Homeless numbers, counting them

"Each year, approximately one percent of the U.S. population, some 2-3 million individuals, experiences a night of homelessness that puts them in contact with a homeless assistance provider, and at least 800,000 people are homeless in the United States on any given night." U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Strategic Action Plan on Homelessness

Let that sink in. One percent. One night. Any given night. The Homeless Assistance Act was enacted in 1987 under Reagan, and it had its roots in a Task Force formed in 1983. The U.S. HHS put a plan in place in 2003 which began with a study in 2001 between HHS and HUD to end homelessness, and revised it in 2007. I've looked through some of the information including The Federal Collaborative Initiative to Help End Chronic Homelessness, and the results look really good. But it appears the Obama Administration sort of dropped the ball. Although he did issue his own plan. The plan sets no specific goals. Uses words like "increase," "improve," and "retool," which are not measurable, and a sink hole for money. There has been a federal agency (now called United States Interagency Council on Homelessness) tasked with ending homelessness for 25 years. It meets and issues newsletters, annual reports and strategic plans. But homelessness has not ended.

Are they paid for recruiting for the government programs

I noticed this disclaimer on a private, non-governmental website encouraging people to sign up for government benefits. There are two ways (alluded to in the message) to make money doing this: 1) either the government reimburses them for the referrals, or 2) they resell the information collected from those who inquire.

"FamilyFinancialHelpUsa.net is not a government agency and is in no way affiliated with any government agency. This is not an application for Food Stamps, LIHEAP or HUD Public Housing. We are a private organization. We use the information you provide to connect you to the correct site to apply for food stamps, LIHEAP and HUD Public Housing in your state. Additionally we will give you the opportunity to participate in private offers that we believe may benefit you through email. We will also provide you with ways to get other free things that may interest and help your family after entering the site. You are not required to participate in these offers or buy anything to get access to your free financial aid and other free help for the family. Please support our sponsors who keep this site free."

Housing program doesn't work so give them even more money

USAToday reported in October on a money black hole (under Bush and predecessors) so Obama has decided it just needs more money

Federal funding for a housing counseling program carried out by local non-profit groups such as ACORN has more than tripled since 2002, even though it has been criticized by government auditors for failing to show results.

President Obama's budget calls for a 54% increase next year — $100 million in all — for the program, which helps people buy or refinance a home, prevent a foreclosure or find rental housing. The Senate agreed, while the House of Representatives suggested $70 million; final negotiations over the bill are pending.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has been unable to provide much proof the program works, according to government reports, despite an increase in funding from $20 million in 2002 to $65 million last year." Link for details on the failures.

It's very hard to ever defund a "poverty" program, and even harder if it is for the "working family" or "low to moderate income" even if the program doesn't work. For instance, after forty plus years and billions of dollars for Head Start, studies show after a year or two in school, most gains are lost due to the children's home environment. It would be political death to NOT vote for the Head Start fantasy. Same with the "right to home ownership" dream which both parties claim and Bush really loved. At its worst it did nothing more than push already economically fragile people into debt beyond their wildest dreams; and at best, it funneled them into foreclosure workshops and refinancing failures. Either way, the agencies, groups, churches and nonprofits keep their own staff employed.

Yesterday it was announced that NeighborWorks America (created by Congress) received almost $5 million from HUD to provide training for housing counselors through its various agencies, so it would seem the first payouts are forthcoming.

"Today NeighborWorks America announced that it received $4,860,802 in funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which will support training and certification opportunities for thousands of counselors from HUD-approved nonprofit counseling agencies, as well as nonprofit housing counseling at local NeighborWorks organizations. Link to details

It's a revolving door, but it keeps the staff of foundations, non-profits, churches, and government offices employed. With unemployment at the highest levels since Jimmy Carter days, now is hardly the time to hand out tax dollars to training classes for luring people into mortgages.

The housing mess has a long history

We've all seen the pressure to lower standards and make homeowners of people who can't save the downpayment, can't pay the mortgage, can't meet the minimum standards, but I was unaware how far back government interference in the housing market went--back to the early 1920s with Herbert Hoover when he was Secretary of Commerce. Or even 1913, if you figure the home mortgage deduction. And I knew about rent controls creating an artificial "housing shortage" after WWII. I knew what had been required of us even with our first home purchased in 1962, but we never used FHA or VA, and sort of assumed that's the way it was until the 70s or 80s. Guess not. There's a lot I didn't know about how housing became a political football for both parties and invited crime and corruption to flourish. Catch up on the history beginning with Hoover, and follow it all the way up to now. See Obsessive Housing Disorder.

