Lord Jim wrote:you do not want to live in a Section 8 building.
Gim, I don't know how things work where you live, but in California, Section 8 recipients can have their rent and paid, (up to a certain amount...generally fairly close or equal to market value)
anywhere they can get accepted to live; free standing houses, apartment complexes etc. (A lot of Landlords will accept Section 8 recipients because the rent is supposedly guaranteed...though the downside is if the recipient screws up in some way and loses their Section 8 eligibility, the Landlord is stuck.)
There are some section 8 free standing houses and some duplexes, but the majority of section 8 housing in the metro area of the Twin Cities are indeed apartments.
There are three types of public housing: Truly public housing, where the complex is publically owned. Some apartments are only for seniors and disabled people. Privately owned public housing, where someone / a company owns the building. In both these situations the voucher for the housing stays with the apartment. There is also housing choice vouchers, which follows the renter. A person in this program has to hope the owner will take the voucher. In rural area there are other programs to assist housing, often the voucher system as you don't find many apartment buildings in the sticks.
In looking at the Minneapolis Housing program, they will be accepting their first applications for multibedroom units since JUNE 2007. IOW, people with children feasibly have been on the waiting list for three years. In order to be an approved property, the owners are
supposed to meet stringent requirements. They probably do, at first. But it declines.
I took a course called Bridges Out of Poverty that gave me a different view into the lives of some of my clients. I mean, I grew up on the Northside of Minneapolis, I knew many people who tottered on the edge of poverty, but never understood the psychology of the way
some people lived. A house is just a shelter. Four walls. Who cares what it looks like. It's the transitory property that is important (the 42" LCD TVs, the trimmed out cars, the clothes). One of my most PITA clients used to live down the street from our church. It was a blighted house - broken windows, no yard, trash everywhere. But damn if he didn't come into our offices wearing $500 worth of clothing, chatting on his iPhone. For many people, their pride is in their home. That is not true for many of those in poverty. A house can be gone tomorrow. You take care of what you can take with you. That mentality leaves a house a hellhole when the tenants leave.
