Hundreds scramble for Dallas County rental vouchers

Hundreds scramble for Dallas County rental vouchers

DALLAS — At least eight people were hurt Thursday morning while scrambling to line up for a limited number of Dallas County rental vouchers — after waiting for hours in their cars.

Hundreds of people lined up Thursday morning to apply for Dallas County Section 8 housing vouchers.

Source: WFAA Dallas

They can't get there fast enough to suck on the tit of Uncle Sam.

I'm honestly just disgusted. I know there are circumstances that cause people to need help - but if most of those people put in that much effort to education and working an actual job... they wouldn't need section 8 housing.

We are seriously doomed as a nation.

reply to post by gncnew

Not everyone is as smart as you.

You speak as though those people are to blame

As of June 29, 2011, the Total Public Debt Outstanding of the United States of America was $14.46 trillion and was approximately 98.6% of calendar year 2010's annual gross domestic product (GDP) of $14.66 trillion.[2][3][4] Using 2010 figures, the total debt (96.3% of GDP) ranked 12th highest against other nations

The whole country is on welfare

reply to post by gncnew


Ragging on poor people seems misplaced when the real beneficiaries of the welfare state are those that profit in blood and death of our young people...

costofwar.com...

and the corporations that receive govt. subsidies even when they are showing record profits...

www.cato.org...

reply to post by gncnew


I do not believe you understand how bad our economy is. Because of my husbands profession we travel all over the united states, I hate flying so we drive. 1 Memorable place we drove through less then a year ago was Colorado springs co. There is a river that runs alongside the highway, in the middle of winter I saw a stretch of tents on the rivers edge about 3-4 miles long. I saw families children. Ah yes anything to help these desperate people is a good thing.

and the best part is;

The office at the

Jesse Owens Memorial Complex

wasn't supposed to open until 8 a.m., but some applicants started lining up at 10 o'clock Wednesday night.

Jesse Owens




not the first time for this either !

You're right! When the Section 8 voucher program made govt funds accessable to private housing (1983), boy, did the landlords in my town (and elsewhere) start building units to rent to qualified applicants! Govt assistance sure assisted those landlords with govt on-time rent payments and a constant supply of renters.

Yes, seems like since the 1980s, more and more of my taxdollars end up in the hands of those who can most afford it, welfare for the wealthier among us disguised as handouts to the poor. I'll bet those Section 8 tenants even qualify for payments for utility assistance, so those private companies can stay afloat.

If all this govt assistance were to go away today, I'll bet a lot of corporations would be begging for govt assistance themselves.

reply to post by gncnew


If they can run that fast, send then to Dominoes to deliver pizzas!

Honestly, they want a free ride, probably 75% of them.

And I bet they all vote for whomever is welfare friendly.

Makes me sick to see how I bust my hump and my kids go without while they get free ride their whole life.

Originally posted by lbndhr
reply to post by gncnew

 

I do not believe you understand how bad our economy is. Because of my husbands profession we travel all over the united states, I hate flying so we drive. 1 Memorable place we drove through less then a year ago was Colorado springs co. There is a river that runs alongside the highway, in the middle of winter I saw a stretch of tents on the rivers edge about 3-4 miles long. I saw families children. Ah yes anything to help these desperate people is a good thing.

I saw the same thing in Cebu in the Philippines. Life is cheap over there, guess its getting cheaper here. Welcome to the third world.

Its the I got my attitude and the I work my butt off entitlement attitude. Working you butt off is picking crops under the GA sun for 6 bux an hour.

