Network News 6/24/08 Cecil County Housing Authority

This news clip was entitled "out of luck"

I can't remember which channel it was on.

Dave Mahaney is the head of the Cecil County Housing Authority. One of his many bumper stickers says "if you can't feed 'em don't breed um'

(my comments on the piece are in lilac)

Mike Peters is 31 years old. He was in a car accident in 1994 which left him unable to walk. He lives in HUD housing (like I do, HUD means section 8, federally subsidized housing) in Cecil County. Mahaney claims that Peters didn't get in all of his paperwork in time so is evicting him from his apt.and he will no longer have a HUD subsidy. I think but I'm not sure that he is going to have to go live with his parents.

Nakia Battles has 5 kids. She also lives in HUD housing. She was heartbroken and insulted (my words) when she saw Mahaney's bumper sticker. Mahaney claims that she has someone unauthorized living with her. She will be evicted and lose her subsidy. She has no idea what she is going to do.

In my experience whether or not you get to live in a HUD property is more luck than anything. I was on wait list all together for 11.5 years before I finally was accepted at LA PEW. Due to all of the robberies, I put a fake male name on my front door, in the hopes it might deter the robber. It didn't work. On top of that, I was sent a threatening notice of possible eviction for having "an extra tenant" I explained why I put the fake name up there.

I was on the Baltimore City master list for public housing for years and years. Normally when you call to check on your status the phone just rings off of the hook. Finally I reached them in 04. A woman said : "you were kicked off of the list in 02, because the mail we sent came back to us as undeliverable.

I have not bothered with getting back on that master list, because I know that any Baltimore City property, I will not feel safe, and my quality of life won't be any better than it is now. One can't get on the master list for Baltimore County, unless they already live in Baltimore County, or have a job in Baltimore County, so I'm not on that list either.

Ones other option is to individually fill out an application for each complex that accepts section 8. There is one in Carroll County that has a great rep. but you need a car to live there. It took me 5 years to get my appl. in. I had sent off 38 pieces of paper to them when all was said and done. They called me and said that they are still missing something from me and "don't get your hopes up, because you'll also have to pass a credit check to live here"
Needless to say, most of my energies will have to go into finding housing "outside of the system"