As federal cuts loom, rental housing vouchers across Mass. are being put on hold
Why? A combination of stagnating federal funding over the years and soaring rents in this state have caught up with the Section 8 program, to the point that many housing authorities can no longer afford to pay for the vouchers they distribute to low-income tenants. Together, they've effectively frozen the nation's largest housing assistance program in one of the
And that's at the current funding trajectory, before deep federal cuts that have been proposed by the Trump Administration, which local housing officials have said
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'We have reached a critical point with Section 8,' said Ben Stone, executive director of the Brookline Housing Authority. 'The math of the program — which has historically been the most reliable form of housing assistance — is not working how it used to.'
The 80-year-old program supports millions of renters nationwide, allowing tenants to pay around 30 percent of their income toward rent on market-rate apartments, with the voucher making up the difference. In Massachusetts, where Section 8 is the state's largest source of subsidized housing, some 93,000 households use them to help pay the rent each month.
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But many of the housing authorities that administer Section 8 here have run into a problem recently: Federal funding for the program has remained relatively flat, while market rents — and by extension rents for Section 8 apartments — have shot up. Even when the federal government maintains the same level of funding or modestly increases it year over year, rents in Massachusetts have increased faster than the rate of funding growth.
That has pushed many housing authorities into a budget shortfall, meaning they cannot fully pay for all of the services they provide. The Boston Housing Authority, for instance, is projecting to be short by
about $26 million, or three weeks worth of funding, at the end of the year.
'With federal vouchers, you have to run just to stand still,' said BHA administrator Kenzie Bok. 'The federal government needs to increase funding every year just to maintain the same amount of vouchers, and now we have reached a point where the funding isn't keeping up anymore.'
Kenzie Bok, the administrator of the Boston Housing Authority.
Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff
Even the state housing department, which distributes roughly 23,000 Section 8 vouchers, had to stop issuing vouchers late last year due to funding constraints and closed its waitlist to new applicants, a spokesperson for the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities said.
It is also rolling back other benefits it had been providing, including reducing the amount of rent the government will pay for Section 8 rents, meaning more costs may be passed on to voucher holders. Some housing authorities, including the BHA, are taking other cost-saving measures, including
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The state has run into the same issue with the
That means that almost no one on any waitlist is being awarded a housing voucher in Massachusetts right now.
'We have folks who have been on the waitlist for 13 years, and now we have to tell people that they have to keep waiting,' said Sarah Scott, director of Leased Housing at Metro Housing Boston, a nonprofit agency that administers housing assistance programs. 'It is especially difficult because there isn't a timeline we could give people. All the programs we rely on are pulling back.'
It's a difficult shift for programs that are in massive demand. While 580,000 households qualify for housing subsidies in Massachusetts, according to a 2022 report by state affordable housing groups, there's only enough funding for about 250,000 to receive them. Massachusetts has one of the highest rates of housing assistance in the country, according to a recent analysis by the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
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That, of course, is before any potential cuts come into play.
In its budget plan proposed last month, the Trump Administration outlined deep cuts to several major housing programs, including Section 8 and public housing, which combined would see funding slashed by 40 percent.
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If that comes to pass, a state spokesperson said, it would result in an $800 million hole in the state's budget for housing assistance, which would, in turn, force the state to take vouchers away from some low-income families who use them.
'It will be devastating if President Trump's proposed cuts to these federal programs move forward because the state cannot backfill federal funding shortfalls,' state Housing Secretary Ed Augustus said in a statement. 'These cuts will only make housing even more expensive and difficult to access in Massachusetts and across the country.'
In its budget plan proposed last month, the Trump administration outlined deep cuts to several major housing programs, including Section 8 and public housing, which combined would see funding slashed by 40 percent.
Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg
Worry about what might come is why some housing authorities in Massachusetts, including the Newton Housing Authority, are pausing vouchers. Preemptive cutbacks, said Scott at Metro Housing, are a way to save money and keep as many current voucher holders on the programs as possible.
And it's not just vouchers that are at risk.
Michael Lara, executive director of the Newton Housing Authority, said that his agency is concerned about cuts to the federal public housing budget, which is a separate program that maintains
The Trump administration has also proposed eliminating several programs that fund supportive housing for formerly homeless people and street outreach services, including money the City of Boston uses to pay for apartment leases on private market units it rents to house people off the street.