Yeah, it looked like many of those people could run pretty well.
Jesse Owens? talk about ironic.
This door swings both ways, yes many landlords (real estate companies) rely on section 8 money to keep them afloat.
We have seen this very same scene in Atlanta, Detriot and now Dallas-FW.
Many of these people are desperate and the majority look to be black women, many of them younger women.
Criticize away but these women have no futures. There's no jobs out there for them. The public school system never prepared them to go on to college in any meaningful way. No knight in shining armor is going to carry them away from the ghettos they live in.
Don't say they can just move. That takes money - something they don't have.
We have created the conditions that make people dependent upon government assistance so mocking them doesn't help.
It's truly sad and it's going to get worse.
As the Federal government tries to shave down the budget it's these very people that may well end up getting the short end of the stick.
I can empathize with the tax payers point of view BUT I dare say that you wouldn't want to trade your life working for the lives of any one of these people on assistance living in the ghetto.
This is the result of the war on poverty where instead of giving a hand up we gave a hand out.
We expected any different outcome?

Before passing judgement, maybe you should read and consider the following: Down but not out: Voices of the long-term unemployed

You can read all the stats you want on America's long-term jobless crisis. More than 6.3 million Americans have been out of work for more than half a year. The average jobless stint now lasts longer than nine months. We could go on. But no facts or figures bring home the grim human dimension of this epidemic better than an account we received from an unemployed Iraq War veteran. "I have led men in combat, but my last job was a temporary cashier position in the women's department at Nordstrom's," he wrote. "I don't get many interviews, but when I do, I get a lot of handshakes and a 'Thank you for your service, but you're not what we're looking for.'"

The thousands of anecdotes you sent us offer a heart-rending glimpse inside the reality of long-term joblessness during the Great Recession and its aftermath. They convey sadness, anxiety, anger, shame, and despair, but sometimes also humor, generosity, and a quintessentially American determination to roll with the punches. And they offer a portrait of out-of-work people who are smart, articulate, motivated, and resilient--a useful corrective to some of the negative stereotypes that too often shape perceptions of this huge group of Americans.

The Emotional Toll: "I hide my emotions, but deep down I feel I am dying off" Your tales of losing long-held jobs--often with minimal advance notice or human consideration--were bracing. But more compelling still were the numerous accounts of how long-term joblessness has affected you personally and psychologically.

Trials of the Job Search: "We can't hire any more old people" Landing a new job in this economy is tough no matter who you are. But when you've already been out of work for so long, it can be even harder. • We asked whether employers were wary of hiring readers when they found out how long they'd been jobless -- a form of discrimination that appears to have been on the rise lately. "Very much so," replied Susan W. "As if it were my fault I was unemployed, regardless of the fact that I had put out hundreds of resumes and applications." • Many readers described a daunting level of competition for openings. "In my area, Elkhart County, Ind.., unemployment had gotten so bad that 1200 people applied for 10 openings at one company," wrote Jason G. (Incidentally, if Elkhart rings a bell, that might be because it's where President Obama launched his effort to get the economy moving again almost two and a half years ago.) • "I applied at one place that literally handed out raffle tickets and the winning 100 tickets were the only ones that got to apply," wrote M.O. "Of course my number wasn't one of them." • An enormous number of older readers said they think their age is part of the problem for employers. Paula S., from Acworth, Georgia, who said she was "sixty-something," described "two eye-opening experiences of blatant age discrimination . . . . One twenty-something supervisor asked me if I had ever thought about coloring my hair . . . . Another manager told his assistant with the door open when I showed up to complete an application and interview: 'We can't hire any more old people.' " • Britt S. said he'd tried to transition into another career after getting laid of from his newspaper job. But, "if an employer has a choice between a 27-year-old with a degree and 3 or 4 years of experience and a 57-year-old with the same degree and no experience, who is most likely to get the job?" he asked.

The article is quite long, and very eye opening.

Source: news.yahoo.com...

Originally posted by desert
You're right! When the Section 8 voucher program made govt funds accessable to private housing (1983), boy, did the landlords in my town (and elsewhere) start building units to rent to qualified applicants! Govt assistance sure assisted those landlords with govt on-time rent payments and a constant supply of renters.

Yes, seems like since the 1980s, more and more of my taxdollars end up in the hands of those who can most afford it, welfare for the wealthier among us disguised as handouts to the poor. I'll bet those Section 8 tenants even qualify for payments for utility assistance, so those private companies can stay afloat.