"The next stop on the road to 2008 was a fateful campaign to lower lending criteria, which, the housing advocates argued, were racist and had to change. The campaign began in 1986, when the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (Acorn) threatened to oppose an acquisition by a southern bank, Louisiana Bancshares, until it agreed to new “flexible credit and underwriting standards” for minority borrowers—for example, counting public assistance and food stamps as income. The next year, Acorn led a coalition of advocacy groups calling for industry-wide changes in lending standards. Among the demanded reforms were the easing of minimum down-payment requirements and of the requirement that borrowers have enough cash at a closing to cover two to three months of mortgage payments (research had shown that lack of money in hand was a big reason some mortgages failed quickly).

The advocates also attacked Fannie Mae, the giant quasi-government agency that bought loans from banks in order to allow them to make new loans. Its underwriters were “strictly by-the-book interpreters” of lending standards and turned down purchases of unconventional loans, charged Acorn. The pressure eventually paid off. In 1992, Congress passed legislation requiring Fannie Mae and the similar Freddie Mac to devote 30 percent of their loan purchases to mortgages for low- and moderate-income borrowers."

So we're doing more of the same, trying to refinance these failed homeowners, offering rock bottom rates, wondering why it isn't working?

"As Harvard economist and City Journal contributing editor Edward Glaeser has observed, mortgage lenders have finally “recovered their sanity”—only to have government dangling subsidized low interest rates and tax credits in front of them and their potential customers all over again. Behind these efforts is a fundamental misconception among politicians that housing drives the American economy and therefore demands subsidy at virtually any cost."

The author points out the damage the home mortgage deduction has done, as well as other government subsidies, regulations and programs. Good article. And Obama owes ACORN big time, so we're in for more of the same on the road to "recovery." Go read it.

Why George Bush isn't a fiscal conservative

The man spends like a Democrat. And they didn't even like him for it. A huge number of these were for poverty, environment, education, health, etc., indirectly and under the table adding thousands to the government payroll and subverting state and local control. That's why Obama's campaign of concern and caring for us po' folk who could barely walk and chew gum without the federal government's help was so odd. It can only grow, and yet more of what didn't work under a Republican will work under a Democrat?

From Chris Edwards, Cato at Liberty, Dec. 4, 2007.

This chart updates a longer article he published in October 2006. I noticed in that article one of the biggest new initiatives of the Bush Administration was $150,000,000 for "Healthy Marriage Promotion," which provided grants to states, non-profits, etc. to provide counseling, workshops and celebrations of events such as National Black Marriage Day.

Healthy Marriage Grants will range from $250,000 to $5,000,000 depending on the scope of the project. Average award: $1,000,000. Responsible Fatherhood Grants will range from $200,000 to $2,000,000 depending on the scope of the project. Average award: $700,000. Tribal TANF Child Welfare Grants will range from $25,000 to $100,000. Average Award: $80,000.

Children raised by married parents have a very modest chance of growing up in poverty, whereas an unmarried mom almost guarantees it. However, I think this was an open invitation for misuse of the taxpayers money. The required audits will never try to judge how many teen minority fathers married the mothers of their children because they attended a workshop. Churches have been working on this problem for years even with middle class families, and losing ground. I don't think throwing $150 million at it will change much (unless they throw it at Hollywood or TV which seems a bigger influence than church or parents). As in all these subsidies, very little makes it to the problem, and most goes for overhead like salaries, rent, utilities, food, consultants, printing, publishing, research, etc. Here's an article in the Columbus Dispatch of how $500,000 that came to Ohio was spent.

Here's a list of the top 10% of CFDA searches. I've been writing a lot about the housing grants, so here's a few from that list. All would require partnering non-profits with with business or state agencies or alone.

10.442 USDA Housing Application Packaging Grants

10.410 USDA Very Low to Moderate Income Housing Loans

14.313 HUD Dollar Home Sales

14.247 HUD Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program

14.235 HUD Supportive Housing Program

97.048 DHS Disaster Housing Assistance to Individuals and Households

in Presidential Declared Disaster Areas (must have been the mother of housing boondoggles: FY 07 $189,366,831--probably could have completely rebuilt NOLA with this grant--it's just one year figure)

10.417 USDA Very Low-Income Housing Repair Loans and Grants

14.311 HUD Single Family Property Disposition

14.239 HUD Home Investment Partnerships Program

14.149 HUD Rent Supplements_Rental Housing for Lower Income Families

10.433 USDA Rural Housing Preservation Grants

14.195 HUD Section 8 Housing Assistance Payments Program_Special Allocations

15.633 DOI Landowner Incentive Program

14.401 HUD Fair Housing Assistance Program_State and Local

10.415 USDA Rural Rental Housing Loans

14.901 HUD Healthy Homes Demonstration Grants

10.427 USDA Rural Rental Assistance Payments

14.871 HUD Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers

This is an old one--originally authorized in 1937--FY 09 est $16,253,000,000--yes, that's 16 billion for 2 million families, and they only get part of the rent--wonder where the rest of it goes? That's some overhead!

