Culture of entitlement: The Section 8 housing mob scene
Remember Peggy the Moocher, the Obama supporter who couldn’t wait for her government savior to usher in the Age of Bottomless Household Entitlements?
Now, imagine thousands of Peggys crowded together on the streets demanding their cash money.
Via the AJC:
No peace in Chicago’s Altgeld Gardens: What Obama and Jarrett left behind
See also: “Chicago’s Real Crime Story”
Now, imagine thousands of Peggys crowded together on the streets demanding their cash money.
Via the AJC:
A crowd of people hoping to get federal housing assistance became unruly Wednesday morning with reports of fights breaking out in the crowdThe mob was waiting to collect on Section 8 vouchers. The program is a welfare-state relic. Housing policy expert Howard Husock at the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal exposed the entitlement failure several years ago:
Thousands of people were lined up at the Tri-Cities shopping center, hoping to apply for a voucher from the East Point Housing Authority that will give them a discount on their rent.
People began lining up at the shopping center two days ago, and by Wednesday morning the crowd had grown to over several thousand people. East Point police, some wearing riot helmets, were patrolling the area. Firefighters and EMTs were attending to people who were overheating in the sun. Police from College Park, Hapeville, Fulton County and MARTA assisted in crowd control.
Housing vouchers—in New York and across urban America—originated 30 years ago, with “Section 8” of the Nixon-era National Housing Act. The program’s rationale was straightforward: instead of placing an aid recipient in a housing project—viewed as a failed experiment because of the projects’ expense and disorder—the federal government would provide a voucher that subsidized the rent in a privately owned apartment. Conservatives have supported the voucher plan over the years chiefly because of its seeming free-market component, and because it does not impose on the government the considerable cost of building and maintaining public housing. But whatever Republican hopes, the voucher initiative operated from its inception just like any other no-strings-attached welfare program—and it continues to do so today, eight years after the nation ended the federal welfare entitlement and lifted hundreds of thousands of formerly dependent welfare mothers into lives of work and greater personal responsibility.Related read: See my 2009 post on what government housing bureaucrats have wrought in Chicago…
Almost alone among post–welfare reform social programs, Section 8 remains an open-ended benefit, with no time limit…
…While Republicans acquiesce in the Section 8 program’s growth, urban liberal Democrats use the program’s growing funding stream to waft benefits to their constituents, who can rely on them—literally—to pay the rent. In New York, this arrangement helps reelect Democratic congressmen Jerrold Nadler, Major Owens, and Nydia Velazquez, all in districts thick with Section 8 apartments. The result: increased dependency and the undermining of many New York neighborhoods—and many other neighborhoods throughout urban America.
No peace in Chicago’s Altgeld Gardens: What Obama and Jarrett left behind
See also: “Chicago’s Real Crime Story”
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L
Crime increases and the police start showing up.
Time to consider moving.
I read the NewsBusters account of how handily MM shut down George Stephanopoulos this morning on GMA – he keep tryin’ to equivocate and distract from Obama’s troubles and MM wasn’t havin’ it! She overwhelmed him with facts and sources in the Romanoff controversy, and more! Wish I’d been home to see it -
Anyway, great job, MM! Now, about Matt Lauer…
When our line of credit runs out.
But let the Democrats cut food stamps and few in the media bat an eyelash; instead, Dems are portrayed as seeing the whole picture in fixing state budgets, while the fact that they may be literally taking food out of the mouths of the young and elderly to pay for unions is glossed over and made to seem right as rain.
On a side note – anyone besides me pick up on Megyn Kelly’s bwitchy treatment of MM when she was on her show? Her snide remarks are getting a tad tiresome, and dare I say it’s usually a female guest?
Therin lies the difference between socialsts and intelligent people.
Time to quit carrying the bucket Obama.
That is the most acute analogy I have seen for some time now.
The difference…these “toddlers” are MUCH more destructive when they’re told “NO”!
