Little Growth in Low-Income Housing in Ohio:
Existing Housing is Harder to Afford for Those on Welfare

Aired April 29, 1999

This is INFOhio After Nine, I'm David C. Barnett, welcoming you to Thurday, April 29th, 1999, and on this date, one hundred years ago, Edward Kennedy Ellington issued his first wail in this world, and the rest, as they say, is history, American musical history. We'll be featuring the music of Duke Ellington all day here on 90.3, including on our morning news program here, our morning news magazine, which covers the facts and opinions of people in Northeast Ohio, and over the course of this year, we will be examining the impact of welfare reform in Ohio, where it works and where things tend to fall through the cracks. Part of what the welfare system was originally designed to do was to help feed and house the poor. Housing advocates now say very few low-income housing units are being built in this age of welfare reform in a booming economy. That puts a premium on the existing housing stock, making it difficult for the poor, especially those on welfare, to find an affordable place to live. 90.3 correspondent Harry Boomer visited with one mother that's living proof of this problem.

Dion Linder–We slept at bus stop, at the Greyhound bus station, worrying about where we're going to go, and I've been like this for two years.

Harry Boomer–Dion Linder is 24, single and homeless. She has three children; her oldest is Demetrius. He turns 8 on May 5th. She has two daughters, 6-year old Demetria, and 3-year old Kayla. About a month-and-a-half ago, Linder lost her fourth child in a failed pregnancy. She makes $6.50 an hour working as a nursing assistant, a job she got about a month-and-a-half ago. She's very frustrated, after trying for two years to find a place to live, a place to call home.

DL–I need a place to stay so bad, because eventually it's going to affect my job, because I've been bouncing from house to house, and I stayed with my mother, and I'm staying with my friend now, and it's overcrowded. We don't have no bed to sleep on, we sleep on blankets or sheets, every night, every time we go to sleep, and I beg to stay with her, for a place to stay until now. Hopefully I'll be gone, I've been trying to find a place to stay.

HB–She used to live in public housing owned by the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority, CMHA. She was evicted from her apartment, she says, because she tried to help a fellow homeless mother and her children move into her old apartment when she moved to a larger unit.

DL–They said I was subleasing, so, I believe that for myself, but I didn't know. Every time I talk about it, it just kills, I mean because I was doing so good, I was working, I had my own place, and then, I tried to help out a friend and messed both of us up. She's still in the same situation I'm in now. She's still homeless. That's a mistake I wish I never made, but she was homeless and she had eight kids, so I don't regret it.

HB–After losing her apartment, she took her family from one homeless shelter to another, never being able to stay longer than thirty days.

DL–It was hard on my kids, they didn't like being there, and I don't want to take them back through that, and then all people they don't know, being around strange people and sleeping in rooms with people, I don't want to take them through that. Right now I'd rather just live day by day, trying to find somewhere to stay. I need a three-bedroom apartment or a house, and that's what I've got to get, because anywhere else I go if it's just two bedrooms or one, they don't give it to me, because we would be overcrowded. I have a son and two daughters.

HB–Linder has also lived with relatives and friends. She says they often took advantage of her situation, using up her food stamps, and asking for money she needed for her kids. She stays with her mother from time to time, but she says they don't always get along, so she takes her children and hits the streets.

DL–I'm on a month-to-month, day-to-day, we're living, and somewhere to go. We don't have to worry about food, we eat, anywhere we go I make sure my kids eat, have clean clothes, but-it's just-I want a roof over our heads of our own. It's hard, it's hard.

HB–Linder says her caseworker has been doing what she can, calling private homeowners, asking about vacancies.

DL–I'm just praying for something, for something new, something different, even if it's an almost - I haven't even got an almost. It's just a flat-out no, no, no.

HB–The children's father is in jail. CMHA has a freeze on giving out vouchers for Section 8 housing. Linder has no credit and she's on a list for transitional housing, but her caseworker told her there is at least a six-month wait. She's despondent, and her eyes fill with tears as she talks about what she calls an almost hopeless situation.

DL–Nobody wants to call or write or search - nobody wants to help me. So, I don't know, and I'm hoping that maybe somebody will hear this message and help me and my kids. We just need somewhere to go.

HB–Both her daughters were on the merit rolls at school. Their grades are slipping as she can see the ugly head of depression popping up more and more often.

DL–Every day my son will be like, "Oh mom, I wish I could find somebody with a bed or somewhere to stay," or he wishes somebody would give us a place to stay. So I know that it's bothering him for us not to be in our own place.