No argument from me about Bill Cullen's point below. I don't really know
Section 8 housing to the last detail as I stated in my first post. My point was
that traditional housing choices may not be the best fit for many folks with
"behavioral problems or a financial shortfall" as Cullen describes. Some
version of the co-housing described in Saturday's Real Estate section of the Strib
might very well be better all around for many folks; whether or not it fits
Section 8 guidelines, I don't know. It might have been a mistake on my part to
mention vouchers at all, given the point I was trying to make.
I believe that co-housing has the potential to change a problematic
culture more effectively than the options that the Minneapolis Public Housing
Authority uses now. I'm just not a fan of our present housing projects. You know
the old chinese saw, "Give a man a fish and feed him for a day; teach a man to
fish, and feed him for a lifetime." You can do the same thing with housing, but
not so easily in our typical public housing projects; resident organizations
meetings, presumably for this purpose, are not well attended. I believe there
must be better methods to provide the housing and education needed for folks
to learn the ABCs of a place of your own, whether you own or rent, live alone
or in a co-housing group, or whatever.
The same sort of approach might be useful in correctional institutions,
i.e., a little practice in living cooperatively might help many folks in
prisons. Given the innovation of Global Positioning Systems, a convict might never
need to enter a prison facility if they were sentenced to "co-housing." Just as
assisted living facilities help people adjust to life on their own, a
co-housing situation could put emphasis on corrections versus penalties in the
appropriate convicts. No more graduate schools of crime masquerading as prisons, but
a real attempt a rehabilitation.
Hey, they're just ideas. Please don't label me some sort of bigot for
having them; it is all that I ask. I think Minneapolis needs a whole lot more
ideas to kick around. That's what were all here for, right?
Regards and leotards,
Bill Kahn
Prospect Park
******************************
Bill Kahn wrote:
I resent the implications below that I was somehow perpetuating a
Reaganesque stereotype. It is my understanding from reading my newspaper,
that Section 8 housing is in short supply relative to the need; one of the
reasons for this is fear, justified or not, of property owners that filling
this need is going to lead to losses of one kind or another.
My response:
While some landlords still refuse to participate in the section 8 program,
there are many landlords willing to accept section 8 vouchers. Let me put
this clearly: There is no shortage of housing available to people with
vouchers.
I think the shortage you are referring to is in the number of vouchers
available. Last time I checked, all of the local PHA's had a very long list
of families waiting for vouchers. It often takes years to obtain a voucher.
I suspect one of you will point to a family with a voucher that cannot find
housing. Any family that cannot find housing today has either historical
behavioral problems or a financial shortfall. (Although I don't see how a
financial shortfall would apply to someone with a voucher).
Regards, Bill Cullen
Whittier Landlord.
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