Free rent available for Homeless Families

Vouchers for free rent available for homeless families
Mlive.com

Homeless families in Jackson can apply for a voucher next week that would provide up to two years of free rent.

The Community Action Agency has been awarded a handful of Tenant Based Rental Assistance vouchers through the Michigan State Housing Development Authority.

Applications for the vouchers will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis from 9 to 11 a.m. Thursday at the Barham Neighborhood Resource Center, 711 S. Mechanic St.

Anyone applying must have the following: photo identification for all adult household members, Social Security card for all members of the household, documentation of income for the entire household and proof of homelessness.

To prove your family is homeless, you must bring a letter from a shelter or social service agency that can attest to that fact. Or the family can provide an eviction notice if it was received within the week prior to the application day.

What has the US come to... :shk: ...2 Yrs free Rent...

Don't get me wrong...this will help "a handful", but, I hate to see the line come hand-out day...

It would be nice if the free rent housing could be arranged at no cost...(Does that even make sense?)...being as there are tons of houses on the chopping block now...the "voucher money" could be used to help employ the families living in the houses, but, you know the Banksters have no heart... :shk:

What say Ye...a good thing or bad...

[edit on 8/9/2009 by Hx3_1963]

Good.

hard to get a job if you have no place to keep your clothes, take a shower, or have an address.

A lot of these people were hardworking, taxpaying Americans who lost their jobs. I work in a welfare office, there are a lot of very educated people coming in for help. They deserve a helping hand.

It says families, most likely this is for people with children.

NO child should ever be homeless in America.

[edit on 9-8-2009 by nixie_nox]

reply to post by nixie_nox
It would be nice if County's - State's could call on eminent domain to take over some of the houses for a plan like this, for truly needy FAMILIES with smaller children...

Having someone in the house would save it from being trashed and rotting while empty...

After a reasonable set time, the family became employed...give them a chance to out right own the home and become a asset to the county tax base...

...Hmmm...back to Homelessness...

[edit on 8/9/2009 by Hx3_1963]

I would much rather my taxdollars go to helping a homeless person right here at home than making people homeless in Iraq in a country that will eventually be rebuilt with my taxdollars.

I hear Squatting is making a comeback in the US...

It never really went away, around the rest of the world...

Wonder what TPTB would do if squatters completely took over a large empty pre-planned housing community that sits empty, in say California?

Could you see that?

TPTB trying to evict say 100-250 Families!!!

Now that would make front page news!!!



[edit on 8/9/2009 by Hx3_1963]

reply to post by Hx3_1963


You bring up a very good point. There are a lot of abandoned houses, they can be put to good use.

reply to post by nixie_nox
In fact...

You could setup a revolving fund to employ the first of the free rent families...fixing up minor damage to other homes, that could be added to the program...add infinity...it would kind of be like "work-fare"...at some point it might even become self-sustaining for a time...

Sound weird/crazy?

[edit on 8/9/2009 by Hx3_1963]

This is a good thing in my book. The key word here is families. There are children involved. There should not be children homeless in America. A nation should be proud of itself if it can keep their own from starving and being homeless. That is an achievement.

I know the lady who is in charge of the housing authority here in Mi.Her name is Chris Shepherd and to say she has her her hands full trying to find subsidized housing for all the homeless here now would be a massive understatement.

reply to post by AgentX09
Tell me about it...

I had to wait 3 years just to fill out a section 8 application...now it's going on 2 years since signing up...

If they ever get to my number, I doubt anyone will honor the vouchers...

Yeah! It's impossible to make a comeback in life and get into the game again without a roof over your head, and have some place to wash up, keep your stuff and feel safe!

So this is a great Initiative to help people to get back on their feet again, and two years will be more than enough to accomplish this for a family, I think!?

I have been helping some homeless people during the years in various ways in my city, mostly younger people/girls & boys around 17-18-19 y.o who had a rough time at home and then left or got kicked out with nowhere to stay!

If they are free from drugs & well behaved I'm glad to help out the best way I can, mostly to get them in contact with another lady friend I have in the proper social authorities who can get them off the streets into temporarily group apartments so they don't end up in more trouble!

We don't have so much homeless people here yet in Europe, not as bad as you guys are facing now - not on that scale with complete families! - but I guess this could change very soon also, if things get worse?!

