is a (fictional) several-year waiting list for SNAP equivalent to a several-year waiting list for, er, whatever housing thing this is meant to be parallel to?
Thanks! Here are a couple of relevant extracts for anyone else who didn’t know the same things as I didn’t know. First, what it is:
Section 8 of the Housing Act of 1937 [...] authorizes the payment of rental housing assistance to private landlords on behalf of low-income households in the United States. Of the 5.2 million American households that received rental assistance in 2018, approximately 1.2 million of those households received a Section 8 based voucher.
Second, those waiting lists:
In many localities, the PHA waiting lists for Section 8 vouchers may be thousands of families long, waits of three to six years to obtain vouchers is common, and many lists are closed to new applicants. Wait lists are often briefly opened (often for just five days), which may occur as little as once every seven years. Some PHAs use a “lottery” approach, where there can be as many as 100,000 applicants for 10,000 spots on the waitlist, with spots being awarded on the basis of weighted or non-weighted lotteries, with priority sometimes given to local residents, the disabled, veterans, and the elderly.
“Fully Fund Section 8” is part of Bernie Sanders’ housing proposal and is popular among people on the left. If we think low income people should get housing vouchers, why give out so few?
If I thought there was no way to bring down the cost of housing I would probably agree, but since supply is so restricted giving Section 8 to everyone who needs it would (a) raise rents even more, (b) be incredibly expensive, and (c) transfer a huge amount of money to landlords.
Building public housing (at higher densities than would normally be allowed) or just removing zoning restrictions would go much farther.
Section 8
Thanks! Here are a couple of relevant extracts for anyone else who didn’t know the same things as I didn’t know. First, what it is:
Second, those waiting lists:
“Fully Fund Section 8” is part of Bernie Sanders’ housing proposal and is popular among people on the left. If we think low income people should get housing vouchers, why give out so few?
If I thought there was no way to bring down the cost of housing I would probably agree, but since supply is so restricted giving Section 8 to everyone who needs it would (a) raise rents even more, (b) be incredibly expensive, and (c) transfer a huge amount of money to landlords.
Building public housing (at higher densities than would normally be allowed) or just removing zoning restrictions would go much farther.