Posted on 09/30/2007 9:39:15 PM PDT by Sgt_Schultze
Hundreds of families living in housing subsidized by Fairfax County taxpayers exceed income caps designed to ensure that only the neediest receive assistance, a review of county records shows.
In the most extreme cases, Fairfax is underwriting rents for families making well into six figures: One household getting help makes more than $216,000 a year; another, $184,000. Dozens of others -- making $60,000, $70,000, $90,000 -- exceed eligibility caps. And they do so with the tacit approval of county housing administrators, who do little to encourage occupants to move on when their fortunes improve.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
BTW, I saw this on Drudge, but since matt is still omitting his link to FreeRepublic, I thought it more appropriate to post to his source directly.
Somewhat baffling? Why would a family making $216,000 live in the toilet called public housing? I’d move as soon as I could no matter how much they subsidized the housing.
Northern Virginia, a hotbed of democrat support.
Among the reasons I left, that and the traffic was ughh....
side note I’ve seen m5’s Cadillacs Acuras and all other luxury makes in public housing. 50 inch plasmas and wardrobes fit for a nice place in tysons.
second side note I went to school with the guy who was called maccacca.
“Somewhat baffling? Why would a family making $216,000 live in the toilet called public housing?”
Greed.
The fact that higher-income families choose to remain in subsidized housing illustrates the critical lack of affordable housing in Fairfax, named the nation's most affluent county last month by the Census Bureau. The median new-home price in the region's largest jurisdiction is $960,000, and the average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $1,306, according to county data.
It's cheap ... pocket the savings.
Entitlements are a narcotic. Just because you don’t need them doesn’t mean you won’t abuse them. Even FDR forsaw this when AFDC originated in the 1930’s
Entitlements are a narcotic. Just because you don’t need them doesn’t mean you won’t abuse them. Even FDR forsaw this when AFDC originated in the 1930’s
Public housing in Fairfax is attractive and not at all a slum.
They may be subletting or some other creative arrangement. Rent control usually leads to someone other than the owner making a good profit.
I figured as much.
Some public housing programs provide market rents for “normal” apartments so this could be an apartment in an upscale development.
I think it’s called “mixed income housing”. HUD has a whole section on it.
“Somewhat baffling? Why would a family making $216,000 live in the
toilet called public housing? “
Not all public housing is a toilet.
I remember seeing a TV news report about some attempt to cut back
on benefits for those in some public housing in NYC, maybe five years ago.
IIRC, one of the major points of contention was the city deciding
to no longer pay for cable for the indigent.
I couldn’t exactly tell where the reporter was coming from, but when
he went into one of the public housing apts to register the weeping
and gnashing of teeth from one of the tenants....
HEY, there’s a good sized plasma on the wall!
HEY, that’s better furniture than I’ve ever owned.
The place looked great.
I’m not going to paint with a broad stroke here...but I suspect that
in some localities, people are earning $$$ “off the books” and getting
free rent and-Gawd-only-knows-what-else on our dime.
The recent revelation about SCHIP (subsidized children health insurance
program) going to families making as much as something like $85,000/yr.
also sounds objectionable as well.
Show me (where) the money (is)!
I guess that would be my choice too, if I had to make such a choice.
Three of the 8a apartment complexes I know of are 1950's and 60's era brick buildings that appear to be in decent shape. The grounds are not "too" trashy, in fact one is pretty darned spiffy from I can see when driving by. As expected, all three places have a high percentage of both illegals and legitimate new immigrants. The legit immigrants tend to move within a year or two once they're on their feet, and this I know from several personal encounters.
The problem is that these 8a complexes are tucked into neighborhoods of highly desirable locations, where a single family house goes for $325K to $1.5M.
In one specific example, there's a condominium complex directly across the street from an 8a complex. They're of very similar age, size, and design (50's/60's, brick, smallish rooms). During the 2000-2005 runup the condos went from $100K (2 br) to now about $300K. The 8a rents saw nothing even remotely like that kind of increase, thought the housing itself, the amenities, the public services, and locations are virtually identical (location, location. location).
Bottom line is that if those 8a units were spiffed up and put on the market right now, they'd sell for $250k to $400K, and they'd sell fast at those prices.
Some of these people may be living in perfectly nice townhouse developments. Counties often require builders to set aside housing that will be used as section 8. Often it means the builder just doesn’t put a dishwasher or other upmarket features in.
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