Help Protect Housing Vouchers

by Diane Nilan

categories: Activism, Children, Government, Health & Healthcare, Housing, Hunger, Social Programs, Women

Published October 16, 2009 @ 05:05AM PT

This country needs therapy. We've gotten to the point, collectively, when common sense fails us. The breaking point? I'd point to the current mindset that it's OK to cut funding for what little housing we have for limited-income families.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) reports that funding shortfalls for the 2009 Housing Choice Voucher Program could cause state and local housing agencies to terminate vouchers or raise rents to levels beyond the financial reach of many families.

This is why I'm in Massachusetts today, to join with activists calling for continued funding of the Housing Choice vouchers, one of the few resources to keep families housed instead of homeless.  And we need your support!

We're gathering, with hopefully a decent cadre of media, to point out the obvious: Homelessness is bad for kids' health, among other things.

And since we're all a-twist over cost of health care, do the math. Over 1.5 million kids are homeless in this country according to a pre-economic meltdown report by the National Center on Family Homelessness. It's more expensive to treat sick homeless kids than sick housed kids. Maybe we should force families to buy homelessness insurance.

As I drove across the backroads of this beautiful part of the country, I tried to hold good thoughts: we are an enlightened country, a democracy.

We pass laws requiring children and infants to be safely strapped into car seats, yet when kids are taken out of cars we don't care if they have a place to sleep at night.

We get all ruffled about tykes putting toxic toys in their little mouths, but we're apathetic about children who have no food to eat.

We push policies warning pregnant mothers not to smoke, drink alcohol or use drugs, but we abandon insurance-less mothers who need help getting into substance abuse treatment.

We decry abortions, some of us acknowledging the right to choose, but we scorn impoverished mothers who struggle to provide for their offspring.

Yeah, I could go on and on.

Instead, I'm demanding action. Tell your member of Congress that balancing the budget on the backs of little babies and toddlers is not OK. Think about how many powerful lobbyists are heralding this cause. Right. Slim to next-to-none. Except you and me and a handful of pissed-off human beings who think greed has crossed the line in the sand.

Seems to me it's time to grab a handful of that sand and throw it in the faces of the monsters who created the mess known as our national and global economy. If you need convincing, go see "Capitalism: A Love Story." It's my hope that the good people--the enlightened (albeit often too quiet) majority--of this country will be pushed to action by what's happening to the little ones.

Sign the petition to protect housing vouchers today.

photos by the author