the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
May 28, 2018
On April 25, federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson announced that the rent paid by residents of subsidized public housing units all over the country will increase from being 30 percent of a resident’s adjusted income today to 35 percent of their gross income, if approved by Congress. The minimum rent the poorest would pay would go up from $50 per month now to $150 under this proposal. The average rent increase for all public housing residents would be $117 per month.
Carson also wants to add work requirements to qualify for public housing. But about 90 percent of residents are exempt from work requirements because they are elderly, disabled or sole care givers for others. A work requirement would only be an excuse to harass the roughly 10 percent of residents able to work, but who already have work requirements under other aid programs they qualify for.
Carson is proposing a budget for HUD that also would slash funding for many private and public housing programs–including public housing maintenance. All of this to help pay for the huge tax cuts for the rich recently approved by both Republicans and Democrats in Congress!