If all this govt assistance were to go away today, I'll bet a lot of corporations would be begging for govt assistance themselves.

edit on 14-7-2011 by desert because: (no reason given)

I would rather give 100.oo to someone who is going to buy beer and cigarettes than 100.oo tax break to the wealthy. The hundred that goes to the poor helps that person survive and maybe maybe not improve their life, more importantly the cash is instantly circulated into the economy -- the bodega owner, the chapter 8 slum lord it becomes paychecks tax revenue investment capital. The 100.oo given to the rich goes into a trust fund - protected from taxes and languishing there accumulating into more money.

You have to be able to see beyond the end of your own nose to understand this.

Guys,
I'm not bashing the people running so much as the atmosphere we've created. We've got a welfare state that's out of control.

let me ask you guys - without section 8 housing... you really think all those people would be homeless?

Not a chance.

reply to post by Asktheanimals




reply to post by summer5




The only people who ran faster were the people, like presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, who chased after off shore tax havens. Such tax havens were voided in the 1980s to US citizen taxpayers, but people like Romney rushed to figure out how to use them to avoid paying corporate taxes. Even Halliburton chased after these tax havens, then they queued up for handouts from war in Iraq and elsewhere.

Of course we have very few pictures of corporate CEOs and lobbyists running like that in Washington. No, they fly in, in (taxpayer subsidized) private jets, and drive to the capitol in (taxpayer subsidized) limos, or cab rides to see their favorite politician for their welfare.

Originally posted by gncnew
Guys,
I'm not bashing the people running so much as the atmosphere we've created. We've got a welfare state that's out of control.

let me ask you guys - without section 8 housing... you really think all those people would be homeless?

Not a chance.

most likely not homeless....

rents are all market price.....

reply to post by gncnew

so 12% should get work where are the jobs??? i do not go by the GOVs number of unemployed i go by what i see, for not all get "free hand outs" as you call them GOV assistance is a need, in some cases, yes it is true 45% of the ones that got the voucher do need one , but because they have a "worker" on there side the numbers can and do get fudged so that person does get it. But when a person does need it, tries to get it, and is told you have an gas bill that need's to be payed and you never had gas in your name, it just makes me
think i am kidding go stand in line some time and just listen to some of the talk at these places , and when you try to report fraud your told no one likes a snitch, snitch is one thing abuse is an other.

reply to post by paratus


First off, there are not 30,000 pizza delivery jobs. I don't even know if there are that many minimum wage jobs available. If there are, a person still couldn't afford rent, food, utilities, and etc. Where I live rent costs as much if not more than to have a mortgage. It is extremely hard to find affordable safe housing. No, I don't blame those people seeking help.

Much of our good paying jobs went overseas to extremely cheap labor. We are left to grab as many service jobs as possible. A person laid off from a good paying job would have to now obtain 2 to 3 jobs just to try to make what they use to before. Even with that, those people may never see the pay they had before.

As more people go on unemployment and reduce their spending to basically needs, those service jobs you are telling others to run to are disappearing. If people don't have money to order pizza, go to restaurants, hire maids, stay at hotels, and etc, those jobs will disappear. Jobs disappear even more when one person holds 2 to 3 jobs. That leaves less jobs for those who are looking for just one.

The companies will and already started to cut back on employees, make one employee jobs that two or more employees use to do, or the company will fold. I already seen it. I seen a heavy equipment dealer who also repairs the equipment slash at least half of their work force, in which my position was eliminated as a guard. My sister had to take on more and more work in order to keep her job. She had to become indispensable to keep her job. The only reason she has it is because she did so much for so many, that after the company laid her off they called her back because over half of the people she worked with requested her back.

I seen pizza joints shut down. I have seen over half a town close it's doors, and those who are still open are struggling. My mom an antique dealer is struggling because people don't buy as much as they use to. She sells on e-bay, and over half of her customers are from over seas. That says a lot. The car hauling company my husband works for is about to close their doors.

