Housing subsidy withheld from 72 local families
BY COLLEEN LUTOLF
Staff Writer

WOODBRIDGE — Residents occupying 72 low-income households in the township were recently notified that federal housing subsidies they receive have been suspended indefinitely.

Donna Brightman, director of the Woodbridge Housing Authority, said the letters she sent out to residents stating their Housing Choice Vouchers, commonly known as Section 8, will be discontinued come the end of June are a result of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) not coming through with more than $500,000 of funding for the local housing agency.

"HUD owes us quite a bit of money," Brightman said. "We can’t meet the monthly Section 8 payroll. We can’t borrow the money from another [authority] program; we had no alternative but to send out suspension notices."

Brightman said HUD funding modifications through a provision in the federal 2004 Appropriations Act may be responsible for her housing authority’s check not being in the mail.

"It has to do with HUD owing us money. The [appropriations act] may have something to do with it, but it’s not the main problem," she said. "I have no idea why we’re not getting the money we’re owed."

Brightman said HUD owed the Woodbridge Housing Authority approximately $480,000 from the close of its fiscal year on Sept. 30, 2003, and another $480,000 for its first six months of operation of the current fiscal year, from October 2003 through March 2004.

"HUD gave us $417,000 of that, but no additional money has come in," Brightman said. "They gave us nothing for the first half of the [2004 fiscal] year."

Beginning April 1, 2004, Brightman said, she began receiving $347,000 a month from HUD for Section 8, but was operating on $268,000 between October and March, forcing her to use $80,000 a month in reserves for those six months, even though the $347,000 budget was approved by HUD.

Brightman said she wrote a letter to Washington asking for the funds owed.

"I shouldn’t have to beg, borrow and plead," she said.

According to HUD’s Newark field office, the claim for 2004 Section 8 vouchers totaling $481,000 is currently being reviewed by HUD based on additional information provided by the Woodbridge Housing Authority.

According to the new HUD guidelines, public housing authorities will receive vouchers based on what they reported as the cost of a Section 8 unit in the municipality as of Aug. 1, 2003.

Brightman said that in Woodbridge the housing authority was operating at 97 percent of what HUD budgeted for Section 8. Before the federal changes were imposed, public housing authorities were allowed to over-lease, Brightman said, meaning they could provide housing to additional people if they had leftover funds.

Currently, the authority is authorized to provide Section 8 vouchers to 405 households, but was able to supply vouchers to 430 households, Brightman said.

A Section 8 voucher in Woodbridge provides households who receive the subsidy with an average of $600 to $800 per month.

According to HUD, the maximum housing assistance is generally the lesser of the market rent minus 30 percent of the family’s monthly adjusted income, or the gross rent for the unit minus 30 percent of the monthly adjusted income.

Since the Woodbridge Housing Authority was operating under its Section 8 budget, Brightman’s office provided additional housing. Now, under the new federal regulations, it cannot.

But, Brightman said, since the new regulations have just recently been implemented (her office received notification from HUD on April 22), she is still not sure what the total impact on the local housing authority will be.

According to the HUD’s Newark office, the appropriations act has changed the way Section 8 payments are calculated and directed to housing authorities. This change has financially impacted the Woodbridge Housing Authority.

The 72 residents who received notices their Section 8 would be discontinued were offered public housing applications, Brightman said.

Councilwoman Brenda Yori-Velasco will sponsor a resolution that urges Congress to reconsider the criteria of the 2004 appropriations act.

"This impacts battered women, children, the disabled and the working poor in Woodbridge," Velasco said at last week’s council meeting. "This puts people in dire straits throughout the nation. It’s 72 families. If it’s you, this has a tremendous impact."

Linda Jay, executive director of the Housing Coalition of Central Jersey, said 25 percent of those who received letters stating their Section 8 would be discontinued contacted her office.

"What we’re doing for them is very individualized to what their needs are," she said.

Jay said her office is looking into other rental assistance possibilities and less expensive housing for the people from Woodbridge who contact her for help.