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Portsmouth, Norfolk and Newport News – New Applications for Section 8 Vouchers, Public Housing Mostly Closed

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sherlockj
in , , ,

Virginia’s 3rd Congressional District – Congressman Bobby Scott (D)

by James C. Sherlock

I authored a piece here recently about the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority (NRHA) and the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program.

I made the point that it is very difficult to find housing that can profitably be rehabbed to Section 8 standards.

I note that the only open waiting list in the NRHA is for an apartment at Riverside Station Apartments, a 220-apartment mixed-use development using tax credits for public housing set-asides. Twenty-three apartments are set aside for NRHA, but the development is not yet ready for occupancy. I am unable to determine when it will be.

In the spirit of evenhandedness, I offer the following about vouchers and public housing at the Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Agency (PRHA) and the Newport News Redevelopment and Housing Agency.

In Portsmouth and Newport News, both the voucher programs and the public housing program waiting lists are closed to new applicants, and reportedly have been for years. The only exception noted is in the availability of single room accommodations in public housing in Portsmouth.

It is sad. We hear all about the housing programs when they are authorized and funded.

Nothing when they create expectations — dependencies really — that they fail to meet. Let’s take a look.

The Redevelopment and Housing Authorities administer federal HUD programs.  Norfolk, Portsmouth and Newport News’  Congressman is Robert “Bobby” Scott (D-VA3). Rep. Scott has served since 1993, four years longer than Nancy Pelosi.

Lucky for those three cities that he has all of that seniority.

Congressman Scott happens to be the Chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor.

Surely, if the public schools in these three cities were better, the demand for public housing and voucher assistance would decline. Title 1 is the largest federally funded educational program. It provides supplemental funds to school districts to assist schools with the highest student concentrations of poverty to meet school educational goals.

But Title 1, ubiquitous in those three cities, is a program that does not require success. It sets goals, turns its head away when they are missed, and sends more money the next year. Title 1 is Rep. Scott’s responsibility in the House. I can find no Title 1 reform bills there. Lots of discussion of Title IX and transgender swimmers, however.

I’ll delve into Portsmouth’s Redevelopment and Housing Authority (RHA) to provide more color to the housing story.

Government website phra.org

As the first housing authority created in the state of Virginia in 1938, our Authority provides housing and housing-related services for over 5,000 citizens of Portsmouth.

Housing Choice Vouchers and Low-Income Public Housing are the two main housing assistance programs available through PRHA.

Housing Choice Vouchers – These vouchers cover a portion of the monthly rent for privately-owned apartments or homes. Unfortunately, our Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program has a lengthy waiting list; therefore, the waiting list is closed to acceptance of new applicants at this time.

Portsmouth Public Housing

The Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority is only accepting applications for the Single Room Occupancy (SRO) program at this time.

The website affordablehousingonline.com.

I have used this national website clearinghouse for HUD voucher and public housing availability to provide more detail on PRHA than is available on the government website. Where information is available on both, it matches.

PRHA Waiting List Statuses
Waiting List

  • Portsmouth Redevelopment & Housing Authority Housing Choice Voucher Closed
  • Portsmouth, Virginia Mainstream Housing Choice Voucher Closed
  • Hamilton Place I and Hamilton Place II Project-Based Voucher Closed
  • Swanson Homes, 2 and 4-Bedroom Public Housing Closed
  • Phoebus Square Apartments Closed

PHRA Housing Choice Vouchers (HCV) 

Closed: (Confirms information on government website) Portsmouth Redevelopment & Housing Authority Housing Choice Voucher Waiting List
was last open for three days in July 2016, and before that in 2008. There is no notice of when this waiting list will reopen.

Mainstream Voucher Announcement on affordablehousingonline.com

Mainstream vouchers assist non-elderly persons with disabilities. Aside from serving a special population, Mainstream vouchers are administered using the same rules as other housing choice vouchers.

The Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority (PRHA) Mainstream Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher waiting list is currently closed. Applications were last accepted from April 27, 2021 until April 28, 2021. There is no notice of when this waiting list will reopen.

Net of all of that:  Norfolk, Newport News and Portsmouth r

esidents cannot get on the waiting list for vouchers. Apparently few with them ever leave. And new supply of Section 8 housing is clearly equally rare.

Unless an applicant is seeking a single room accommodation in public housing in Portsmouth or future accommodations in 23 apartments at Riverside Station in Norfolk, new applications for public housing are closed.

