New Normal Includes Homelessness

Is this the new normal for the majority of American's?

Who's Mean's Are Livable

President Scott Sales, R-Bozeman stated to the Great Falls Tribune in a May 1, 2019 article "We have to get back to the point where we live within our means to some degree."

It is here you as the reader will look at the means that I have to live within. From this exercise maybe some of you will have a better understanding of how important, Affordable, WorkForce, Low-Income or Government Subsidized housing is. Not only that may you also come to understand that living with Government Subsidies is no walk in the park, especially under this administration.

In order for me to live within my means, I must work only with the amount I receive from Social Security Disability, as I can only work 12 hours a week now. I don't know of an employer who has those kinds of hours to offer. So we have our $851 in hand and are ready to go out and get a place to live on our own, without government help or in a government-subsidized building. This means we will be looking at the real rental price and all the other bills that go along with it.

"The median monthly gross residential rent in Montana was $759 in 2017 according to the Census ACS survey.¹ Average gross rent was $772 in 2017. The median rent more accurately depicts rental rates in the middle of the distribution of rents and is thus preferred in the analysis below. 2018 Montana median and average rent data will be released in September of 2019."

Now, in 2017 the average gross rent was $772 a month of a one-bedroom apartment, $851-772=$79 left to pay utilities, auto insurance, food (as we can not use SNAP, we must live within our means), gas for the auto, phone service, doctor's visits, prescriptions, toiletries, and to feed our service animal. No cable tv, or internet, eating out, going to the movies, or even for a drive. $79 is not going to go very far, even in Montana where you don't have to have cash every day to ride a bus or park your car.

This scenario tells me I need to look for a lower-cost place to live as it is my biggest expenditure. So let's take a look at alternative living arrangements that can be done with $851 a month without breaking the bank.

To share an apartment with someone who has rented a place at $772 a month, we would have to pay half of that plus half of the utilities, Rent: $386 a month, lets say utilities run $100 a month, so we add $50 to the rent of $386 and we get $436 over half of my income so we know that is not going to work either.

Let's see what the math would be to live in a motel with monthly rates, the only one available is in Butte, that is a 68 mile drive, so we need to factor in the cost of gas to get there: 68 miles x $2.75 a gallon of gas= $19 or about 7 gallons of gas if we get 10 miles per gallon. Now the room for a month in Butte will be $119 a night for 31 nights plus $19 in gas to get there = $3,708 total just for housing a month. Well, that will never do.

Our next option is to look at campgrounds and sleep in our vehicle. Now in the state of Montana, there is plenty of places you can pull over and stay for free without having to be in the city limits, or you can stay at Walmart for the night for free and have sketchy things take place under the cover of darkness. These two choices fit our budget, but they do not allow for bathroom usage, we will need to haul water so we can clean and cook for ourselves.

To stay in an established campground for a night can cost you anywhere from $14 General to $7 a night if you are disabled and a senior, this cost is without electricity, and for a rustic site is $6 dollars a night for senior and disabled residents of Montana, $12 General. You are only allowed to stay 14 days in a campground, so we will have to move to another in two weeks. We want to get by as cheaply as possible, so we will take a rustic site at $6 a night (we won't factor in the gas this time as it will be less than $5 to move to a campground down the way). $6 x 31 nights stay =$186 for 31 days.

$851 monthly income - $186 monthly camping fees = $665 left to pay auto insurance, food, toiletries, gas, phone, groceries, doctors, prescriptions. Hmmmmm, it seems to me that this is well within my means.

Well, you can't camp in the winter! It's too cold! Waite a minute, it wouldn't be too cold if I had a portable electric car heater for the interior of the vehicle, no CO2 emissions as it runs off the cigarette lighter, there are more sweaters I can put on as well as build a fire, or drive into town and visit friends, family, walk around shopping centers, or go to the library during the day.

In this article, I hope that I have shown you what it means to live within my means. I would love to live this way for a year just to be able to save some money for a rainy day, but alas if you choose to live this way you can expect to have unwanted visitors thinking you are of the wrong element, need to receive mental health services  or should be run out of town before other's think they can do the same thing.

Some of the homeless are not really homeless, as they have chosen to live within their means and not put up with all the negative connotations about taking from Uncle Sam, using so-called "Entitlement" programs that actually control how much money you can make, save, and get yourself out of poverty. 

