Housing Choice Voucher Program (Section 8) — Reforms
The Section 8 program, which was discussed in an earlier post, Housing Choice Voucher Program (Section 8) — The Unseen Effects, is a federal government program with the goal of providing low-income households with the ability to gain decent, quality housing. Families that participate in this program are given a housing voucher issued normally by a Public Housing Agency (PHA), and the participants in the program are allowed to choose a suitable housing unit that meets the programs requirements and the owner of which agrees to rent under the program.
The detrimental effects to society that are reinforced by this program through the perpetuating of residential segregation are fully discussed and explained in the previous post whose link is provided above, but a short recap of the repercussions of this program may be necessary. The budget for the Section 8 program is far too small, which forces it to only assist a small number of families that apply for the program. Aggravating this issue is the fact that many low-income, often Black or Hispanic families frequently use this program not to advance to areas with more economic opportunities but to remain in or move to highly-segregated areas.
The program is largely conducted on a local level, and certain local government systems are prone to using the program to enforce segregation instead of promoting integration. They are able to do this through forcing families through heavily-segregated areas instead of high-income, high-opportunity communities. As with nearly every policy or federal agency decision dealign with housing, this impacts Black and Hispanic communities far greater than white families. This revolves around a central truth that has been built up through decades of discriminatory processes and policies reinforcing residential segregation, which is that every decision surrounding housing in politics takes a stance and impacts residential segregation and if we do not create laws that attack this inequality with the same vigor and aggression as the laws that were created to preserve it this injustice will always persist.
Reforms are necessary in order to alter this program in a manner that would allow it to actually achieve its goals of creating and promoting integration. Extensive reforms must be formed in hundreds of governmental programs such as the Section 8 programs because segregation is a self-perpetuating cycle that will repeat itself for ages and create even more cascading effects that disadvantage minority communities until we take sufficient action to oppose this cycle. The Section 8 program is a fantastic place to start this process.
First, local governments and authorities must provide higher incentives contained in the Housing Voucher Choice Program that would make non-segregated areas more attractive to Black families. Black families are far more likely than white families to reside in or near highly-segregated and low-opportunity areas, which creates significant disadvantages for these families. Authorities need to support these families moving to higher-opportunity areas instead of forcing them towards segregated communities in which the cycle will continue. Many lawsuits have been filed against certain local authorities that have been using these programs to perpetuate segregation, and these lawsuits often end with altered programs that provide higher incentives for families to move to low-poverty areas with favorable education and low segregation. This would solve multiple problems with the program including the issue that many families utilize the program to assist in financing their own house or to move into another highly-segregated neighborhood.
The Section 8 program is only able to reach a fraction of the families that require assistance through the program. Large low-income, majority African American areas typically have extremely long waiting lists on the program, and only a small amount actually end up receiving the service. The United States federal government needs to recognize residential segregation for the extensive problem it is and see the cascading effects that it creates and will continue to intensify, and more funds must be moved into the Section 8 program. As more Black and Hispanic families are able to access the assistance of the program, the country will take a large step towards eliminating the history of residential segregation.
But while the funds for the program remain low, authorities should prioritize families that intend to use the program to move into higher-opportunity areas which would promote integration. As long as this program is utilized for the opposite of its intended purpose, residential segregation will remain in its self-perpetuating cycle.
Many cities such as Baltimore have had their programs altered due to lawsuits and other occurrences, but if we wish to affect change on a national scale, the Section 8 program must be expanded and reformed. Voucher amounts must be increased and more workers must be trained in order to utilize programs such as that of Baltimore, which has shown incredible benefits in desegregating the city. Many more smaller, more technical reforms must also be put into place. No detail can be ignored because even the smallest detail can be exploited to create inequality and enforce segregation. All housing policies and programs take a stance on segregation, and it is up to us and our governments whether we will choose to perpetuate or eliminate it.
