Federal Housing Assistance Shrinks as Cost of Rent Rises - The New York Times
After decades of rising rents, housing assistance for the poorest tenants has fallen to the lowest level in nearly a quarter-century. The three main federal programs for the neediest renters — public housing, Section 8, and Housing Choice Vouchers — serve 287,000 fewer households than they did at their peak in 2004, a new analysis shows. That is a 6 percent drop, while the number of eligible households without aid grew by about a quarter, to 15 million.
When I was a young attorney working in Boston, I decided to live in an apartment complex with subsidized housing and Section 8 units. This was an eye-opening experience about how tough it is for some people to make ends meet in a metropolitan area with a high-cost of living.