QUESTIONS ABOUT HUD AND 24 CFR 5.609

Sometimes I can't help ask the question, especially when it takes everything I made from a part-time, temporary job, plus one thousand dollars in savings to pay the rent and get groceries. If I did not have the money in savings, I would not have been able to pay my rent for the month of June 2019. Why you ask?

Well, to tell you the truth I can not explain what happened. After all, I reported that my temporary, part-time, seasonal job with Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks would be ending May 24, 2019, on May 14, 2019, to the Montana HCV counselor that was assigned to me when I moved here, to the Capital City, Helena.

I was disappointed when the paperwork for the reduction in rent was not handled until June 24, 2019, which forced me to pay from income that I did not receive for half of May and for the entire month of June. I was told this was based on their need to turn the paperwork in by the 19th of the month, and I did not quit working until the 19th of May. Be that as it may, I turned in my end of employment in time for the Housing Authority to have gotten the correct paperwork to me in a timely manner.  I informed them through email and did not hear anything back from them until I called to find out what my rent would be for the month of June.

I was quite upset when I found out that I would have to continue to pay 30% from income that I was no longer receiving. I have tried to have the Housing Authority explain to me why this is? Why do I not qualify for the EID? Why medical bills that I now owe on were not taking into consideration when recalculating my income? I believe my income should have been disallowed under the 24 CFR 5.609 which speaks of income derived from a 12 month period. HUD has a special calculation they are to use for part-time work, which is generally also calculated for a 12 month period, you need to ask for recertification of income when you only work six months out of the year, or when you stop working.

Because I am disabled, I believe I should have at least qualified for the Earned Income Disallowance for Disabled Tenants, as I have used this benefit in the past two years, as I worked my part-time seasonal job and should have at least qualified for a 50% disallowance as this would be my third 12 month period, with only one more year that I could work and use this disallowance to keep my rent lower so that I could save some money.

Yet Helena Housing Authority Home Choice Voucher Counselor refuses to communicate through email to explain why I do not qualify or understand these rules. She insists we meet in person, and I would like a witness, but the Disability Rights CAP program does not seem interested enough in helping me, as they have not called back in response to my request for a witness in this instance.

I have contacted Senator Tester on this matter as he sits on the Appropriations Committee and helps to decide how much money HUD gets for these programs. His people sent me back to the Montana Department of Commerce Housing Division, and I sent the Agent there an email and have not heard back from them why I do not qualify for a fair hearing on this rent issue.

If anyone out there in internet land can tell me why I do not qualify for the EID, or why my income was not excluded under the 24 CFR 5.609 laws, and why I had to pay a higher rent with a lower income, why my own Housing Authorities will not allow me a fair hearing or even a complete answer to all my questions, then please email me with this explanation at snakewomanspeaks@gmail.com.

I do not understand, I thought I had a right to a fair hearing? I thought my Senator was to deal with Federal Issues and not sweep the poor under the carpet just because it's an election year. I guess I thought wrong. Does anyone have a van for sell that I might purchase because I can not afford to work and be a contributing citizen to society if the landlord gets every extra cent I earn and then some? But I can afford gas, a van, insurance and best of all I could work and be a productive member of society even though I am disabled. When does it pay to keep people locked into poverty?
It is sad when someone wants to work, but can only work a certain number of hours, can't work because the cost to get a job compatible with their disability will cost them more than they can make working.

217 YEARS AND NO CHANGE IN OWNERSHIP NOT ALWAYS A GOOD THING

Webinar on HUD's Proposal to Raise Rents, February 28

http://nlihc.org/article/webinar-huds-proposal-raise-rents-february-28-0

HUD IS INVESTING $35 MILLION FOR SERVICE COORDINATORS IN PUBLIC HOUSING

HUD No. 18-015 HUD Public Affairs (202) 708-0685

FOR RELEASE Tuesday February 20, 2018

HUD AWARDS $35 MILLION TO PROMOTE JOBS, SELF-SUFFICIENCY FOR PUBLIC HOUSING RESIDENTS

WASHINGTON - In an effort to help low-income residents become self-sufficient, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today awarded $34.9 million to public housing authorities, public housing resident associations, Native American tribes, and non-profit organizations across the nation to hire or retain service coordinators to help them find jobs, educational opportunities, and achieve economic and housing independence (see list below).

The funding, provided through HUD’s Resident Opportunities and Self Sufficiency – Service Coordinators Program (ROSS-SC) helps grantees hire or retain "service coordinators" who work directly with residents to assess their needs and connect them with education, job training and placement programs, and/or computer and financial literacy services available in their community to promote self-sufficiency.