- Larry and Moe (PUNCH DRUNKS, 1934)
Section 8 vouchers are not “a little help” with housing; they are sufficient to rent apartments in middle class neighborhoods, a thousand bucks a month and more.
I live in a lovely, but modest, townhome community. It is aging a bit and not the hottest property for stone countertops and such perks. But it is set in a lovely, woodsy setting of rolling hills, is not jammed together, and has many long-time owners. BUT, the least attractive units, the smaller ones that are sandwiched between two others with minimal windows and light…these can be bought by speculators who then rent them to Section 8 tenants.
The most important thing that makes my little community pleasant — as with any community — is the owners who love and care for their little homes. But we are being invaded by trash from the projects with their vouchers.
The federal government has abandoned housing “projects,” because the ungrateful animals turn them into drug-infested slums. So OUR TAX DOLLARS are now used by the federal government in its program to spread the pestilence around. People with well cared for, tidy little homes with neat flowerbeds, etc., are finding themselves with neighbors through the wall who blare the TV half the night, hang around in the streets late at night, park their junkie cars…there has even been a drug-dealing operation.I am enraged.
I see these welfare dependents as a set of victims…perhaps the most sad, since they have had so much of their humanity degraded.
They, of course, are tied to productive Americans…another victim set…with our new Barons sitting in the middle.
I used to work around a lot of entrepreneurial black people. I was not even aware of Section 8 before I met this folks, who were all making nice incomes. It was nearly a universal ambition among them to buy properties and become “slumlords,” as they said.
Actually, I think Section 8 vouchers may be GREATER THAN the market value, for exactly the reason you said. And landlords at least know that they will get their rent on time. Otherwise, I am not sure quite what the incentives are. But my former coworkers who were so eager to get into the business of renting to these people had that ambition because it is profitable. And, of course, you can’t rent a substandard apartment under Section 8…it has to be up to snuff prior to rental.
The government/liberals have this concept in mind that in doing so, it will magically cause these people to want to work, which is utter BS.
My question is: How exactly do the republicans currently in the government, or running for office, see this problem being solved?
Everyone in the political game seems to think that fixing the problem involves “programs” and “studies” which, of course, all take more taxpayer money.
But the problem isn’t just about any given politicians view on how it should be fixed.
It’s just not possible to simply cut welfare and just let the terminally lazy starve to death. The number of deaths from that alone would create a pretty big problem for the cities due to the need to dispose of bodies (though it certainly would be an opportunity for business and jobs).
On top of that, not everyone is a heartless bastard like me, and as such they feel these entitlement pigs deserve a chance to prove that if their stomach is empty they will be motivated to work.
So, since We The People seem to be the only ones with a grip on reality these days, what would those of us on the non-politics side of things suggest?
I don’t mean this question in any sort of insulting manner, it’s just a question that came to mind. America is stuck with this cancer, but it’s not something that can just be cut out. So how does it get resolved?
If the checks stopped coming in, they would turn to crime, turn on each other, and/or eventually turn to begging on the street, at which point they might starve if everyone else who *can* work is broke because they spend their last dollars trying to find a way to make a living.
I sincerely hope things turn around for you. The wife and I will light a candle for you.
It distresses me greatly that government programs meant to be a life-ring, and therefore temporary, are being abused by 3-4 generations of families that are society’s remoras and lampreys.
Monies that could be giving you and your family temporary sustenance are being sucked dry by waaaaay too many people with no hope, no ambition, and no prospects.
I am sorry to hear of your struggles. There are many deserving Americans in difficulties these days. That is why we have unemployment compensation and other aspects of the “safety net.” I didn’t quite follow why you can’t get unemployment compensation, which has been very generously extended, but I accept your general representation that you are struggling and doing your best.
But you have only been out of work for two and a half months. Frankly, I must say that you should be able — with the assistance that is available — to get through that period without severe pain, although I understand that you can’t know how long your unemployment will last.
