But according to Posilkin, “Some owners will participate, some owners won’t participate,” because “given the track record of the agency they’re afraid to jump into the pool.” While he approves of the enhancements, he opposes de Blasio's legislation. But revamping the system on a more fundamental level, he said, “[is] an area where tenant and owner groups should actually have a very similar agenda.”
Though Bach of CSS applauds the fact that more vouchers are being made available, he said that in certain ways the Section 8 program has fallen short of its objective to provide low-income residents with a wide range of housing choices in economically and racially diverse neighborhoods. "Section 8 voucher holders are more likely to be located in areas of high poverty and high racial minority concentration than public housing residents," he said. But while Bach recognizes shortcomings in the Section 8 program and believes that public housing, also run by NYCHA, has done a much better job of integrating its residents, he said the vouchers are "vitally critical to the low-income families who otherwise can't afford to rent."
But since NYCHA distributes the lion's share of vouchers (the departments of Homeless Services and Housing Preservation and Development also distribute some) and is currently operating at a deficit – Section 8 funding is far from safe. Federal, state and city governments cut operating subsidies used to run the city’s public housing, and NYCHA has made a proposal to HUD that would allow the use of 8,400 vouchers to subsidize rents in state and city public housing, helping to make up for the missing funds. That could mean that people who are on the current and future waiting lists could lose out on their chance for vouchers as long as there are also long waiting lists for public housing.
Last month the U.S. House of Representatives also passed the Section 8 Voucher Reform Act of 2007, which if passed by the Senate would make Section 8 funds flexible to be spent on other programs by housing authorities nationwide. Those new developments, along with the 1998 Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act, which does not allow housing authorities to add to their inventory, could mean "an overall loss of housing resources and opportunities for the lowest-income New Yorkers," Bach said.
Optimally, all existing programs would continue without cuts, he said: “You have to protect Section 8 vouchers and you have to do your best to preserve public housing."
