ShareThisCongress and the Obama administration have committed tens of billions of dollars to keep homeowners in their homes.
Renters, who make up about one-third of households nationwide -- and close to two-thirds in large cities -- wish the government would do a little more for them.
For homeowners, Obama's Making Home Affordable program obtained $50 billion from the Troubled Assets Relief Program plus $25 billion, mainly from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Originally this money was supposed to help homeowners refinance or modify subprime mortgages (which qualified as troubled assets). More recently it has been used to help those who can't pay their mortgage because they are unemployed. Last week, the Treasury said it is using $2 billion to help unemployed homeowners in 17 states.
The financial reform bill will provide an additional $1 billion to help homeowners who can't pay their mortgage because of job or medical problems. Homeowners can get up to $50,000 in mortgage subsidies over two years.
Congress has not ignored renters. Last year, it passed a law that lets tenants stay in a home that has been foreclosed upon for 90 days or, in most cases, until the lease runs out.
The stimulus act, passed in February 2009, provided $4 billion to public housing agencies for capital and management activities such as rehabilitating vacant rental units. It also included $2 billion to provide Section 8 housing assistance payments to owners of multifamily rental housing units, which also supports housing for low-income renters.
It provided $1.5 billion over three years to create a new program for renters called the Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program.
Administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the program provides short- to medium-term rental assistance to people who are either homeless (including those in shelters) or would be homeless without the assistance.
The money was distributed to state and local governments, which in many cases are working with nonprofit agencies to help those in need. The program has spent about 25 percent of funds available to help more than 500,000 people, according to HUD.
Agencies can use the money to provide services such as outreach, housing search and placement, counseling, legal services and credit repair. They can also use it to pay for a qualified person's rent, utility bills, moving expenses and security and utility deposits. Payments are made directly to the renter's landlord or utility.
HUD allows agencies to pay up to 100 percent of a person's rent for up to 18 months (including up to six months of unpaid back rent). To qualify, a household must earn 50 percent or less of the median income for their area and prove that if it wasn't for this assistance, they would be homeless.
Local government agencies can set lower income or assistance limits or impose additional eligibility criteria.
Ted Gullicksen, director of the San Francisco Tenants Union, wishes the government would provide more subsidies for struggling renters and, when they lose a job, let them break a lease or bring in as many roommates as the housing code allows.
"During the housing boom, one of the side effects was that rents went up," he says. When the recession hit, "We were all left paying really high rents and facing really high unemployment."
He says homeowners are getting more attention than renters because the foreclosure crisis "shocked people and politicians. One of the benefits of homeownership is security of tenure. That was upset. The fact that this had never happened in most people's lifetimes drew a lot of attention from government.
"Especially among low-income homeowners, there was a strong perception that they had been pushed into homeownership by conniving real estate brokers and banks and they were innocent victims of the crisis."
On the bright side, the housing crisis is giving renters more respect. "We are seeing more articles saying that tenants aren't necessarily bad, in some cases they are making the right economic decision," he says.
(E-mail Kathleen Pender at kpender(at)sfchronicle.com. For more stories visit scrippsnews.com)
Must credit the San Francisco Chronicle
$2 billion for section 8
$2 billion for section 8 housing? The only people who should get subsidized housing are the elderly, disabled, and people in emergency situations. Why do ghetto people get to live rent-free or with low-rent while others pay their rent themselves? There are neighborhoods full of subsidized housing in this country, near suburbs, where the kids go to suburban schools and ruin them and harrass the kids there. That should be ended. Maybe liberals like the idea of ruining areas by putting these ghetto people in by section 8 housing and having them bring their crime, loitering, and insanity. Why don't the liberals go and live in apartment complexes with section 8 people and see how they like it.
Subsidized housing should be ended except for the circumstances I said above and those neighborhoods shouldn't be anywhere near suburbs and low-crime areas. The ghetto people and their kids don't get better by being near the suburbs, they bring the area down with them.