Tuesday mix: modest proposals edition

- A HUD press release today showcases the agency's recent advocacy for legislation in a meeting with state housing officials, including Sec'y Jackson's call to "fix" Sec. 8 with the "State and Local Housing Flexibility Act" (S. 771 and HR 1999), which among other "flexibilities" would allow and encourage local programs to raise rents in federally subsidized housing.

- NLIHC's Memo to Members says the Congressional Research Service agrees that the anti-voter-registration conditions that were attached to the House version of the HR 1461 GSE's bill are unconstitutional. (See here and here for last October's drama.) Also, they summarize the last Senate budget hearing, in which Sec'y Jackson apparently suggested it was a bad thing for tenants to continue receiving Sec. 8 voucher housing assistance for long periods; they note a petition to preserve the Community Development Block Grants is circulating in the House; and they've caught a GAO report we missed (sorry!) criticizing the fairness of HOPWA funding distribution.

- The folks at the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) thought so well of this NPR interview with New Yorker columnist Malcolm Gladwell on "A Scientific Approach To Helping The Homeless" that they transcribed the whole thing in their most recent newsletter. It's not posted yet at their site, but if you're not able to listen to the NPR recording online, you might check back at this archive in a few days. Mr. Gladwell's scientific approach is to take the view that "The problem is concentrated in a very small number of people who are profoundly troubled," and to note that the problems of this most troubled "hard core" are not really solved with housing alone. This is where he speaks warmly of the USICH technique -- elsewhere known as "housing first" or, at hospitals, as a "frequent flyer program" -- that concentrates on the most badly deteriorated street sleepers who tend to be the biggest consumers of emergency medical services. It gets them indoors, then works hard to stabilize them with counseling, medical care, detox, and so on. Asked what should be done for less troubled people who are merely without housing, he says:

I mean what we're trying to show here is, can we, in a relatively short period of time, strike at the core of the problem? And if we can show that we can do that, then I would hope, I would hope that we would then take a step back and say, okay, let's start dealing with people who are also troubled but just not in the same immediate dire straits. I hope we don't stop at this.

- Sec'y Jackson announces the release of $5 million in university grants for the Katrina recovery.

- The Los Angeles Housing Authority, recently under a new director, got HUD's Inspector General to agree that the previous director allowed its Sec. 8 waiting list to get out of hand. The said waiting list, after climbing well into the five figures, had been closed since 2004, and it appears the new director was preparing to reopen it in early 2006.

- Legal columnist Noah Leavitt calls the Katrina non-relief fiasco a "human rights failure" and links to international efforts of experts and advocates along those lines. He cites a study for the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights that concludes, regarding extreme poverty in the U.S. generally (not just the unequal Katrina recovery):

Resource constraints have limited the reach of the assistance programmes, and social discrimination has aggravated the problems in many situations resulting in poverty clearly seen as a violation of human rights. If the United States Government designed and implemented the policies according to the human rights standards much of the problem of poverty could be resolved.