Northwest Indiana Discussion

First Section 8 trial sets precedent



A Victorville woman was convicted of lying on her application for Section 8 housing and could face five years in prison, setting a precedent that taking advantage of the government is no small crime.


Dennia Margaret Johnson, 47, was convicted of two counts of obtaining aid by false representation and one count of perjury for lying on her application for Section 8, the low-income government housing provided to those in need.


Johnson faces a possible sentence of five years and four months in state prison, said Deputy District Attorney Reid Robsahm, who has almost 100 similar cases regarding housing fraud.








Many of the defendant’s have already pleaded guilty and been convicted of fraud to obtain aid over $400. On many of the cases perjury charges were dropped as part of a plea agreement.


Jennifer Megan Drown, 30, of Apple Valley pled guilty and was sentenced to 150 days in jail and ordered to pay $3,602 in restitution to the government.


Josephine Mary Villagrana, 63, and Debra Marie Hodges, 47, were also picked up in area sweeps and have each pled guilty to fraud.


Right now in San Bernardino County, there are more than 30,000 people on the waiting list for Section 8 housing.


Hall said that the majority of them are elderly or disabled.


“The more people that are abusing the system that they can remove, the more assistance they can provide to the 30,000 on the waiting list,” Hall said.

http://www.vvdailypress.com/news/first_ ... ction.html

Crowd seeks housing aid in Salinas
Hundreds turn out for Section 8 voucher list



Eric Virak, foreground, was first in line at the Housing Authority, waiting since Sunday afternoon for his chance to get one of the 200 Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program housing units


http://thecalifornian.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... 50318/1002

Orlando Avenue area has history of violence



stevenk wrote on Jul 14, 2008 2:03 PM:

" Once again, the Town of Normal had nothing to do with the apartment units being located where they are. Nor did the Town have anything to do with people coming from outside the area when much of the public housing in Chicago was torn down. Neither Ms. Miller nor any other Council member voted on anything to do with these apartments. Orlando Northbrook was built in the late 1970's/early 80's and Fairview Ridge 1995 by private developers. Northbrook is Sec. 8 and answers to HUD Chicago. Fairview Ridge is Sec. 42 and answers to the Illinois Housing Development Authority, also in Chicago. "



just a thought wrote on Jul 14, 2008 1:38 PM:

" Usually when one sees a weed, they pull it out by hand before needing a shovel.
Not saying all residents in the area are thugs, but it's obvious the bad seeds are planted and need to be removed NOW, and enough of all this political correctness


http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2008 ... 764831.txt

HOUSING
U.S. easing grip on Dade HUD
The U.S. takeover of the Miami-Dade Housing Agency appears to be ending, but a private firm must oversee some work.



Federal grants had been squandered, the bureaucracy was in disarray and some developers were taking county money without building promised homes. Two developers pleaded guilty -- one received jail time, the other probation -- and charges are still pending against a third. No government employee was charged.

In some ways, the takeover has lost steam in recent months. With five months left in President Bush's term, everyone involved was keenly aware that a new team in Washington would have its own priorities.

The county's most visible housing-activist group, the Miami Workers Center, was surprised by the new deal. The group has largely sided with the county against HUD -- especially after Alvarez promised to build dramatically more public housing in Liberty City -- but a spokeswoman attacked the idea of hiring a contractor to oversee vouchers.

''We have a multiple-choice question where the options are no good,'' said spokeswoman Shushma Sheth. ``On one hand we have a broken county bureaucracy that allowed the robbing of low-income families, and on the other we could have the history of private corporate interests robbing from low-income families.''

The group has consistently pushed for giving residents and their organizations a direct role in fixing and running the public-housing system.

Privatizing the rental-assistance program would be a shift for Miami-Dade, which has generally opposed outsourcing any of the housing agency's major projects. Cabrera said he was largely rebuffed when he suggested the same thing last year.

''If HUD feels this is the best way, then so be it,'' Alvarez said.

The program, known as Section 8, provides vouchers for low-income people to live in private apartments. More than 14,000 vouchers are used in Miami-Dade, and their value depends on the family's size and income.

In Miami-Dade, it has been plagued by haphazard oversight and poor record-keeping. Some tenants went years without undergoing the mandatory annual reviews of their income. By the time HUD took over, hundreds of landlords said they were underpaid and others were almost certainly overpaid.