Good news: The Norfolk, Portsmouth and Newport News housing offices are open from 9-4 daily. I understand there is not a lot of foot traffic in the applications offices.

Bobby Scott’s office is open from 9-5 Mon-Fri.  

Bad news for Norfolk and Portsmouth residents: Congressman Scott’s office is in Newport News. You can call.

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45 responses to “Portsmouth, Norfolk and Newport News – New Applications for Section 8 Vouchers, Public Housing Mostly Closed”

  1. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    Virginia is not unique and from what I read, the problem is a lack of funding :

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b700f63497502732146fedfddd318f384d6ec7935a1b3e031c09203c15a79eac.jpg

    https://www.cbpp.org/research/housing/families-wait-years-for-housing-vouchers-due-to-inadequate-funding#:~:text=Many%20housing%20agencies%20have%20closed,of%20vouchers%20they%20can%20administer.

    1. James C. Sherlock Avatar
      James C. Sherlock

      Problem with the insatiable demand for government housing support is directly traceable to failed public education systems for the poor. It is an inherited, multigenerational plague. Progressives want to throw more money at housing. Conservatives want to fix the problem at its source.

      1. James McCarthy Avatar
        James McCarthy

        Of course you assert that as conservative credo. You have surely convinced yourself. Rectitude uber alles.

        1. YellowstoneBound1948 Avatar
          YellowstoneBound1948

          I am not an editor, but I am interested in knowing why you used German (uber alles) in your reply.

        2. James C. Sherlock Avatar
          James C. Sherlock

          Conservative: Not enough public housing – reduce demand. Improve the schools using Title 1 dollars to better effect. An example, reform the Title 1 program to require states to take over the running of individual Title 1 schools after, say, five years of failure to meet state improvement goals in order for those schools to get the money.

          Progressive: Not enough public housing – increase supply. Look how well public housing has worked for generations. Progressive city governments don’t want any more public housing, and zone their cities accordingly.

          Which has the best interests of the poor in mind?

          1. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            Liberal: respond to the immediate problem and continue to work on the underlying issues.

            Conservative: don’t respond to the immediate problem – let them eat cake and remain without housing.

            Conservative “thinking”: if it ain’t fixed 100%, it’s a failure.

          2. James C. Sherlock Avatar
            James C. Sherlock

            The “immediate” problem is being addressed by federal funding programs administered by local housing agencies that have been in place for 85 years.

          3. Kathleen Smith Avatar
            Kathleen Smith

            That is not immediate, it is sustained.

          4. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            Yep but not the voucher program for 85 years and we still have not addressed it if we still have people on waiting lists, who , by the way, are still stuck in low income neighborhoods with their kids going to those “failed schools”.

            Don’t you think if a parent could live in a house near a “Good” school, it would also help their kids?

          5. Eric the half a troll Avatar
            Eric the half a troll

            “Conservative “thinking”: if it ain’t fixed 100%, it’s a failure.”

            Actually it is Conservative “thinking”: use the excuse that what we are doing now is not a 100% fix to do nothing.

          6. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            and that means it’s a “failure”.

            Conservatives basically hate the idea that we have these problems and question whether or not they should be responsible for fixing in the first place.

          7. Kathleen Smith Avatar
            Kathleen Smith

            If schools were working and employment programs were working, there wouldn’t be generations of people living at the same housing complex for generations. Lack of housing like these stats show is an outcome indicator that we are not doing a good job helping people out of poverty through education and into sustainable employment.

      2. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        re: ” Conservatives want to fix the problem at its source.”

        that’s their claim. And in the meantime don’t help people with housing – just wait “until the problem is “fixed” ”

        Has the thought ever occurred that is folks could move to better housing where there are better schools where their kids COULD get a better education?

        1. James C. Sherlock Avatar
          James C. Sherlock

          The “thought” you ask if has ever “occurred to folks” is the voucher program, Larry.

          Sorry to say the kids won’t get a better education if the gang-bangers move with them and minority children continue to skip school at the rates they do from their existing homes.

      3. James Wyatt Whitehead Avatar
        James Wyatt Whitehead

        Malcolm X would support education as the remedy to the vicious cycle.
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8YGITrPMuc

      4. Kathleen Smith Avatar
        Kathleen Smith

        Many schools were built adjacent to housing projects for the sole reason of making sure the kids didn’t go to any other schools. Yes, there is a direct tie to schools. This was a very good “teaser” article. I am vowing to read more in-depth articles. We need to fix this at its source. Thank you for reminding me of the vicious circle of poverty.