Anyway, the anger here is not whatsoever directed at hardworking Americans who are in temporary difficulty because of the economic conditions. The anger here is toward a permanent welfare class. It is not a tidy world, and these things can get a little confused at times. But, as a productive citizen who is in a spot of passing trouble, I hope you will not start identifying with the welfare class and taking up their banner. In general, I think that extended unemployment insurance along with food stamps is a generous pair of benefits that will help most people over short-term difficulties.
After 75 days out of work, are you now wanting us to provide you housing? I have no real sympathy with that. And looking back at your post, you’ve been looking for work since June 1 and you have already lost you house?
Maybe you can explain why anyone should be sympathetic to that story, but I sure as hell am not. Maybe I am misunderstanding. You should have gotten a pay check in June but you have already lost your home? You said you have been looking for a job since June 1. But maybe you have actually been out of work for much longer. This just does not make sense to me. Please explain; I will apologize if the confusion is on my end.
Exactly what Cloward & Piven planned!
No matter how you look at it, the next few years are going to be painful.
Note to self, buy more food, reload more ammo.
This woman went on a college ski drip when she was young, without the knowledge of her father, who would have disapproved. She suffered a minor, but not insignificant injury, which put her on crutches.
She had no money and couldn’t even get home, so she went for assistance to a church in the area where she had been skiing. They gave her a couple of hundred bucks from a “travelers aid” fund that they had. She got back to school and life went on. She thought this was great.
I asked her if she paid back the money. She was nonplussed by my question. I understand that she was not really expected to pay it back. But my perspective was that it was great that a church had helped her out of a jam, but shouldn’t a middle-class college girl put this money back into the fund to help the next person in trouble? She didn’t see that she should. She thought it was just fine that she should accept charity to help her enjoy a ski weekend without her father finding out.
Not my view of personal responsibility. A typical liberal’s view. (I wouldn’t even have blamed her if she had said, “No, I didn’t even think of paying them back; I was a kid and maybe not so responsible.” I would have completely understood that. But she was still a feckless kid who didn’t get it.)
Long ago in the U.S. Army a “Section 8″ discharge was given to losers with psychological and behavioral problems that made it impossible to use them or trust them in the Military.
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Section 8 housing sounds like the same type of idea. Pay those who can’t make it like the rest of (read normal) people. How apropo.
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John Bibb
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Okay…I accept that. I guess I’d say that your example doesn’t hold up very well without some of the detail that you don’t want to go into. I certainly agree with your general proposition that some deserve help and some adopt being a welfare recipient as “a career.” Good luck to you.
So wat up wit dat? I thought Obama was gonna pay all their house notes?
Maybe because it’s the same type of “somebody else is going to save my arse” mentality.
Many laughed at Peggy, but now the Democratic Socialists are laughing at us.
It’s kind of like how people laughed about Obama saying “57 states”, but they totally missed what he said next… “and one left to go”. I firmly believe that he wants to make the USA the 58th state in the OIC. But people missed that. They were too busy laughing at him. Now, he’s laughing at us.
Who runs this program this way, where the first in line gets the goodies, but the needy, perhaps handicapped, who can’t push their way to the front, are left out? This sounds very third world.
Givernment programs fall prey to bureaucratic paper pushers. When this happens the abuse begins. I’m not attempting to defend every Sect. 8 recipient only the ones I consider needy enough to be part of the program…the people the program was intentionally intended to help, much like food stamps and other welfare programs. The abuse that takes place is not their fault. Once again a givernment plan with all good intentions has gone awry due to givernment abuse and incompetence, not necessarily the result of the user.
I understand and agree with your disdain for the abusers of such programs that waste tax payers money, but are the truly needy and thankful Americans that find themselves in need of help and support due to no fault of their own. They could be injured, ill from a debilitating disease, a broken down body after years of using that body to survive and it finally gives out. Should they be kicked to the curb?
Please try using the appropriate size brush when painting recipients of givernment programs.
And that would be a ~very~ large one.