table.
HUD administers public housing to 4.7 million households and 9.7 million people nationally.
Under current programs, households pay either 30 percent of adjusted income (gross income minus deductions) or 10 percent of gross income, which ever is higher. The minimum rent is between zero and $50, and there are deductions from income for dependent and child care expenses, medical or disability expenses, and for elderly or disabled status. A household is elderly or disabled if the head is over age 62 or has a disability.
Under Carson’s original proposal, many of the income deductions used to qualify would be eliminated for subsidized housing. The rents for non-disabled and non-elderly households would rise to 35 percent of adjusted income from 30 percent. A person wouldn’t be considered elderly until age 65, and households would lose their disability status if there is a working adult of any age in the home.
Rent increases would be phased in for Housing Choice Vouchers, Public Housing, Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance, Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly, Section 811 Supportive Housing for People with Disabilities, and smaller HUD programs.
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