“It’s part of our mission to help connect public housing residents to better, higher paying jobs and critical services as a means of helping them move beyond public assistance and toward self-sufficiency,” said HUD Secretary Ben Carson. “This funding gives our local partners resources they can use to help residents become economically independent and achieve the dreams they have for themselves and their children.”

The purpose of HUD’s ROSS-SC program is to encourage innovative and locally driven strategies that link public housing assistance with public and private resources to enable HUD-assisted families to increase earned income; reduce or eliminate their need for welfare assistance; and promote economic independence and housing self-sufficiency. These grants provide funding to hire and retain Service Coordinators who will assess the needs of residents of conventional Public Housing or Indian housing and coordinate available resources in the community to meet those needs. In addition, ROSS-SC grants help improve living conditions for seniors, enabling them to age-in-place.

Fiscal Year 2017 ROSS-Service Coordinator Grants

STATE	GRANTEE NAME	AWARD AMOUNT	STATE TOTAL
Arizona	Pinal County Housing Department	$204,000
		Arizona Total:	$204,000
California	The Housing Authority of the County of Los Angeles	$738,000
	Housing Authority of the City of Sacramento	$436,230
	Housing Authority of the County of Santa Barbara	$246,000
	Housing Authority of the County of Fresno	$230,660
	Housing Authority of the City of San Buenaventura	$246,000
	Chico Rancheria Housing Corporation & HA County of Butte	$245,000
	Madera, City of	$233,382
	Area Housing Authority of the County of Ventura (AHA)	$228,500
		California Total:	$2,603,772
Colorado	Walsh Manor Local Resident Council	$215,918
	Westridge Local Resident Council	$240,556
	Westwood Local Resident Council	$215,918
	City of Englewood Housing Authority	$207,429
		Colorado Total:	$879,821
Connecticut	Ansonia Housing Authority	$246,000
	Housing Authority of the Town of Greenwich	$246,000
	Bristol Housing Authority	$246,000
		Connecticut Total:	$738,000
Florida	Sarasota Housing Authority	$233,460
	Housing Authority of the City of Titusville	$208,832
	The Housing Authority of the County of Flagler	$246,000
	The Lee County Housing Authority	$246,000
	Palatka Housing Authority	$246,000
	Punta Gorda Housing Authority	$240,000
		Florida Total:	$1,420,292
Georgia	Thomaston Housing Authority Resident Council Inc.	$246,000
	Northwest Georgia Housing Authority	$230,000
	Housing Authority of Newnan	$246,000
		Georgia Total:	$722,000
Iowa	City of Des Moines Municipal Housing Agency	$246,000
	Eastern Iowa Regional Housing Authority	$246,000
		Iowa Total	$492,000
Idaho	Nampa Housing Authority	$241,219
	Nez Perce Tribal Housing Authority	$246,000
		Idaho Total:	$487,219
Illinois	Decatur Housing Authority	$240,725
	Rock Island Housing Authority	$216,000
	Macoupin County Housing Authority	$151,772
	The Housing Authority of the City of Bloomington	$244,500
	Rockford Housing Authority	$492,000
	Oak Park Housing Authority	$246,000
		Illinois Total	$1,590,997
Indiana	Housing Authority of the City of Kokomo	$190,395
	New Albany Housing Authority	$246,000
	Housing Authority of the City of Bloomington	$184,391
		Indiana Total:	$620,786
Kansas	Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas Housing Authority	$142,190
		Kansas Total:	$142,190
Kentucky	Bryant Way Resident Council	$178,827
	Gordon Avenue/Summit View Resident Council	$173,021
	Louisville Metro Housing Authority	$721,800
	Housing Authority of Covington	$231,000
	Housing Authority of Floyd County	$179,109
		Kentucky Total:	$1,483,757
Massachusetts	Fall River Housing Joint Tenant Council	$186,000
	New Bedford Housing Authority	$423,762
	Norwood Housing Authority	$246,000
	Quincy Housing Authority	$246,000
	Falmouth Housing Authority	$246,000
		Massachusetts Total:	$1,347,762
Maryland	Resident Services, Incorporated	$738,000
		Maryland Total:	$738,000
Maine	Portland Housing Authority	$240,756