Things are tough all over. I pray that my family will be able to survive, and that we will not have to increase any of the tent cities that are growing. That lady's report with the 3 to 4 mile tent city along the Colorado river hits home with me. My husband was once homeless before the recession. We live pay check to pay check along with my daughter getting SSI disability.

Could I get another job? Possibly, but when I had a job my husband didn't. If I get a job now, the cost of a babysitter for three kids would basically eat up my pay. The cost of gas for people to get back and forth to work doesn't help either. Yes, it did come down a tiny bit. It will never see the lows we saw even a few years ago before it rose to $4.00 a gallon.

Yes, I can walk outside and pretend everything is fine. I can see my neighbors still are in their houses. The kids still go to school. People are still working at the various stores. It looks like there isn't that much of a problem. Yet, take time to and talk to some of those workers, and you will here a different story. People will work even when the pay is not enough, because they need that little bit of pay to try to live. Extra help from anywhere helps out a lot.

Why should people have to break their backs working two to three jobs at a time? With some jobs it is hard to have more than one, since the job requires you to be available for when they decide to schedule you. I'm sure McDonald's is still this way. They will schedule you 5 hours in the morning one day, 4 hours in the afternoon another day, and 6 hours that starts in the morning and ends in the afternoon. I remember working hours like 11 am to 4pm, 2pm to 6pm, 9am to 2pm. You always worked different days, so it became practically impossible to get a second job.

Before telling people to just go out and get a job, this country needs to create jobs, and ones that preferably pays a living wage. It would be nice if one job could support a family, and one of the parents could be home for the kids instead of the day care culture that has crept up, babysitters raising the kids, or the children being latch key kids.

I know there are many more problems than I listed. I will pray that you never see the necessity in your life to have to go to the government to ask for support knowing your out of options. If you don't, you would either be starving, begging, and/or out on the streets possibly living in one of the tent cities that have been creeping up across our country. By then, hopefully you can afford a tent to be able to sleep in.

Originally posted by gncnew
Guys,
I'm not bashing the people running so much as the atmosphere we've created. We've got a welfare state that's out of control.

let me ask you guys - without section 8 housing... you really think all those people would be homeless?

Not a chance.

Your signature rings hollow as you bash the poor.

Do you think things would have been any different if McCain/Palin had of been elected?
If you are looking for a scapegoat perhaps a little research would be in order...start here

www.csmonitor.com...

and here...

www.census.gov...

Damn I get tired of Rushes, Sean's, Bork, Medved, Savage, Levin, Hewitt, Authur and Ingraham's retreaded rhetoric on this site.

Originally posted by gncnew
without section 8 housing... you really think all those people would be homeless?

If they're like people on the West Coast (and Colorado Springs) the past few years, they will double, triple, or quadruple up in housing without a private bedroom for each family unit (not child, but father/mother and child[ren]) as families lose jobs and income. They will live in cars or an aged motorhome in cheaper and cheaper rv parks, or park on city streets or at the end of a country road when even a modest space rent can no longer fit in the budget. They will live in tents under a bridge, sending the children to school for the free lunch.

It wasn't always like this. My father lost his job in the 1960s, we lived off savings, and made do without to save money, but he was back at another job in 3 months. Nowadays, with the millions and millions of jobs lost since 1980, the jobs are not there for all who want to work fulltime or work several jobs to equal fulltime without health insurance.

Nowadays, as wages have stagnated at best or made to dip downward to "equal" the wages of low wage countries, families will not be able to save enough money to cover unemployed periods, as my parents could back then, on good wages.

Those who were able to cling to their wealth will save their housing. The rest will not. Want to know who is able to cling to their wealth, watch those who cheer a stockmarket rise, indicating to many that the economy is well. The rest of us know better. We're poorer but wiser.

Originally posted by gncnew
Guys,
I'm not bashing the people running so much as the atmosphere we've created. We've got a welfare state that's out of control.

let me ask you guys - without section 8 housing... you really think all those people would be homeless?

Not a chance.