''It has been a complete disaster in administration,'' said Cabrera, now CEO of a nonprofit housing development organization in California. ``The capacity to get it where it needs to be is just not there.''

Many landlords have stopped accepting tenants who pay with county-managed vouchers, refusing to deal with the delays, wrong payments and endless bureaucracy.

''I spend day after day after day calling numbers that are disconnected and voicemails that are full,'' said Lance Paskewich, managing partner of a company that owns 34 apartments and has voucher-holders in 27 of them. ``I don't think a private contractor could get away with that.''

That closes even more doors in a county where up to 100,000 people are expected to join a new government waiting list for affordable housing.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_d ... 04928.html

apartment he shares with his parents is under contract to be sold to Apollo Real Estate and Pembroke Real Estate, two firms with private equity backing, for $174 million, or $360,000 per apartment.


“I was speechless,” said Leung, who has lived in the Section 8 federally subsidized apartment for 30 years. His building’s Section 8 contract is up in August.


“We’ve seen this happen in huge numbers in rent-regulated and Mitchell-Lama buildings,” said Dina Levy of the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board. “[The firms’] business model is to target ‘underperforming’ or ‘undervalued’ assets. What that means is affordable housing.”


In most cases, Levy said, “they’re overpaying.”


The firms either try to get tenants out and jack up rents or flip the building after three to five years, she added. Levy fears that if the new owners can’t get low-income tenants out or sell, “They’ll stop putting resources into the building.”




http://ny.metro.us/metro/local/article/ ... 12974.html

Federal cuts in funding leave families scattering


Nearly 100 Robstown residents last week had to find a new place to live after the Robstown Housing Authority was forced to cut back a housing assistance program because of a lack of federal funding.


http://www.recordstar.com/articles/2008 ... ogcomments

Housing Secretary Expresses Concerns With Mortgage Bill



The nation's top housing official yesterday criticized elements of a legislative package that aims to dramatically expand the Federal Housing Administration's role in responding to the mortgage crisis.

Taxpayers could end up absorbing "preventable and foreseeable losses" if the final bill does not include initiatives that the administration has long advocated, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Steve Preston said in a call with reporters.

The legislation, passed by the House and pending in the Senate, would allow distressed borrowers to trade mortgages with rising payments for more affordable FHA loans if their lenders forgive a portion of the debt.

If enacted, the FHA would take on riskier loans than it is used to, which could financially overwhelm the agency if safeguards are not in place, said Preston, who has been secretary for a month.

To that end, the administration is urging Congress to allow the FHA to charge borrowers insurance premiums based on credit risk instead of the one-size-fits-all premiums in place since the FHA's creation in 1934.

These premiums cover losses tied to defaults and foreclosures. The FHA plans to adopt risk-based pricing on July 14, but the Senate version of the bill would bar the change. Backers argue that a credit-score-driven program would hurt lower-income borrowers. The FHA disagrees.

The House version of the bill is mum on risk-based pricing.

But the House bill does include a provision that would continue to allow popular seller-funded down-payment assistance programs, which make up about a third of FHA loans. In those programs, home sellers give money to a charity, which then helps buyers make down payments.

For years, the FHA has tried to eliminate these programs, without success. Now it is attempting once more to write rules that would ban this funding. But those rules would be moot if the House provision survives, creating unprecedented financial problems for the agency, argued Preston, who was joined by FHA Commissioner Brian Montgomery.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... c-business

Housing Fraud Bill Approved By Governor

Written by Carol Rock

Wednesday, 16 July 2008

Runner's bill to fight Section 8 housing fraud to go into effect January 1, 2009.





A bill that will combat Section 8 housing fraud was signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and will go into effect January 1. Assembly Bill 2827, authored by Assemblywoman Sharon Runner will establish a database of housing fraud incidents that will be available to county law enforcement officials.


“I am thrilled that the Governor joined me in the fight against Section 8 Housing fraud,” Runner said. “This legislation will help crackdown on those who abuse the system while increasing access for qualified hardworking families who are in need of subsidized housing.”



“Currently, thousands of Californians who are in need wait for Section 8 Housing support for years on end, while greedy criminals with sufficient means illegally use public resources and take advantage of society’s goodwill,” Runner said.