Also at risk: Funds for wraparound services at supportive housing sites, said Lyndia Downie, executive director of Pine Street Inn. Pine Street and other nonprofits have spent decades developing a supportive housing model that includes on-site health, counseling, and case management services at apartment complexes designed for formerly homeless people. The model is more likely to keep people from becoming homeless again, but it relies heavily on federal funding, and the proposed funding cuts may result directly in rising homelessness in the city, said Downie.
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It's just this type of supportive housing program that has helped Osborne Walker turn his life around.
Walker spent five years on the street in Boston after a traumatic brain injury and amid tumult in his family. Eventually, he said, he stopped feeling like a human being when he was homeless. Having a home at Pine Street's
'This place is saving me,' said Walker. 'I lost myself for a while there. I'm starting to feel like a person again.'
Andrew Brinker can be reached at
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Fox News
an hour ago
- Fox News
US strikes on Iran carried out with 'incredible and overwhelming success,' Hegseth, military brass say
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan "Razin" Caine held a press conference from the Pentagon early Sunday morning to relay details on the U.S. military's successful strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. "Last night, on President Trump's orders, U.S. Central Command conducted a precision strike in the middle of the night against three nuclear facilities in Iran Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan in order to destroy or severely degrade Iran's nuclear program," Hegseth said Sunday morning from the Pentagon. "It was an incredible and overwhelming success," Hegseth continued. "The order we received from our commander in chief was focused. It was powerful, and it was clear we devastated the Iranian nuclear program. But it's worth noting the operation did not target Iranian troops or the Iranian people for the entirety of his time in office." The press conference was held following President Donald Trump addressing the nation at 10 p.m. Saturday evening, just hours after he announced the successful strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. "The mission demonstrated to the world the level of joint and allied integration that speak to the strength of our alliance and our joint forces," Hegseth continued. "As President Trump has stated, the United States does not seek war, but let me be clear we will act swiftly and decisively when our people, our partners or our interests are threatened. Iran should listen to the United States and know that he means it." Caine addressed the media and explained the strikes, dubbed "Operation Midnight Hammer," included the use of submarines, dozens of Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles, and the "longest B-2 spirit bomber mission since 2001." "At approximately 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time last night and just prior to the strike package entering Iran, a U.S. submarine in the Central Command area of responsibility launched more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles against key surface infrastructure targets as often as the Operation Midnight Hammer strike package entered Iranian airspace. The U.S. employed several deception tactics," Caine said. "This was a highly classified mission with very few people in Washington knowing the timing or nature of this plan, I'll refer you to the graphic on the side as I walk you through some of the operational details. At midnight Friday into Saturday morning, a large B-2 strike package comprised of bombers launched from the continental United States as part of the plan to maintain tactical surprise. Part of the package proceeded to the west and into the Pacific as a decoy. A deception effort, known only to an extremely small number of planners and key leaders here in Washington and in Tampa," he continued. Trump announced the U.S. had struck a trio of nuclear facilities in Iran via a Truth Social post Saturday evening, that was not preceded by any media leaks of prior indication such strikes were imminent. The president ordered U.S. B-2 stealth bombers to carry out the strikes against Iran's Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities. Five to six bunker-buster bombs struck the Fordow nuclear site, Trump told Fox News' Sean Hannity shortly after announcing the strikes Saturday night. The Isfahan facility, like Fordow, is believed to be built underground, and required precision targeting and extensive intelligence to successfully strike, Fox News has reported. Meanwhile, thirty Tomahawk missiles were fired against Natanz and Isfahan from U.S. submarines. Trump later addressed the nation from the White House while flanked by Vice President JD Vance, Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, where he announced Iran's nuclear facilities had been "obliterated" and that the country has been backed into a corner and "must now make peace." "Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated," Trump said. "And Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not. future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier." Trump had repeatedly urged Iran to make a deal on its nuclear program before striking its nuclear facilities, but the country pulled out of ongoing talks with the U.S. scheduled for June 15 in Oman and refused to return to the table in the days following. Israel preemptively ordered strikes on Iran June 12 as Israeli intelligence indicated Iran's nuclear program was rapidly progressing. "A short time ago, the U.S. military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime: Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan," Trump said during his address. "Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horribly destructive enterprise. Our objective was the destruction of Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity, and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world's number one state sponsor of terror. Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success." "For 40 years, Iran has been saying, 'Death to America. Death to Israel.' They have been killing our people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs with roadside bombs," Trump continued. "That was their specialty. We lost over a thousand people and hundreds of thousands throughout the Middle East and around the world have died as a direct result of their hate in particular." The president said that the U.S. worked like a team with Israel in the lead-up to the strikes "I want to thank and congratulate Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. We worked as a team, like perhaps no team has ever worked before, and we've gone a long way to erasing this horrible threat to Israel. I want to thank the Israeli military for the wonderful job they've done. And most importantly, I want to congratulate the great American patriots who flew those magnificent machines tonight and all of the United States military on an operation the likes of which the world has not seen in many, many decades," he said. Israel launched pre-emptive strikes on Iran June 12 after months of attempted and stalled nuclear negotiations and subsequent heightened concern that Iran was advancing its nuclear program. Netanyahu declared soon afterward that the strikes were necessary to "roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival." The Saturday evening strikes were unexpected on Saturday evening, as Trump on Thursday said he would make a decision on Iran within the next two weeks, suggesting such a strike would not unfold over the weekend. While six B-2 bombers that were spotted heading west from Missouri toward Guam on Saturday afternoon were decoys and part of the "misleading tidbits put out there to suggest that maybe President Trump had had put off the decision," Fox News Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin said during an appearance Saturday evening as news broke of the strikes. "Those six B-2 bombers that were heading west toward Guam, they would not have made it to Iran in time to take part in this strike," she said while speaking with Fox News' Bret Baier Saturday evening. "So, that suggests to me that there was an additional B-1 package that perhaps flew eastward from Whiteman Air Force Base. Again, this was all part of the deception. There was a great deal of sort of misleading tidbits put out there to suggest that maybe President Trump had put off the decision and that this would happen two weeks from now." Trump earned bipartisan praise from Congressional lawmakers for taking action to prevent Iran, the world's leading sponsor of terrorism, from achieving nuclear capabilities. Other members of Congress, however, simultaneously criticized Trump for not asking for Congressional approval ahead of the military strikes and raised concerns of the risk of war. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has yet to comment on the strikes. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, however, said that diplomacy is an unlikely option in the wake of the U.S. strikes. "Last week, we were in negotiations with the US when Israel decided to blow up that diplomacy. This week, we held talks with the E3/EU when the US decided to blow up that diplomacy," Araghchi wrote on X. "What conclusion would you draw?" Araghchi said he'll travel to Moscow later Sunday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom Iran enjoys "a strategic partnership."
Fox News
2 hours ago
- Fox News
Hegseth, military brass describe 'incredible and overwhelming success' of US strikes on Iran
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan "Razin" Caine held a press conference from the Pentagon early Sunday morning to relay details on the U.S. military's successful strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. "Last night, on President Trump's orders, U.S. Central Command conducted a precision strike in the middle of the night against three nuclear facilities in Iran Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan in order to destroy or severely degrade Iran's nuclear program," Hegseth said Sunday morning from the Pentagon. "It was an incredible and overwhelming success. The order we received from our commander in chief was focused. It was powerful, and it was clear we devastated the Iranian nuclear program. But it's worth noting the operation did not target Iranian troops or the Iranian people for the entirety of his time in office," Hegseth continued. The press conference was held following President Donald Trump addressing the nation at 10 pm on Saturday evening, just hours after he announced the successful strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. "The mission demonstrated to the world the level of joint and allied integration that speak to the strength of our alliance and our joint forces. As President Trump has stated, the United States does not seek war, but let me be clear we will act swiftly and decisively when our people, our partners or our interests are threatened. Iran should listen to the United States and know that he means it," Hegseth continued. Caine addressed the media and explained the strikes, dubbed "Operation Midnight Hammer," included the use of submarines, dozens of Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles, and the "longest B-2 spirit bomber mission since 2001." "At approximately 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time last night and just prior to the strike package entering Iran, a U.S. submarine in the Central Command area of responsibility launched more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles against key surface infrastructure targets as often as the Operation Midnight Hammer strike package entered Iranian airspace. The US employed several deception tactics," Caine said. "This was a highly classified mission with very few people in Washington knowing the timing or nature of this plan, I'll