The post The importance of keeping public housing public appeared first on Occasional Planet.
]]>People across the nation are speaking out against the Obama administration’s intention to privatize 1.2 million public housing units, under a HUD proposal called Transforming Rental Assistance (TRA) initiative. On May 25, 2010, at a congressional hearing, Congresswoman Maxine Waters and many housing advocacy organizations from across the country spoke out against HUD’s proposal, and submitted written statements for the hearing record opposing TRA, including the Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness and other Los Angeles housing and human rights organizations.
Here is a summary of Congressman Water’s main arguments against the administration’s proposal:
George Lakoff, had this to say about the HUD proposal at Common Dreams.org:
The banks and developers make a fortune, with the taxpayers paying for it. The public loses its public housing property. The impoverished tenants lose their apartments, or have their rents go way up if they are forced into the private market. Homelessness increases. Government gets smaller. The banks and developers win. It is a Bank Bonanza! The poor and the public lose.
And a precedent is set. The government can privatize any public property: Schools, libraries, national parks, federal buildings – just as has begun to happen in California, where the right-wing governor has started to auction off state property and has even suggested selling off the Supreme Court building.
The rich will get richer, the poor and public get poorer. And the very idea of the public good withers.
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