"When I received a housing voucher, I was finally able to move into a rent-stabilized apartment in what many would call a "luxury" building. I was told that if I maintained the apartment for five years, my rent would be locked in. But when COVID-19 hit, my case management through Homebase fell apart, and I had to pay the rent from my Social Security Disability income just to stay housed."
"I learned the hard way that affordable housing isn't guaranteed-it's conditional. The moment your income changes or an agency misses a form, the system recalculates your worth and can pull the rug out from under you. The recertification process has become a quiet form of income discrimination, punishing stability instead of supporting it. These systems are set up for people to stay stuck or fail. They claim to promote independence, but the fine print ensures dependence."
"Toby, 10, cried when his mother told him they had to go to a shelter. He lost his school, his friends, and his sense of home. Nearly a year later, he laughed again when his mom was finally awarded a housing voucher. But today, at 16, Toby is back on unstable ground-his family must leave the apartment they fought so hard to keep."
Affordable housing depends on income, paperwork, and agency processes rather than being a reliable right. Housing vouchers enabled moves into rent-stabilized units, sometimes perceived as luxury, but promises such as rent locks can fail when recertification or case management collapses. Pandemic-related breakdowns forced recipients to spend Social Security Disability income on rent to avoid homelessness. Recertification processes function as a form of income discrimination that punishes stability and entraps people in dependence. Seniors and families with children face acute vulnerability. Repeated displacement inflicts deep trauma on children, disrupting school, social ties, and development, while seniors confront rising costs and deteriorating health with inadequate support.
Read at City Limits
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]