Food for Thought, II

I'm gonna make it up for all of The Sunday Times
I'm gonna make it up for all of the nursery rhymes
They never really seem to want to tell the truth
I'm so tired of you, America
--Going to a Town, Rufus Wainright
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A recent discussion has prompted this addendum to yesterday's post.

Extending the implications of the figures in Food for Thought, using the federal poverty line of $10,200 for a single individual household, monthly Social Security medical disability payments of $567, and my monthly rent figure of $425 for an under-400 s.f. apartment, we arrive at the following:

[1] The annual shortfall between poverty and disability payments is $3,396, or $283 per month. So if Social security provided the individual $283 more per month, that individual would make it to the poverty line.

[2] $425/month for rent is 75% of the monthly Social Security payment. Economics 101 says an individual's rent should not exceed 25% of his or her monthly income.

Using 25% of one's income as a guideline, rental payments therefore should not exceed $141 per month. You would have to go back at least a decade to find that rental baseline.

This leaves $141 each month to meet all other necessities of life, beyond housing. That is $35.25 per week. If one receives food stamps, one may add another $24.25 per week effective "income".

Do you know a place in our union where $59.50 per week is adequate funding on which to live?

To give the devil his due, we must consider federal assistance programs for such individuals.

One is the Federal Energy Assistance program to assist low-income households with heating and cooling costs.

An individual may apply once per year, and provided one can supply all of the necessary documentation and be deemed fit to qualify, AND if there are enough funds left in the program, one may have a waiver applied to one month's electric bill. The stipend covers up to $125 for that month.

Rental assistance, or the Section 8 Housing Program, is a truly bizarre bit of governmental work, least as it is practiced in this neck of the woods.

This all-but-inaccessible program ostensibly covers a portion of your monthly rental, should you qualify by virtue of disability, income, etc. However, it only opens its sign-up roster once every year, and they will not give the dates of future sign ups via phone.

In a covert and exclusionary manner, Section 8 broadcasts its annual sign up in the days leading up to the opening via an advertisement in the newspaper, and postings at various health care facilities in town.

If you are not lucky enough to be able to get the paper, or to visit the health care facilities in the weeks leading up to the open period, you may also spend an indefinite amount of time on the phone each week trying to ascertain if this week happens to be the week of sign up. However, like most things government which do not get priority, you may not get the correct information even then.

Given you do manage to make it to the once per year sign up, you will still face a daunting challenge to be considered for this stipend.

Tallahassee Section 8 is still working on their backlog from the year 2002. I am sure they are hoping for attrition from the rolls by the time they must actually process anything.

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