MISSOURI: Rally protests cutbacks
Missourians and people from around the country advocate for more funding for Section 8
The (Columbia) Missourian
By IKURU KUWAJIMA
June 14, 2005
Rosanna Cassidy knows what it’s like to be homeless.
While living in Springfield in 1994, she and her 2-year-old
daughter lived in a shelter for three months before getting a
helping hand from the federal government.
While in college, Cassidy was able to study and raise her
daughter at the same time thanks to a $485 monthly rent
voucher she received from the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development’s Section 8 program. After college,
she landed a job, and by 2003, she was earning enough money
that she no longer required the government’s help.
“Without the program,” she said of Section 8,
“I would have ended up going back to the shelter.”
Cassidy’s daughter is now 13. “(She) said she
doesn’t remember her homeless experience at all,”
Cassidy said. “The only thing she remembers is she was
being with me.”
Cassidy, who now works for the Missouri Association for
Social Welfare in Jefferson City, organized a rally Thursday
at the Courthouse Square that called attention to potential
budget cuts for federal housing assistance programs.
The protest attracted people working for housing agencies
from across the state, including residents of Kansas City,
Cape Girardeau, St. Louis and Springfield, and even from as
far as Washington, D.C.
“It’s a national and local issue,” said Craig
Stevens, a keynote speaker for the protest and state
coalition director for the National Low Income Housing
Coalition in Washington.
Stevens said over the years Congress has been cutting funding
for HUD. He said proposed cuts for fiscal 2006 would cause
further problems for low-income people.
“Last year, Missouri lost 1,583 Section 8 vouchers out
of 40,000,” he said. “If Congress sticks by its
current budget plan, the state will lose over 7,000 vouchers
by the year 2010.”
Stevens said Congress is considering reducing HUD’s
overall budget from 2005’s $31.3 billion to $28.5
billion for the next fiscal year by spending less on housing
programs for people with disabilities and people with HIV and
by eliminating Community Development Block Grants, public
housing capital funds and the Hope VI program.
For the Section 8 portion of the HUD budget, President Bush
is, however, proposing that $18.4 billion be allocated, a
near $1 billion increase from fiscal year 2005, according to
a February news release from HUD.
Stevens said President Bush raised the budget for Section 8
because so many people have shown concern about the cuts.
However, if Congress does not appropriate sufficient funding
for HUD, this increase will not go through, Stevens said.
“If we don’t get an increase this year, thousands
of people would lose their houses,” he said. “And,
if they are homeless, they are not going to get off the
street or out of shelters.”
Jack Stretch, a professor at St. Louis University, told the
small gathering at the rally that Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., will
a have strong influence over the decision as chairman of the
Senate Appropriations Committee.
The cuts, if approved, would affect a number of Columbians.
Many people here receive support from HUD programs, but the
housing supply is far below demand, said Doris Chiles,
executive director of the Columbia Housing Authority.
She said the CHA will receive about $5 million from HUD this
year and will use it to provide 1,043 vouchers. More than 500
people, however, are on the agency’s waiting list.
Compounding the problem is the fact that rental prices are
rising.
“We are not taking applications now because there is not
enough supply,” she said.