Free Republic

Judge Orders N.Y. Couple Not to Conceive By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: May 8, 2004 Filed at 12:14 a.m. ET ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) -- A couple has been ordered not to conceive any more children until the ones they already have are no longer in foster care. A civil liberties advocate said the court ruling unsealed Friday was ``blatantly unconstitutional.'' Monroe County Family Court Judge Marilyn O'Connor ruled March 31 that both parents ``should not have yet another child which must be cared for at public expense.'' ``The facts of this case and the reality of parenthood cry out for...

After nine years of not doing so, Los Angeles housing officials plan to begin enforcing a federal rule that will ban thousands of undocumented immigrants from subsidized housing. The change in policy means that thousands of undocumented immigrants who receive housing assistance will lose their monthly subsidy or face higher rents. The regulation, which has existed since 1995, prohibits undocumented immigrants from receiving assistance in public housing developments or through Section 8, a federal program that provides help with monthly rents. Since its inception, officials in the Housing Authority of the city of Los Angeles had applied the regulation only...

Housing Authority Faces Major Cut to Section 8 By MATTHEW ARTZ (05-21-04) The embattled Berkeley Housing Authority (BHA) took another body blow this week when it learned that it will lose about $200,000 in federal funding, a 12.5 percent cut. In a letter received by public housing authorities across the country Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), revealed that it was reducing the administrative fees it pays to administer Section 8 housing units. The news is especially tough for the BHA, which has exhausted its reserves in recent years to stay afloat. Although the housing...

<p>Arlington and Montgomery counties are the only local jurisdictions that do not check the immigration status of applicants for local housing subsidies, allowing illegal aliens to receive taxpayer-funded rent assistance.</p> <p>Montgomery County spends about $3.7 million a year on rent assistance for 1,600 households, and Arlington County spends about $2.4 million a year on housing grants for 680 households.</p>

30 low-income rent units cost city $7 million Housing: Buying and fixing up vacant houses to scatter subsidized tenants among middle-class neighborhoods proves expensive. Baltimore officials are spending nearly $7 million to quietly buy and renovate 30 homes in mostly white, middle-class neighborhoods for use as public housing rental units - an effort to comply with a longstanding federal court order. The purchase and renovations, done by a nonprofit housing group and paid for with federal and state funds, average out to $231,583 per house - more than twice last year's average sale price of a city home. Acknowledging that...

TAYLOR, MI – Johnie Heard lives in Section 8, low income, government housing which is owned by the city of Taylor, Michigan. She has lived in the housing development for 10 years, but last year was threatened with eviction from her home for displaying an 8-inch, stop sign-shaped window sign containing the following message: “24 Hr. Prayer Station.” Mathew D. Staver, President and General Counsel of Liberty Counsel, and Erik Stanley, Litigation Counsel for Liberty Counsel, represented Ms. Heard in a lawsuit filed last year claiming violation of her right to free speech, as well as violations of the Fair...

A Michigan woman who sued a government agency after it tried to evict her for posting a sign reading "24 Hr. Prayer Station" in the window of her taxpayer-subsidized apartment has won cash damages and attorney fees just before the case was to go to trial. As WorldNetDaily reported, Johnie Heard was sued last year after she refused to remove the sign from her window. Heard is a resident of low-income Section 8 housing in Taylor, Mich. At the time, other residents were allowed to post secular signs – such as "Santa Stops Here" – but Heard's sign was deemed...

<p>Complete eight hours of volunteer community work a month or be evicted.</p> <p>That's the ultimatum being given to hundreds of thousands of able-bodied, unemployed residents of public housing complexes across the nation and in metro Detroit as part of a new federal law that takes effect Oct. 1.</p>

<p>The law has divided pro-life and pro-family groups. Some pro-family groups oppose welfare and extra public funding for welfare moms, while pro-life groups say the family caps have been proven to encourage poor women to have abortions.</p> <p>The court, in a 7-0 decision, upheld the family caps.</p>

<p>Millions in federal spending and a concerted police presence did not dent serious crime in Nashville's public housing during a recent two-year period in which the city's overall crime rate sank.</p> <p>A Metro police analysis conducted for The Tennessean shows that even as major offenses in Nashville dropped 9% from 2001 to 2002, crimes including homicide, rape, robbery and assault barely budged in public housing, dropping less than 0.8%.</p>

Over six years ago, Congress overhauled much of the nation's welfare system. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 19961 replaced the failed social program called Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). The reform legislation had three primary goals: (1) reduce welfare dependence and increase employment, (2) reduce child poverty, and (3) reduce illegitimacy and strengthen marriage. At the time of the law's enactment, many liberal groups made dire predictions about the terrible effect these reforms would have on America's children. In particular, the Children's Defense Fund claimed that welfare...

Legislation will be introduced in Congress today to overhaul federal housing assistance for the poor, disabled and elderly along the lines of the 1996 welfare reforms. The Bush administration is proposing a $13 billion initiative called Housing Assistance for Needy Families (HANF). HANF would replace with state block grants the Section 8 rent vouchers received by nearly 2 million families. Under Section 8: o An eligible renter obtains a voucher from one of 2,500 local housing authorities that contract with the federal government and takes it to any private landlord willing to accept it. o Aid recipients pay no more...

<p>Confronted by a horde of children that swarmed through their door and into their apartment, two Baldwin Borough women thought at first that they had become victims of a bizarre practical joke.</p> <p>But within minutes, the roommates realized that the pack of children intended something more sinister. While some of the children ransacked the kitchen, police said, others surrounded, then overpowered and molested the women before the women's boyfriends could chase them back outside.</p>