NEWS|Vol.8, No.10, March 13, 2008

Poor Families Coping with $2 Million in Federal Cuts for Area

Just when you thought you were on your way to a better life for your family, the rug is pulled out from underneath you. The new, safer neighborhood you planned on moving into is now just a dream. Your only option is to move in with family, or make the tough decision to pay or pay utilities.

This may not be your story, but it rings true to the more than 30 local families who have lost their low-income housing vouchers, which help to pay a portion of their rent.

The vouchers were suspended recently by the City Housing Department.

Funds for the program come from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD gave the city Pensacola about $2 million less this year.

It doesnt take a rocket scientist to know it is going to be devastating, says Pastor Willie Williams, of Top and Bottom Ministries and vice president of the Greater Pensacola Community Organization, which does a lot of work with the low-income community. We lost Morris Court. We lost Aragon Court and now this.

Williams says this loss is forcing some local residents to live above their means
In apartments they cant afford.

I know a woman who was moved from Morris Court to Moreno Court, but the rent was so much more she couldnt get her phone turned on. Williams says. They are having to decide between gas to get to work and food.

But the problem stretches far beyond the homes of these 30-plus families.

The tremendous pressures associated with trying to make ends meet will take a toll on the surrounding community, Williams says.

You cant stay in that situation forever, where there is not enough money, enough food or enough hope. He says. Something is going to break. Youll start thinking that you just got the bad hand in life. Then you think, well, maybe Ill start trying to sell some drugs or something. You start hurting people and start doing hurtful things.

A woman at Williams church was devastated by the news of the voucher suspension. She and her three children were on the list to receive a housing voucher to move out of Truman Arms and into an apartment in a better neighborhood.

But all the air is out of the tires now, Williams reports. She cant be all the mother she can be because she doesnt have it in her to keep that positive attitude.

The didnt want to believe it. He says. They just didnt believe the government would take away the little bit of hope that they had. Some of them have said, I dont know if I can keep going on.

To add insult to injury, no one is sure when the funding will be available to reissue the vouchers to those lost them.

No one is sure when funding will be given for first time vouchers to the more than 800 families who were already on the waiting list.

We are the 17th poorest county nationwide (of this size) and the poorest in the state, says Richard Papantonio, Greater Pensacola Community Organizations executive director. Here were are the poorest and we are getting nothing. The little bit of housing we have left is going away. Where are we going to put these people who have no where to go.

Its left many affordable housing advocates asking: What is the answer?

Williams says the community needs to start looking at the problem on a local level and stop depending so much on the Federal Government.

Pensacola needs to see the reality that we do have a problem, he says. We have got to create an opportunity for the low-income to succeed or its going to come back to bite us. You cant have the have-nots on one corner and the high rises on the other. It wont work out.

William says the problem needs to be tackled now so future generations arent dealing with an even worse situation.

We need to tell the good ol boys we dont care about your dancing in Seville Square, he says. We need some housing and we need some jobs.

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