Gimme Shelter

Cuomo agreed that he would consider the NAHT agenda before proceeding any further.

Basey left the meeting slightly amazed: A poor woman from the projects, a single mother with five kids, had just sat down with one of the heads of the U.S. government--and he actually listened.

On December 29, HUD's assistant secretary, Nicholas Retsinas, issued a clarification memo to its field offices. "While it is the Department's responsibility to ensure that owners and management agents fulfill their contractual obligations," wrote Retsinas, "the termination of the Section 8 contract and subsequent relocation of the residents is considered the action of last resort."

Although HUD still plans to issue vouchers, Basey was thrilled by the small victory she shared. "I feel like they...really want tenant involvement," says Basey. "And they realized the impact they were having on people. It's finally sinking in: Save our homes. Don't destroy our homes."

But storm clouds continue to gather over the future of low-income housing as supply continues to dwindle. Nationwide, there are now only enough publicly subsidized units to house one of every four families poor enough to qualify. In Dallas, new public housing starts have been ensnared in vicious legal battles that pit North Dallas homeowners against HUD in cases that may linger in the courts for years to come. Conceding that public housing is often too costly to repair, the federal government has set upon a plan to tear down its most dilapidated developments.

Much of this pales when compared to the far larger crisis, one that threatens to displace millions of Section 8 tenants. Unrelated to any "Get Tough" campaign, thousands of contracts, originally signed in the late '70s and early '80s, are expiring of their own accord. The cost to renew these expiring contracts is expected to increase from $4 billion in '97 to $23 billion by 2006--an expense many in Congress are unwilling to bear. Secretary Cuomo calls this "perhaps the largest challenge the agency has faced since its inception." Again, the Clinton Administration is touting vouchers as at least part of the answer.

The contract at Lake June Village, where Basey has fought so hard to improve living conditions for its tenants, is due to expire next year. But Basey remains stoic. "The owners, HUD, the senators, the congressmen--all must realize how important it is for people to keep their homes. We're not through...Taking away project-based Section 8 will make people homeless, and the fight will continue until they see it our way.