14.401 HUD Fair Housing Assistance Program_State and Local

10.415 USDA Rural Rental Housing Loans

14.181 HUD Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities

14.169 HUD Housing Counseling Assistance Program [FY 09 est $60,000,000]

14.856 HUD Lower Income Housing Assistance Program_Section 8 Moderate Rehabilitation

10.411 USDA Rural Housing Site Loans and Self_Help Housing Land Development Loans

14.157 HUD Supportive Housing for the Elderly

[FY 09 est $791,303,000] Based on the numbers of units built in 2007 (3,857) I figure they cost about $195,000 each--not bad for single resident, low income.

14.250 HUD Rural Housing and Economic Development [FY 08 $17,000,000 The only accomplishments listed were 854 jobs]

81.042 DOE Weatherization Assistance for Low-Income Persons [FY 07 $204,356,661 this one is about $50,000,000 less in FY 09--must be that global warming benefit]

93.568 HHS Low-Income Home Energy Assistance

14.142 HUD Property Improvement Loan Insurance for Improving All Existing Structures and Building of New Nonresidential Structures

14.110 HUD Manufactured Home Loan Insurance_Financing Purchase of Manufactured Homes as Principal Residences of Borrowers

What happens to the other housing programs?

There are already programs in place to help distressed homeowners. What happens to those with the bailout? Are we only helping the CEOs of Fannie and Fred, or are we dumping good money after bad on an already failed plan? Are the old programs, worth billions, folded in? Replaced? Thrown out?

Port Clinton, Ohio has received $522,000 from CHIP, Community Housing Improvement Program. The limit, according to the website, is $500,000 but there's an extra $50,000 in there if you say please. According to The Beacon, Oct. 2, "The funds will be used to provide housing rehabilitation grants and loans to at least six homeowners and repairs for at least 9 owners . . ." plus some rental assistance, mortgage counseling, etc., and of course, it will pay the salaries of the folks managing this account--which is $25,000,000 just for Ohio. I wonder how you get to be one of the lucky six? If you can get this much under the mean old Republicans and that hateful President Bush, just imagine what the tooth tax fairy will bring under President Obama!! And you can get your unemployment benefits extended 2, 3 or 4 times under a Republican President, just imagine what it will be under Obama. You may never have to work again. Hope. Change. Just tax those top 5% more.

But I digress. We're talking housing. Look how many people are employed by Ohio CHIP, just by the state--think how this will spread around and help in your county! I see the Planner job is open (on the chart)--I use to be one of those on JTPA. Great job [the title is meaningless].

And what about the American Dream Downpayment Assistance Act--that was $200,000,000 a year under Bush. Will it flourish under the magic wand of Obama? And what about all those community partnerships we've been paying for?

. . .the purposes of the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act of 1990 (NAHA), as amended, are: (1) to promote partnerships between States, units of general local government and nonprofit organizations, and (2) to expand nonprofit organizations' capacity to develop and manage decent and affordable housing. To assist in achieving these purposes, participating jurisdictions (PJs) under the HOME Investment Partnership (HOME) Program must reserve not less than 15 percent of their HOME allocations for investment in housing to be developed, sponsored, or owned by Community Housing Development Organizations (CHDOs).

Yes, HOME got in the bailout document. Just glancing through this HUD report I see we the people already had about $20,000,000 in place just to protect low income people from predatory lenders in 2001! Well, guys, how well did that work? Do we get more of this program that didn't work in the bailout?

There are thousands of housing-help links to be tracked--there are a lot of different government agencies dabbling in this. That's why it is so critical to keep poor people poor. Thousands of government workers would be unemployed if this were ever successful! You'll have to do some of this research yourself. I have no horse in this race. But if you own distressed property in a bad neighborhood and you earn less than $60,000 a year, I'd say it would be worth checking the internet to see if you can find a way for me to pay for your repairs.

Fewer homeless

“The U.S. had 12% fewer homeless last year than in 2005, and the greatest decline occurred among those who chronically live on the streets or in emergency shelters, according to a federal report to be released Tuesday.” USAToday reports (HT Black and Right) Homeless advocates, liberals, progressives, etc. are not happy about this. Chronic homelessness especially is down, and this could put these guys out of work! It’s a huge report--144 pp. Read it if you dare.