      5. Kathleen Smith Avatar
        Kathleen Smith

        Many schools were built adjacent to housing projects for the sole reason of making sure the kids didn’t go to any other schools. Yes, there is a direct tie to schools. This was a very good “teaser” article. I am vowing to read more in-depth articles. We need to fix this at its source. Thank you for reminding me of the vicious circle of poverty.

    2. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      Gotta be education. Can’t be systemic racism.
      https://therealdeal.com/2021/10/18/housing-rights-initiative-takes-voucher-discrimination-probe-south/
      https://www.equaljusticeworks.org/news/reflecting-on-the-legacy-of-the-fair-housing-act-in-virginia/

      1. James C. Sherlock Avatar
        James C. Sherlock

        It is a cycle of poverty issue. You treat public housing as a supply problem. I treat it as a demand problem.

        You cannot actually believe the cause of the multigenerational – nearing 85 years – need for public housing support lies outside the public education system in these three cities. Education is the only way most people in America escape poverty. By the results from their children’s schools, it will be a miracle if the kids of most of the people in public housing in Norfolk, Portsmouth and Newport News ever escape it. Yet they reject proven charter solutions.

        The public education systems are run by the elected officials in those cities. The Title 1 program, overseen at the federal level by Bobby Scott, continues to produce zero results.

        Those are the same officials zone their cities for no more public housing and that very zoning blocks Section 8 conversions that were intended to replace the dysfunctional projects.

        But pretending you do think the fault lies at a doorstep other than public education, what are your suggested fixes for “systemic racism” that will reduce the need for public housing. The article you linked charges discrimination, it does not prove it. If laws have been broken, those who have broken them should pay the price. But it does not discuss why the people need public housing in the first place.

        The answers probably don’t lend themselves to snark.

        1. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          See that map of the US? it’s all the states.

          Are you saying that public education is a failure in every state?

          Oh, and if it really is, then we don’t help the people who currently need housing until we fix the underlying problem?

          1. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            It’s not just every State, Larry. It’s been 100 years too. Long before the schools were “woke”.

          2. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            Well, give credit for honesty about his thinking.

            And that, dealing with the housing issue is a waste of money if we don’t “fix” the failed public education first.

            Basically hold public housing hostage until we provide charter schools – which have virtually no track record of targeting low income kids and succeeding – other than Success Academies which has it’s own issues with who actually succeeds and who does not. Success does not succeed 100%. It has a substantial attrition rate not unlike some public schools that teach the same demographic do.

            And some claims that most of it’s kids come from two-parent families because of the requirements of parental involvement is almost impossible for single parents who work.

          3. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            Blaming public education for the problem of affordable housing is like blaming Covid for the war in Afghanistan.

            He, like many, has a difficulty understanding the difference between causality and correlation.

          4. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            or the free & reduce lunch program for failures in publi education.. lord…

          5. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            The funny thing is that “the worst president in history” (according to Sherwood, et al), Jimmy Carter, has driven more nails for affordable housing than the Captain’s thoughts on the subject will ever.

          6. YellowstoneBound1948 Avatar
            YellowstoneBound1948

            The “Captain,” as you call him, and I suspect in a tone that is not one of admiration, was probably landing military aircraft on rolling decks in heavy seas, during those years that Carter was atoning for his many failures. And, they were many.

          7. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            Yeah, and well paid for it. Very well paid for it compared to any civilian counterpart.

            According to him, he grew up in NOVA, attended private schools and UVa (a pretty penny even then). In other words, he grew up upper middle class and he’s still there. Big deal.

          8. Kathleen Smith Avatar
            Kathleen Smith

            I get what you are both saying, but in reality, who gets better employment, someone with a High School Diploma or someone with an Associates Degree in say Nursing? The reality is that the education system has been under fire since the 70’s. Poverty issues parallel education issues. What is the fix? If one doesn’t cause the other, aren’t both related to each other in some kind of relationship?

          9. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            Oh yeah, they’re correlated. Lack of money is the root of all evil.

            As to nursing? After the last 3 years, not so much.

            Well, the G.I. Bill was the greatest social program of all time, but it did build the public school system of the 1970s and 80s, so if it was screwed up then, it was all those Greatest Generation Ever whodunnit, not Boomers. The Boomers just continued the process.

