Some staggering numbers about the lack of affordable housing in Manchester came to light not too long ago.
The waiting list in the Manchester area for those needing housing assistance has grown from about 1,900 to 10,000 households in just over seven years.
That's a crisis for low-income wage earners, say local housing advocates.
NHPR Correspondent Ellen Grimm reports.
Ellen: At 90 years old, Bernice Buckley is still working.
She shelves books part-time at the Manchester City Library.
In 2004, Buckley put her name on the waiting list for Section 8 housing assistance and was told she would have a three-year wait.
Federal Section 8 vouchers help low income tenants pay their rent.
Once the rent gets above 30% of the tenants monthly income, section 8 funds make up the difference.
Last December, Buckley called the Manchester Housing and Redevelopment Authority, or MHRA, to find out where things stood.
Buckley: I said, "My three years is going to be up the 12th." And she said, "Well, you're at the top of the list" Well, I am 90 years old, and, you know, so I thought maybe it would be up then. But I guess it wasn't. So that's all I know." (buckley1)
What would it mean for the 90 year old to get that help with her rent?
Buckley: Well, that would mean I could stop working and be a lady of leisure. (buckley2)
Buckley's name is one of about 10,000 now on the waiting list with the MHRA, which covers Manchester and towns within a five mile radius.
The agency, which is largely funded by the federal government, issues Section 8 vouchers and runs several low-income public housing facilities.
Dick Dunfey, executive director of MHRA, says his agency has been dealing with deep cuts in federal funding.
Dunfey: We're receiving far less than we're supposed to receive under a formula established by HUD that would give us sufficient money to operate public housing....we are currently operating at barely over 80 percent of the amount we need to operate public housing. That has created severe problems not only here but throughout the country. (Dunfey1)
In addition to those changes, Dunfey says federal funds only buy 1600 vouchers -- down from about 1800 .
90 year old Bernice Buckley has a relatively modest rent and does not consider herself to be in a dire situation.
But many others on the waiting list are not so lucky, says Dunfey.
Dunfey: ….It's sort of the hidden American tragedy in my estimation. It's an elephant in the room, and if we want to sing the praises of what's going on in Manchester or anywhere else in this country, we'd better deal with this situation because people are living lives of silent desperation. (Dunfey2)
Dean Christon is the executive director of the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority, which also issues Section 8 vouchers.
He says he too has seen an increase in demand.
Currently, the waiting list contains the names of about 5,800 people.
Their wait could be four to six years.
Christon: One of the real dynamics is, as prices and rents went up, the incomes of renter households in particular have been pretty stagnant. In fact, if you look at the median income of a renter household over the last ten years, it's increased almost not at all, while rents went up, depending on where you are in the market, by somewhre between 30 and 50 percent, and in some places more than that. (Christon1)
The NH Housing Finance Authority receives federal funding for about 3,300 vouchers.
That number has seen no significant growth over the last decade, says Christon.
And only about 300 to 400 people move off the list each year.
Christon: We're not getting new vouchers to speak of from HUD. They're not being funded by Congress to create new vouchers and haven't been in any significant level for years. And so you've got this sort of baseline of capacity that you're working with. What you keep doing is recycling those vouchers as people leave the program. (Christon2)
Cathy Hoyt and her six-year-old daughter live in transitional housing for the homeless run by the non-profit Families in Transition.
Hoyt has been there for 21 months.
She’s working but says she can’t afford even a $700-a-month apartment without help,
And she’s been told she may have to wait two to three years for a voucher.
And that's even with what's called a "preference," meaning she fulfills certain criteria, such as risk of homelessness, that give her more priority.
Hoyt: There are a number of people here -- we've taken the program, we've done our classes, we are ready to go out, but we can't, because the Section 8 vouchers are not available. So we're primed to leave, and there's nowhere to go. (Hoyt1)
That Families in Transition program is supposed to last 24 months, during which time people receive help finding permanent housing.
But placing people has grown harder, in large part because of the lack of vouchers.
Maureen Beauregard runs Families in Transition.
Beauregard: We have folks that are beyond their 24 months. They're at 30 months or 36 months. What that does is it doesn't allow us to serve more people. So we have folks that are in the program that aren't able to move on, which then causes a backlog for folks to come into the program. We prioritize folks that are living in shelters or living in their cars, or whatever, so if we don't have a place for them to move into, we don't know what happens to them, honestly. (Beauregard)
The rental market has softened a bit recently,
But Beauregard says the rents are still too often unaffordable for the poor families she deals with.
Many earn less than $18,000 a year.
Cathy Hoyt, meanwhile, is not sure what to do next.
Hoyt: I didn't register my daughter at her elementary school until the last minute because I was hoping that we would be gone by that time, and such has not been the case. And now I want her to have some permanence, so we're going to be here until the end of her school year. I accept that, unless some miracle happens. (Hoyt2)
President Bush's recently released budget increases the section 8 voucher program by about $336 million over last year.
But critics point out that even that increase falls far short of what’s needed.
And Dick Dunfey at the Manchester Housing and Redevelopment Authority says the waiting list for assistance is only going to get longer.
For NHPR News, I’m Ellen Grimm in Manchester.