	Lewiston Housing Authority	$213,539
		Maine Total:	$454,295
Minnesota	Northwest Minnesota Multi-County HRA	$246,000
	Moorhead Public Housing Agency	$246,000
		Minnesota Total:	$492,000
Missouri	Independence Housing Authority	$246,000
		Missouri Total:	$246,000
Mississippi	Laurel Housing Authority Beacon Homes Resident Council LLC	$246,000
	Arco Lane Site Based Resident Council, LLC	$246,000
		Mississippi Total:	$492,000
Montana	Public Housing Authority of Butte's Resident Council	$129,652
	Missoula Housing Authority	$246,000
		Montana Total:	$375,652
North Carolina	Greensboro Housing Authority	$230,415
	Housing Authority of the City of High Point	$492,000
	Lenoir Housing Authority	$246,000
		North Carolina Total:	$968,415
North Dakota	Fargo Housing and Redevelopment Authority	$246,000
		North Dakota Total:	$246,000
New Jersey	Housing Authority of the City of Jersey City	$492,000
	Housing Authority of the City of Paterson	$442,349
	Phillipsburg Housing Authority	$246,000
	Housing Authority of the City of Rahway	$246,000
	New Jersey Institute for Disabilities	$246,000
		New Jersey Total:	$1,672,349
New Mexico	Housing Authority of the City of Truth or Consequences	$246,000
	Santa Fe County Housing Authority	$246,000
	Albuquerque Housing Authority	$220,598
		New Mexico Total:	$712,598
New York	Citywide Council of Syracuse Low Income Housing Residents	$492,000
	Ocean Bay Community Development Corporation, Inc.	$738,000
	Albany Housing Authority	$492,000
	Rochester Housing Authority	$492,000
	Niagara Falls Housing Authority	$243,350
	Community Development Corporation of Long Island, Inc.	$246,000
		New York Total:	$2,703,350
Ohio	Jurisdiction-Wide Resident Advisory Board	$738,000
	Lucas Metropolitan Housing Authority	$679,331
	Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority	$702,816
	Zanesville Metropolitan Housing Authority	$246,000
		Ohio Total:	$2,366,147
Oregon	Housing Authority of Clackamas County	$246,000
	Home Forward	$492,000
	Housing Authority of Lincoln County	$246,000
		Oregon Total:	$984,000
Pennsylvania	Allegheny County Housing Authority	$682,732
	Harrisburg Housing Authority	$384,000
	Westmoreland County Housing Authority	$336,997
	Family Service Association of Bucks County	$245,449
		Pennsylvania Total	$1,649,178
Rhode Island	Chestnut Court Tenants Association	$246,000
	The Housing Authority of the City of Providence	$738,000
	Johnston Housing Authority	$220,500
	Housing Authority of the City of Pawtucket	$82,000
		Rhode Island Total:	$1,286,500
South Carolina	Housing Authority of the City of Columbia, SC	$384,255
	Housing Authority of Greenville	$246,000
		South Carolina Total:	$630,255
South Dakota	Sisseton Wahpeton Housing Authority	$177,000
		South Dakota Total:	$177,000
Tennessee	Johnson City Public Housing Authority	$246,000
	Morristown Housing Authority	$180,300
	Columbia Housing & Redevelopment Authority	$246,000
	The Crossville Housing Development Corporation	$160,722
		Tennessee Total:	$833,022
Texas	Housing Authority of the City of Fort Worth	$242,000
	San Marcos Housing Authority	$225,405
	Houston Housing Authority	$628,605
		Texas Total:	$1,096,010
Virginia	Can I Live, Inc	$738,000
	Can I Live, Incorporated	$202,033
	Cardinal Village Tenant Association, Inc.	$231,000
	Pleasant View Tenant Association, Inc.	$231,000
	Danville Redevelopment and Housing Authority	$231,000
	Chesapeake Redevelopment & Housing Authority	$246,000
	Harrisonburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority	$176,400
	Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority	$246,000
		Virginia Total:	$2,301,433
Washington	The Housing Authority of the City of Bremerton	$246,000
	Housing Authority of the City of Tacoma	$246,000
	Nisqually Indian Tribe	$228,600
	Housing Authority of Kittitas County	$208,286
		Washington Total:	$928,886
Wisconsin	S.E.T. Ministry Inc	$239,733
		Wisconsin Total:	$239,733
West Virginia	Charleston-Kanawha	$457,209
	The Huntington Housing Authority	$190,404
		West Virginia Total:	$647,613
		TOTAL	$34,973,032