How landlords thwart America’s attempts to house poor people
It is one thing to receive a housing voucher and quite another to successfully use it
“WHY THE fuck does this county even offer Section 8 if it’s a mythical unicorn that nobody ever gets?” asks Alex, the main character in Netflix’s new series “Maid”. The show, based on Stephanie Land’s book “Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive”, is a portrait of poverty and domestic work in Washington State. Section 8, now known as the Housing Choice Voucher Programme (HCVP), is a federal housing-assistance scheme that subsidises rent for 2.3m poor American households lucky enough to get their hands on a voucher. Others can spend years on waiting lists, hoping to be chosen.
This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “To rent or not to rent”
United States December 11th 2021
- What congressional funding reveals about America’s military priorities
- Donald Trump’s media SPAC is the zeitgeist wrapped in a complex financial instrument
- The Supreme Court seems ready to poke a hole in the church-state wall
- Late snowfall in the American West is part of pattern
- The Democrats use a loophole to mask the cost of Joe Biden’s big bill
- How landlords thwart America’s attempts to house poor people
- How the culture wars can show what’s right with America
From the December 11th 2021 edition
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