Our social welfare systems are trying to help as much as they can when people get homeless!

S&F

What they should have done is ensure that the greedy ass banks worked out a plan with the families who have fallen on hardtimes rather than toss them out in the street to begin with! How many of these "free rent" houses had families in them that had made payments on them for years, then one or both adults lost their job and the ability to keep up the payments? A friend of mine fell into such a circumstance. They had make payments on the house for nearly ten years. Now it stands empty, grown over with weeds and a tree limb through the roof...rotting to the ground. This whole thing makes me angry!

edit: dbl post

[edit on 9-8-2009 by Greenize]

[edit on 9-8-2009 by Greenize]

Originally posted by Greenize
What they should have done is ensure that the greedy ass banks worked out a plan with the families who have fallen on hardtimes rather than toss them out in the street to begin with! How many of these "free rent" houses had families in them that had made payments on them for years, then one or both adults lost their job and the ability to keep up the payments? A friend of mine fell into such a circumstance. They had make payments on the house for nearly ten years. Now it stands empty, grown over with weeds and a tree limb through the roof...rotting to the ground. This whole thing makes me angry!

This is why family's are homeless in the first place, the greedy f-in bankers. You pay on a house for years then fall on hard times and they kick you to the curb like yesterdays garbage.

I'm tying to get my Mortgage re-financed and get this to have it re-financed by my bank I need a credit score of XXX points, well because of being late a few times and MY bank reporting the late payments to the credit bureau I can't get re-financed! My other option is I can write a letter to the corporate headquarters asking for some kind of help (they can make me a slave debt over a longer period of time reducing the amount I pay monthly or they can reduce the interest, haha yeah right). A committee will review my case and then decide if they will help me out. If they were to reduce my interest by 1% that would take $100 off my monthly payment. Currently I am paying over $500 a month in interest! It makes me sick.

We need to keep these family's from becoming homeless in the first place.

reply to post by Hx3_1963


I don't know about other states but what this state does is that if it owns a home, they have people live in it for free, but they have a list of things that need to be fixed and a timetable.

Though i guess if your poor you don't have the money for materials, but you could at least maintain the property.

Or better yet, maybe some of these banks can just let people stay in their homes.

I was going to say that there should be PLENTY of places for peeps to stay in MI. Aren't the municipalities and counties taking over foreclosed homes that the banks won't upkeep or pay taxes on? Probably not anyplace that they would want to live though. Who knows what kind of condition these places are in.

Originally posted by nixie_nox

I don't know about other states but what this state does is that if it owns a home, they have people live in it for free, but they have a list of things that need to be fixed and a timetable.

Though i guess if your poor you don't have the money for materials, but you could at least maintain the property.

Or better yet, maybe some of these banks can just let people stay in their homes.

Yeah, you would think that since the banks know they will not be able to sell the homes for anything reasonable, and they can't maintain them, they could defer payments or something until the owners could normalize the situation? At least the owners could keep the property livable.

What freakin use is it to evict the owners then let the yards run wild and the houses fall in? I know a contract is a contract, but sheesh.

It makes me feel good to find that the majority of the people realize why this is a good thing and not a bad thing.

It also makes me feel good to know that people know where the real blame lies, and it's not with the government officials that are trying to help the families with children who are victims of economic circumstance, but with the greedy Bankers who have caused these economic circumstances and profited off it many-fold.

It is times like this that I'm proud to be an ATSer!

And as for the thought of using Foreclosed Homes that are not selling to house the Homeless for a set period of time, I think this is a wonderful idea! Let the Banks who own these foreclosed properties have to foot the bill for 2 years. Maybe it will make them think next time before they foreclose on a family. Maybe, just maybe, they'll learn enough to work with out of work families before foreclosing on them.

Originally posted by nixie_nox
reply to post by Hx3_1963

 

I don't know about other states but what this state does is that if it owns a home, they have people live in it for free, but they have a list of things that need to be fixed and a timetable.

Though i guess if your poor you don't have the money for materials, but you could at least maintain the property.

Fixing up the property wouldn't fly in many parts of this state. Maintaining it might work, but that's really dependent on a lot of things that the common citizens can't control.