Sequester. By now, you’re probably familiar with the sequester, or budget cuts, that began to affect Federal Spending in March of 2013. The sequester was signed as part of an agreement to resolve the recent debt-ceiling crisis, but congress failed to act accordingly, forcing the austerity policy to activate.
The spending reductions, just this year, will amount to more than 85 BILLION (with a B) dollars. That’s a lot of money that will be squeezed of our economy.
Really, it’s more appropriate to think of the sequester as a squeeze not on the money itself, but rather on
Vital government services infrastructure
Our citizens are the ones that are getting the short end of the stick.
The sequester will unfortunately also create the largest shortfall on record for housing choice vouchers from the federal government. In fact, $2 billion dollars will be cut from federal housing assistance this year alone.
This, at a time when the number unassisted low-income families has risen despite stagnant growth in the availability of public housing.
Inevitably, it has led to large waiting lists that could keep needy individuals in the red zone until 2020. Accessing public housing today seems as inaccessible as ever, with the waiting time seemingly unending.
Just to get a scope of how serious the problem is: in the 4 year period between 2007 and 2011, the number of households needing public housing but not receiving it grew an astronomical 43%, and it has only risen since.
So in summary, public housing is already in a bit of a rut.
But the sequester certainly doesn’t help, as it decreases the amount of funding available
Lessening the chance that families waiting for public housing are going to get it any sooner.
