The Section 8 federal housing subsidy has been a lifeline for low income New Yorkers struggling to stay housed in one of the most competitive genuine estate markets in the country. It was created in the 1970's and was supposed to be a better alternative than traditional public housing projects that were criticized for concentrating poverty.
The idea was that renters could harness the power of the private market to gain access to neighborhoods with top-notch schools,nice parks, and low crime. But the program is no longer working the way it was intended. Nearly 300000 New Yorkers live in private apartments paid for with Section 8. And increasingly of them, and like Sonia Watson,pictured above, are encounteringmajor hurdles in finding landlords who will accept their vouchers, and which means they often settle in already marginalized neighborhoods.
Click the player above to listen to the first in a series ofreports approximately Section 8 in New York. And click here to read the article in the New York Daily News.
This series was produced with support from a grant by the Urban Reporting Program at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.
Source: wnyc.org