Yes they are that close to homeless. In the 80s I moved to Atlanta to work with some people acquiring cheap ratty houses - restoring them to the minimum acceptable standard and renting them as section 8 - my stint as a slum lord - a lot of these people - many single mothers people down on their luck where working towards a future, I did see some people make it, but damn I now know what that life is like, it is mean and it is hopeless and if you can get out of it you are a better person than I am. Many of the people were never going to acomplish anything in life. They lived on the left side of the bell shaped curve. Basically 1/2 of the population.

I get from the right wing that they would rather step over the dead bodies at the curb than try to help them live any kind of decent life. I listen to these folks tell me their disdain for the poor. (It is ironic because when I listen to these conversations it is usually while sitting on the bow deck of 80 or 90 foot houseboats at the marina)

I didn't last long at the house rehabs and I sold the ones I owned but I learned a lot about what it is like to be poor and how close to homeless a lot of people live on a day to day basis.

I'm 61 I have been very lucky but every day I know that there but for the grace of god go I. (I'm an atheist but that phrase has meaning to me)

reply to post by whaaa


Exactly, whaaa! And thanks for that CS Monitor link.

Americans must understand the extent of their working poor. In my life time I have never seen so many working poor or those living one unfortunate event (accident, medical, etc.) away from poverty.

With so much talk these days of taxation, it is interesting to note that our current system was based on "the abillity to pay". The wealthy were EXPECTED to pay more, based on ability to pay.

most low-income Southern and Western states endorsed federal taxation based on ``ability to pay'' and favored a graduated federal income tax differentially burdensome to wealthier states in the North and East.

source

Through three decades of demagoguery, the poor and the middle class (now shown to be ranking among the poor as far as dollars) became convinced that the wealth holders with the "ability to pay" are somehow being harmed. "Class warfare!" shouts the demagogue.

Such trickery, as those are the groups who lost their wealth to the have-mores. Your wealth and financial security is gone, yet some of you continue to either, 1) believe you still have it or will one day have it, or 2) the have-mores will somehow, benevolently give it back to you if you give them more.

A national sales tax?

Changing the current U.S. federal taxation from a progressive system to a national sales tax system could have a major social needs complication. Wealthy individuals and families may experience increased benefits through a national sales tax as they save or invest their money to avoid paying federal taxes. This increases the burden of paying for social needs to middle and lower-income individuals. If the government is unable to collect enough federal taxes to pay for the social needs of citizens, it may be forced to raise the national sales tax rate. This will usually increase the tax burden on lower income individuals.

source

Originally posted by spyder550
I did see some people make it, but damn I now know what that life is like, it is mean and it is hopeless and if you can get out of it you are a better person than I am. Many of the people were never going to acomplish anything in life. They lived on the left side of the bell shaped curve. Basically 1/2 of the population.

for all your posts. This line made me think about the idea of "culture of poverty"

Lewis gave some seventy characteristics (1996 [1966], 1998) that indicated the presence of the culture of poverty, which he argued was not shared among all of the lower classes.

The people in the culture of poverty have a strong feeling of marginality, of helplessness, of dependency, of not belonging. They are like aliens in their own country, convinced that the existing institutions do not serve their interests and needs. Along with this feeling of powerlessness is a widespread feeling of inferiority, of personal unworthiness. This is true of the slum dwellers of Mexico City, who do not constitute a distinct ethnic or racial group and do not suffer from racial discrimination. In the United States the culture of poverty that exists in the Negroes has the additional disadvantage of racial discrimination. People with a culture of poverty have very little sense of history. They are a marginal people who know only their own troubles, their own local conditions, their own neighborhood, their own way of life. Usually, they have neither the knowledge, the vision nor the ideology to see the similarities between their problems and those of others like themselves elsewhere in the world. In other words, they are not class conscious, although they are very sensitive indeed to status distinctions. When the poor become class conscious or members of trade union organizations, or when they adopt an internationalist outlook on the world they are, in my view, no longer part of the culture of poverty although they may still be desperately poor. (Lewis 1998)

source