            The voucher system that was the G.I. Bill was at post HS. It only paid for it, the standards remained the same. I don’t know that it is translatable to the mandatory education system. However, a massive expansion of the idea, i.e., not just military service, maybe no a priori service at all, and wider range of post HS education is called for. That is, more publicly funded education… LOTS MORE.

          10. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            The “fix” is to stay the course on the things that do work even as we know some may not.

            The idea that public education as an entity is a “failure” is false.

            Government-provisioned/sanctioned Public Education is THE defining characteristic of every single developed country on earth.

            Sherlocks claim that Charter schools will “fix” the problem is highly suspect.

            Charter Schools, as he envisions them , will not accept every child who is at a “failing” school, only the ones (and their parent(s)) who “follow the rules”.

            So he’ll leave the kids whose parents can’t or wont follow the rules to those “failing” public schools, in effect, abandoning them if they don’t “fit” what the Charter schools require.

            That’s what the Success Academies do in NYC.

            One parent families who do work , have to figure out how to do the demands of the Success schools or they get kicked out.

            Success boots out kids every year – send them back to those “failing” schools. Quite obviously NOT a 100% fix to the problem no more than public schools are either.

            But all this conversation got started because Sherlock apparently opposes more housing vouchers because we’ve been doing it for 85 years and, “it has not worked”.

            It’s the same old, same old, If it ain’t “fixed” , it’s a fail.

            With his reasoning, all the safety features put into cars and roads is a “fail” because we still have accidents and deaths..

            This is why I have a problem wit “conservative thinking”. it’s totally one-sided, half-glass thinking too much of the time.

            If we spend billions on safer road and people still die, it’s a “failure”. substitute “public education” or housing vouchers and same answer.

          11. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            So you asked “what’s the fix”?

            No silver bullets. It’s along slog.

            I’m NOT opposed to Charters with the following provisos:

            1. – that they take ONLY the kids from “failing schools” – that the entire premise of most of the advocates – so let’s restrict them to that purpose.

            2. – That they have no “rules” different from public schools unless those roles are stated clearly ahead of time by the proponents. Right now, there is precious little about such “rules” and whether or not they would deny access to a child that the child has no control over.

            3. – That the Charters be held to the same SOL standards as the “failing schools”. In other words, the same testing and accountability

            4. – That if those Charters don’t do any better at educating the economically disadvantaged, that they be either shut down or subjected to the same VDOE procedures for dealing with “failed schools”.

            I’m looking for REAL solutions not Conservative fairy tale solutions.

            Real solutions are hard, not the simplistic sounding ones that presume that public schools have “failed”. We’re gonna find that if Charters actually take on the same demographic, they’re going to have their hands full also but if they can do it – I’m all for it.

          12. James C. Sherlock Avatar
            James C. Sherlock

            Public education is a failure where it fails. Those failures are concentrated in America’s urban areas. Except, for example, where some of the schools work, like the schools run by the best charter management organizations in New York City and elsewhere.

            The elected leaders of those cities use zoning to make it very difficult to build or rehab housing that qualifies for vouchers that pay enough to justify the investments. Two reasons – NIMBY and “increasing the tax base”.

            Decode what “increasing the tax base” means in practice. And these are minority leaders making the zoning calls. So you tell me how “we” help the people who need publicly funded housing. Double the value of the vouchers? Without education, those are just nicer jails.

            Now the elected leaders of the school boards in those cities in the name of “equity” refuse to set conditions in those schools which will enable learning.

            And the cycle repeats.

          13. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            You make sweeping and unsupported statements – basically conservative fairy tales to support your beliefs.

            You claim that Charters “work” yet beyond your one example of Success Academies, there is no data provided that demonstrates that Charters primarily serve low-income AND they succeed where public schools do not.

            Where is that data?

            The voucher system is not short of rehabbed housing, it’s short of funding which you say you’re okay with because we apparently should not help more folks in poverty until we “fix” the public education failures.

            Thank GAWD, you’re not saying we should stop the free & reduced lunch program until we “fix’ education!

            You very well illustrate why Conservatism is not a solution to these issues and, in fact, is the reason for them because you refuse to see it as investments but rather as costs.

          14. James C. Sherlock Avatar
            James C. Sherlock

            Utterly moronic response, Larry. You are out of your depth as usual.

          15. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            name-calling and personal attacks? this is your answer to really quite substantial issues?

            I think the “depth” issue is in your court.

            Charter schools are not the answer if they have “rules” that deny access to them, abandon them and leave them with those “failing” public schools?

            What kind of “solution” is that?

