Low income housing has a stigma attached to it as does Section 8. This is because traditionally those considered for this type of housing have been the dregs and leeches of our society, those on welfare who choose NOT to work and continue to have baby after baby to gain additional income. Born into welfare many of them remain in welfare having absolutely no ambition to better themselves.
This type of housing has typically been placed in areas of towns and villages where crime runs rampant - - drugs, stabbings, rapes and murders. My own home town is proof of such housing locations. And even if you did need housing assistance through a Section 8 housing voucher, you find yourself in one of two positions: (1) Section 8 assistance no longer available with waiting lists that have been closed consisting of thousands or (2) those apartment complexes who could help a deserving individual do not want to allow ANY Section 8 people in their apartments for fear they are from the dregs of society.
Yet many of these people who fall into the category of "low income housing" are people like you or me, seniors like my mother who can't live with me because she's handicapped and yet has only an income of $15K a year with rent of $14K a year because no assistance is available for her. They are widows and widowers who are in their 80s and 90s whose Social Security and pensions are so low that they have no place to go and are struggling daily to remain in a home in a safe area where they're not going to be mugged or killed. They also should be able to live without wondering whether they should pay a bill or use the few dollars they have left remaining for some food.
My sister recently told me of a story where she was in a convenience store where an old man came in and walked up to the counter with a small jar of instant coffee and a 1/2 pint of milk and didn't have enough money in his pocket to buy it and then put it back and walked out of the store. If she hadn't been the victim of a mass layoff by her company, she would have given him the difference as would I have. This is happening all over our country and my heart is breaking for these individuals . . . individuals who have worked hard all their lives and yet society has let them down.
While people such as Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and others have formed charities all the foundation money is going to foreign countries, foreign countries where people hate us. Instead of investing millions on these people, how about helping those in our own country who need some help, people like that old man who couldn't buy himself a cup of coffee or my mother whose income is going to pay her rent. These people don't want to beg and they don't want to be considered low class because they are not. And they don't want to be placed in state-run facilities where they are treated like cattle herded into a "day room", where they are forced to sit all day in wheel chairs, eat their meals until they are taken back to their rooms. They have been contributing members of our society and need our help. They did NOT choose to be dependent or needy.
I've been doing my share over the last several years and have jeopardized my own retirement future trying to keep my family's heads above water. Now it's time for all of the millionaires in this country to come to the aid of some who are less fortunate.
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