Section 8 Housing Program Essay

President Lyndon Johnson announced in his January 1964 State of the Union address, “This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America.” Within the 50 years since this announcement by then President Johnson, the amount spent on the attempt to alleviate poverty by taxpayers has been well over 22 trillion dollars. According to Robert Rector and Rachel Sheffield , this spending, which does not include Social Security or Medicare, is three times the cost of all U.S. military wars since the American Revolution. However, we continue to have poverty and we continue to see many people lack the necessary means to become self-sufficient thus heavily relying on social programs to bridge the gap between poverty

The Section 8 Housing Program was approved by Congress in 1974 as an amendment to the Housing Act of 1937 titled the Housing and Community Development Act. The program’s mission was to aid lower-income families in obtaining a safe and quality place to live. Previously, federal housing programs focused on construction of housing units. Under the amended act, contracts would be made with current owners of existing dwellings with the sharing of rent being the responsibility of the government (taxpayers) and the tenant. From 1974 to 1983, Section 8 was primarily a project based program. Congress repealed the construction and rehabilitation components of the Section 8 program in 1984 and founded a new program with the goal of providing choice to individuals of low income and providing flexibility of housing options. This new and innovative program is called the Housing Choice Voucher Program which merged with an existing certificate program in 1998 and it still is in existence today in its originally conceived format. Although this is a rather successful program for it address the need for suitable and affordable housing, the application process can be cumbersome and the waiting list long; years in some