refer you to the graphic on the side as I walk you through some of the operational details. At midnight Friday into Saturday morning, a large B-2 strike package comprised of bombers launched from the continental United States as part of the plan to maintain tactical surprise. Part of the package proceeded to the west and into the Pacific as a decoy. A deception effort, known only to an extremely small number of planners and key leaders here in Washington and in Tampa," he continued. Trump announced the U.S. had struck a trio of nuclear facilities in Iran via a Truth Social post on Saturday evening, that was not preceded by any media leaks of prior indication such strikes were imminent. The president ordered U.S. B-2 stealth bombers to carry out the strikes against Iran's Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities. Five to six bunker-buster bombs struck the Fordow nuclear site, Trump told Fox News' Sean Hannity shortly after announcing the strikes Saturday night. The Isfahan facility, like Fordow, is believed to be built underground, and required precision targeting and extensive intelligence to successfully strike, Fox News has reported. Meanwhile, thirty Tomahawk missiles were fired against Natanz and Isfahan from U.S. submarines. Trump later addressed the nation from the White House while flanked by Vice President JD Vance, Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, where he announced Iran's nuclear facilities had been "obliterated" and that the country has been backed into a corner and "must now make peace." "Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated," Trump said. "And Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not. future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier." Trump had repeatedly urged Iran to make a deal on its nuclear program before striking its nuclear facilities, but the country pulled out of ongoing talks with the U.S. scheduled for June 15 in Oman and refused to return to the table in the days following. Israel preemptively ordered strikes on Iran June 12 as Israeli intelligence indicated Iran's nuclear program was rapidly progressing. "A short time ago, the U.S. military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime: Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan," Trump said during his address. "Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horribly destructive enterprise. Our objective was the destruction of Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity, and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world's number one state sponsor of terror. Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success." "For 40 years, Iran has been saying, 'Death to America. Death to Israel.' They have been killing our people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs with roadside bombs," Trump continued. "That was their specialty. We lost over a thousand people and hundreds of thousands throughout the Middle East and around the world have died as a direct result of their hate in particular." The president said that the U.S. worked like a team with Israel in the lead-up to the strikes "I want to thank and congratulate Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. We worked as a team, like perhaps no team has ever worked before, and we've gone a long way to erasing this horrible threat to Israel. I want to thank the Israeli military for the wonderful job they've done. And most importantly, I want to congratulate the great American patriots who flew those magnificent machines tonight and all of the United States military on an operation the likes of which the world has not seen in many, many decades," he said. Israel launched pre-emptive strikes on Iran June 12 after months of attempted and stalled nuclear negotiations and subsequent heightened concern that Iran was advancing its nuclear program. Netanyahu declared soon afterward that the strikes were necessary to "roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival." The Saturday evening strikes were unexpected on Saturday evening, as Trump on Thursday said he would make a decision on Iran within the next two weeks, suggesting such a strike would not unfold over the weekend. While six B-2 bombers that were spotted heading west from Missouri toward Guam on Saturday afternoon were decoys and part of the "misleading tidbits put out there to suggest that maybe President Trump had had put off the decision," Fox News Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin said during an appearance Saturday evening as news broke of the strikes. "Those six B-2 bombers that were heading west toward Guam, they would not have made it to Iran in time to take part in this strike," she said while speaking with Fox News' Bret Baier Saturday evening. "So, that suggests to me that there was an additional B-1 package that perhaps flew eastward from Whiteman Air Force Base. Again, this was all part of the deception. There was a great deal of sort of misleading tidbits put out there to suggest that maybe President Trump had put off the decision and that this would happen two weeks from now." Trump earned bipartisan praise from Congressional lawmakers for taking action to prevent Iran, the world's leading sponsor of terrorism, from achieving nuclear capabilities. Other members of Congress, however, simultaneously criticized Trump for not asking for Congressional approval ahead of the military strikes and raised concerns of the risk of war. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has yet to comment on the strikes. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, however, said that diplomacy is an unlikely option in the wake of the U.S. strikes. "Last week, we were in negotiations with the US when Israel decided to blow up that diplomacy. This week, we held talks with the E3/EU when the US decided to blow up that diplomacy," Araghchi wrote on X. "What conclusion would you draw?" Araghchi said he'll travel to Moscow later on Sunday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom Iran enjoys "a strategic partnership."
