That is Why They Call it Section 8

In January of 2005, I accepted a position as New Contracts Specialist with the contractor for the Section 8 Program of the Shreveport, Louisiana Housing Authority. Under the Section 8 Program, vouchers are given to low income citizens to provide rental assistance for qualified units of the recipient's choice. On those numerous occasions when circumstances or policies were irrational and bizarre, my supervisor would often remark, "That's why they call it Section 8". She was, of course, referring to the infamous Section 8 military discharge issued to those who were deemed mentally unstable. By the time I left the program, I was convinced that she was right; the Section 8 Housing Program is inherently unstable, irrational and ineffective. I found ten basic symptoms of insanity in the Program which must be addressed to cure the patient's illness.

First, it is just plain crazy to address the problem of poverty with a program that encourages poverty. Studies have documented that a major risk factor for poverty is having children with no father in the household earning an income. The average Section 8 recipient in Shreveport is a healthy black woman in her 20's with one or more children (usually several) with no father present in the household and no earned income. I had many clients younger than 30 with 6 or more children. What could be more insane than to spend millions of dollars annually on a program which does nothing to alleviate the root causes of poverty? While there are incentive programs to help recipients achieve self sufficiency, these programs are not mandatory and are successful in very few cases. In the meantime, young women are enabled to enslave themselves in poverty and raise future generations in the same chains.