Homeless camp, Portland, Oregon. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.
Back when I was growing up, it seemed a bit easier to get by on next to nothing.
People could afford food and shelter on a working-class wage and get a little help from safety net programs when needed. But since the 1990s, the cost of housing and healthcare has increasingly exceeded wage growth. We’re also paying a larger share of our income on food now.
Even as recently as 2021, an expanded Child Tax Credit, stronger unemployment insurance, and health care programs were keeping people out of poverty — even slashing child poverty in half. But spending hawks in Congress refused to renew these pandemic-era social programs, and poverty spiked right back up.
Under this administration and Congress, things are even worse. Already, thin assistance programs have been slashed to fund tax cuts for billionaires and more endless wars.
Even before these latest cuts, it was clear we needed a stronger safety net with less red tape.
Years ago, when I stepped out on my own as a mother, I had to apply for SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps). It helped my kids get the best start in life with good, adequate nutrition, even living in an area where well-paying jobs were scarce and child care was expensive.
In search of better-paying work, I moved to St. Louis. I found better pay, but the rent was at least double. Even with a bigger paycheck, I had to live in my car and apply for Section 8 housing assistance. My son had to go live with his dad. I was devastated.
I found some subpar housing while I spent three years stuck at number 2,000 on the waitlist. But eventually I fell off the list altogether. It turns out the form they sent me to remain on the waitlist was returned as “undeliverable.” They had entered my address incorrectly. The error was theirs, not mine.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development doesn’t track how many people lose their place in line for housing assistance. Still, the estimated number of losses due to administrative error is in the tens of thousands each year.
And this is on top of the 7.2 million-unit deficit in affordable housing stock, so millions who are eligible for housing assistance can’t receive it at all. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, over 50 percent of public housing agencies keep their voucher waitlists closed to new applicants at any given time. The figure can run even higher in urban areas.
The system disadvantages the very people it is meant to help.
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, no state in the country has adequate affordable rental housing available to meet the needs and eligibility criteria. Nationally, only 35 affordable units are available for every 100 high-need, low-income applicants.
In short, we need more affordable housing units, better staffing to reduce administrative errors, and less red tape for applicants.
Meanwhile, the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” cut over $1 trillion from Medicaid and SNAP over the next decade. It doesn’t just reduce benefits; it adds red tape and “work requirements.” Most able-bodied recipients already work, but failure to file the right paperwork to prove it can cost you your benefits even if you’re eligible. And of course, without housing, how are we going to get good jobs?
Already, millions have lost health coverage, and millions more have seen their SNAP benefits cut. But the worst could be yet to come, with steep Medicaid cuts scheduled for after this year’s midterms.
Our national priorities are upside down. Instead of tax cuts for billionaires, we need to tell our lawmakers to ensure that our tax dollars go where they are actually needed: affordable, accessible basic human needs. Not for more wars or tax cuts for billionaires.