AB 2827 will allow District Attorney’s offices to track incidents of Section 8 Housing fraud in each county. This data will provide substantial evidence on the severity and extent of this fraud, as there is no uniform tracking system within the state.



“As of next year, law enforcement officials will be able to track this crime and gather the necessary data as the extent of the problem is currently unknown statewide,” Runner explained. “This will allow law enforcement to develop a plan of action to combat Section 8 Housing fraud.”



“The citizens of the Antelope and Victor Valleys have seen the negative effects of this fraud firsthand,” Runner added. “AB 2827 is common-sense, cost-effective legislation that will address this major issue, protect those citizens in need, and help put an end to this criminal behavior.”






http://www.hometownstation.com/local-ne ... 10-47.html

Antioch Police Department faces class-action lawsuit


SAN FRANCISCO—The Antioch Police Department has been named in a federal class-action lawsuit alleging the department's community action team is targeting and harassing African-Americans living on section 8 in subsidized housing.

The suit was filed in U.S. Federal Court in San Francisco Wednesday morning by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and three other Bay Area non-profit civil rights organizations.

ACLU attorney Brad Seligman said there is "no question" that the department's community action team is trying to drive black families on section 8 out of Antioch.




http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_9900339

5,000 apply for Section 8 housing



Tucson's Community Services Department received almost 5,000 applications for Section 8 housing over three days, a department administrator said.

That was more than twice as many as the official, Peggy Morales, expected to get between July 8-10.

The last time applications to the federally funded housing program were accepted - three years ago - the department received 4,000, Morales said. The submission period that time was 10 days long.

"I think (the numbers) reflect the need in the community right now," Morales said. "Things are really tough out there for everyone."

With about $25 million from the federal government, the Section 8 program pays part of the rent for about 5,000 Tucson families, Morales said. To be eligible, a family of four must make less than $16,500 a year, according to the department's Web site.

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/91039.php

Police Chief James Hyde has encouraged residents at neighborhood meetings to file complaints against Section 8 residents.

Two-thirds of the Community Action Team investigations focus on African Americans, the plaintiffs' lawyers said, and black households are the targets of 70 percent of police complaints to the Housing Authority - which, the lawyers said, finds a majority of such complaints unfounded.

Police "invaded my home and terrorized my family," plaintiff Karen Coleman said at the news conference. "They told me my Section 8 benefits were going to be terminated."

The lawsuit alleged that four officers came to Coleman's door in June 2007, saying they were looking for her husband, a parolee, and entered over her objections. They searched the home, took pictures, handcuffed her when she tried to call 911 and threatened to handcuff her 12-year-old son, the suit said.

Officers visited twice more in the following month, went to her husband's workplace three times, wrote to her landlord and contacted the Housing Authority in an unsuccessful attempt to evict her, the suit said.



http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 11QAQL.DTL

The Next Slum?”

Are today’s McMansions destined to be cut up into apartments? Could the suburban cul-de-sacs of West Knoxville—or any of the thousands of places like it across the country—become “The Next Slum?” The question provided the title, and the central thesis, of a gloomy piece penned by Christopher Leinberger in the March issue of The Atlantic Monthly.

However, Leinberger’s piece also contains a passing reference that may answer his own question about where “The Next Slum” is likely to be—and it’s not where he otherwise leads the reader to imagine. “Many inner suburbs that are on the wrong side of town, and poorly served by public transport,” he writes, “are already suffering what looks like inexorable decline. Low-income people, displaced from gentrifying inner cities, have moved in, and longtime residents, seeking more space and nicer neighborhoods, have moved out.”



http://www.metropulse.com/news/2008/jul/16/next-slum/

Low Income Tenants Get Hotline to Report Discrimination



NEW YORK, NY July 18, 2008 —A new hotline is taking calls from low income tenants experiencing housing discrimination because they don't have a lot of money. WNYC's Cindy Rodriguez reports.

REPORTER: A new law requires all but the smallest landlords to accept Section 8 and other government programs from low income tenants who use the assistance to pay the rent. City Councilman Bill de Blasio sponsored the legislation and says his office has been flooded with calls from tenants having trouble with landlords. And he complained owners are flouting the law on Craigslist.

http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/103863