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
In Plain Sight, Donald Trump Continues His Takeover Of The U.S. Military
WASHINGTON — The scariest moment in the second installment of President Donald Trump's America thus far is a question that was asked in the U.S. Senate and went unanswered. Five months ago, Fox News-host-turned-Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was asked how he would respond if his soon-to-be boss told him to shoot American protesters on American streets. Hegseth, after dancing around the question, refused to answer that day. He refused to answer again when asked two weeks ago. And on Thursday, he once more refused when asked yet again while appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee. We were made for this moment. HuffPost will aggressively, fairly and honestly cover the Trump administration. But we need your help. . It was, unfortunately, not an outlandish hypothetical even when Democratic senators posed the question back during Hegseth's confirmation hearing in January. Trump's first-term Pentagon chief Mark Esper, over the months that saw protests across the country following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers, was asked to do exactly that. Esper refused. Today, it is even less of a hypothetical. Hegseth, at Trump's demand, has deployed both the California National Guard (over the objection of the state's governor) and active-duty Marines to Los Angeles as a backup force for immigration officers conducting deportation raids. If people don't understand why this is so dangerous, they might want to review what happened 55 years ago in Kent, Ohio. In early May 1970, Guard troops were sent to the state university there — in that instance, by the governor at the time — to disperse protests against President Richard Nixon's just announced expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia. Protesters started advancing on the soldiers. Some of the soldiers panicked and fired into the crowd. Four students died and nine were injured. One of the photos from that day still serves as a searing reminder of that time. The better part of a century later, we're likely in an even more fraught place. The American military has long maintained a nonpartisan, apolitical tradition — one that Trump is clearly trying to end. He went to West Point's graduation and gave an unabashedly political speech. He went to Fort Bragg in North Carolina earlier this month and treated it like a campaign rally, even encouraging the troops there to boo his Democratic critics. He commandeered a planned celebration of the Army's 250th anniversary and turned it into a parade for himself. Months ago he sent troops to the southern border in a potential violation of standing federal law. What he is doing in California is all of this piece — transforming the nation's military into his military. Trump, it seems clear, is not really trying to maintain calm and order, but rather is spoiling for a fight. If protesters get violent or provide some other provocation, no one should be surprised if soldiers do the things that soldiers are trained to do. Which is why Hegseth's continued refusal to answer what he will do if and when Trump orders him to shoot protesters should be terrifying. Again, this is all so outside the American experience that it's perhaps understandable that people refuse to accept what's going on right in front of our eyes, in broad daylight. Trump is bringing in the military to do things that, in America, the military has no business doing, from guarding the border to immigration enforcement far inland. Note carefully that the order he signed when he first sent 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles mentions neither California nor limits the number to 2,000. The order is open-ended and in force across the country. How far a jump is it from enforcing immigration law to enforcing other criminal laws? And, with both the FBI and the Department of Justice under the control of Trump-first loyalists eager to carry out his every whim, how far a jump is it from that to arresting people who, in Trump's view, pose a threat to civil order? Any scholar of autocracies will tell you that lawyers and judges willing to stand up to a would-be autocrat is all well and good, but an even more important thing is control of the men and women with the guns. And that, thanks to 77 million Americans, is in the hands of a man who revels in his lack of regard for laws and the Constitution and has repeatedly stated his view that opposing him is tantamount to treason. What Hegseth's multiple visits to the Capitol these past months, with multiple opportunities to answer the same question and multiple variations of the same non-answer, have made clear is that he will be the defense secretary that Trump wants, the defense secretary that Mark Esper and, before him, Jim Mattis refused to be. All of which means that the survival of American democracy may be in the hands of career military officers — officers like Dan Caine, the Air Force general who is now Trump's chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Caine's name has been a fixture in Trump's rally speeches over the past six years, as the 'central casting' general who told Trump that his nickname was Raisin' Caine, and who then went on to promise that he could eliminate ISIS in weeks and then, in Trump's telling, quickly delivered. Given that story, it was easy to assume that Caine was a big fan of Trump and would do whatever Trump wants. This may well be what Trump assumed. Whatever image that might have conjured, Caine presents quite differently. Soft-spoken, deferential to both Republican and Democratic members of Congress on the dais and — perhaps surprisingly — a defender of the pre-Trump ethos of keeping the military out of politics. Basically the exact opposite of the man who has sat beside him through these many hearings and behaved as if he were still on that Fox News weekend set. When Caine was asked about Trump's speeches at West Point and then at Fort Bragg, where Trump political merchandise was being sold, Caine answered in a calming, normal, non-Trump, non-Hegseth way. 'By even my engaging in answering this question, that is making my job involved in politics,' he told the House Armed Services Committee earlier this month. 'I think the chairman and the force should stay out of politics.' For Trump to grab control of the armed forces for his personal ends, he would need to win over career officers like Caine, who spent decades in uniform under presidents of both parties and who share the basic precept that they serve the Constitution, not any single individual. It's possible Caine said what he did only because that's what the questioner wanted to hear and he is actually fully on board with Trump's rush to autocracy. On the other hand, it may be that, like former Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley, who along with Esper thwarted Trump's attempts to use the military for his own ends in the final months of his first term, Caine and other uniformed officers will maintain an allegiance to the nation, and not Trump, and that democracy will live to fight another day. At least we can hope.