            It’s not. Success and other charters don’t seem to want the truly difficult demographic and essentially abandon those kids.

            The premise that it’s mostly urban black kids is also false.

            ‘Check the data. It’s rural and white also.

            But using the word “moronic” is appropriate when someone advocates continuing to not address the housing issue as a “solution”.

            How does that solve anything?

          16. Kathleen Smith Avatar
            Kathleen Smith

            I think you made a very important statement here, public housing is like a nice jail. You have freedom, but you can’t seem to escape. Parents with kids in these nice jails, send their kids to school everything with the hope that they will learn enough to escape.

          17. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            public housing – yes.

            voucher housing – no.

            voucher housing gets people out of the projects and more importantly away from the schools in the projects.

            Has 85 years done nothing to help solve the problem as Sherlock seems to imply?

            Nope.

            It has not “solved” it but it has vastly improved it.

            but to Conservatives, that means that if we still have to have vouchers, it’s a failure

            AND if someone who does live in a project gets a voucher for their kid that the can send their kids to a Charter that will “solve” the problem but only if the parent follows all the rules and can find transportation for their kid…

        2. Nancy Naive Avatar
          Nancy Naive

          So! It was public education in mid-1900s that had 3 and 4 generations of West Virginians on welfare? Don’t just look at inner cities today. Look at 100 years in entire effing States; long before public education was “woke”.

          “Same as it ever was”

          1. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            He apparently thinks it all in the cities… no such thing as rural poverty or Southern States poverty.

  2. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    I appreciate this series of articles. This is an are in which I have little experience and my additional research in reaction to the articles has been eye-opening. Some comments and questions:

    1. For all the talk about vouchers and the seeming agreement by folks from both “sides of the aisle” that vouchers are the preferred way to go, it came as a shock to me that the voucher programs in the three cities are closed. (It is closed in Richmond, as well.) I assume that federal rules would not enable the housing authorities in these cities to shut down the housing projects they operate and use the money provided to provide vouchers for the residents, instead of using it to operate and maintain these slums.

    2. When you say that it is hard to find existing property that can profitably be rehabbed to Section 8 standards, are you talking about multi-unit housing or single family residences?

    As for whether poor education is a cause of continued poverty and substandard housing, it seems to me that is sort of a chicken and egg proposition–one perpetuates the other other in generational cycles. Both housing and education need to be addressed, but housing is a more immediate need and, when one is living in a tumultuous housing situation, it is hard to do well in school, no matter how good the schools is. An expansion of the voucher program could address both problems by enabling a poor family to escape the concentration of poverty in a project and move into an area in which the schools are better.

    1. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      On 3. Long before the public education system was as unsatisfactory to the author as it has become, generational welfare existed. It therefore lacks the necessary time-order for causality.

    2. James C. Sherlock Avatar
      James C. Sherlock

      I originally put most of my next column here in answer to you, Dick, But instead I will publish it this weekend so all our readers can see it.

      1. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
        Dick Hall-Sizemore

        Thanks. If you could also explain how zoning excludes rehabbed Section 8 housing, that would be helpful. If a housing unit, whether multifamily or single family, it obviously is in compliance with zoning regulations, unless it was grandfathered. How, then, could rehabbing it to Section 8 standards be in violation of zoning?

  3. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    Important to also note that Sherlock is not claiming that Charters can succeed where the public schools fail.

    Charters like Success REQUIRE parents and kids to follow certain rules or get kicked out – back to the public schools.

    In other words, the Charters “fail” at some of the very same demographic that Sherlock is claiming public schools fail at.

    The charters want to cherry-pick only SOME of the kids not all of them.

    AND most charters do not exclusively target the low-income, economically disadvantaged kids – which will not learn if taught like the typical non-disadvantaged kids.

    I’ve said from the get go – I support Charters that exclusively serve the very kids that Sherlock points to as being failed by the public schools as long as they stick just to that demographic and they are held fully accountable for their results and if they do no better than the public schools – that Sherlock admit that just Charters are not the full solution and that they “fail” also.

    So.. apparently , in the interim of this de-facto, unproven experiment, he’s also not help with housing… not until the education problem is “fixed” 100%.

  4. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    Let’s first, get to some basic facts and recognize misconceptions:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eda6b4ce9a77f7216e559f8b9ad4b5dfc7ac861874fb03af085d389f9764b5dd.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cc92fe8d48e00d6d683eed46072e5b59b8259e94903293dd730db64e3f9bda25.jpg

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