ousing 0yffIaorKy:
'nofl 0 crisis
by STEVE STRASSER
Many people charge that a shortage
of low-income housing exists in
Lincoln, and the Lincoln Housing
Authority (LHA) traditionally catches
a lot of blame for the problem.
Lincoln Action Program housing
specialist Maggie Malloy charged that
"students s:eem to have priority at the
Housing Authority over other
low-income families."
And welfare mother Joan Wooten
said welfare families "automatically
get a hard time" from LHA.
Most low-income tenants in Lincoln
seem to think LHA just isn't capable
of serving the needs of the large
number of poor families in the city.
And the Lincoln Housing Authority
agrees with them. Herbert Hamilton,
director of LHA's city-based leasing
operations, stressed that LHA is not a
crisis housing organization.
"We offer rent assistance designed
to provide decent, sanitary, safe
housing for low-income families on a
long-range basis," he explained.
The side of the LHA operation
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PAGE 10 THE DAILY NEBRASKAN WEDNESDAY MAY 19 1Q71
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Hamilton directs is headquartered in a
yellow-brick apartment building on
1 8th and J Streets.
The authority rents office space
there, and the rest of the building
provides homes for 85 elderly people.
LHA owns nothing itself. Its city
operations depend on income from the
federal Department of Housing and
Urban Development (HUD). HUD
gives the authority enough funds to
incorporate 1,350 housing units into a
rentlease program.
In this program, first set up in
Lincoln in 1967, a low-income family
pays a fixed percentage of its salary
for rent (not over one-fourth), and
LHA picks up the rest of the tab with
its HUD funds.
Of the 1,350 authorized units, LHA
now has about 1,126 under lease in
this program. The money it receives
from HUD for the remaining 220 units
in its quota is used for office rental
and staff salaries. The housing
authority is a non-profit organization.
About 450 landlords provide the
units in LHA's lease rent program.
Most of these are individuals, but one
corporation composed mostly of
Lincoln realtors has invested in
Northwood Terrace on 23rd and Y
streets.
The corporation has turned over,
after HUD approval, all 77 units at
Northwood Terrace to the Lincoln
Housing Authority for inclusion in its
program.
Much of the criticism directed
towards LHA deals with the
authority's alleged discriminatory
practices against welfare families. More
than 70 per cent of LHA units are
occupied by small student families and
elderly couples.
' But director Hamilton claimed this
was because of the breakdown of
types of units available to the
authority. He said 640 of the units are
either efficiency or one-bedroom
apartments, and only 350 have three
or more bedrooms - the amount of
space a large family would need.
So a student may apply for and get
a suitable unit quickly and easily, but
a family of five would have to wait
years sometimes before a unit became
available through the LHA.
The shortage of large
accomodations persists despite a
program whereby a tenant can find his
own dwelling and have it placed in the
authority's rentlease program after his
landlord agrees, and after the
authority conducts an inspection to
make sure the unit qualifies under
federal guidelines.
The Lincoln Housing Authority
cannot provide every low-income
family in Lincoln with suitable
housing through its rentlease
program. The problem seems to be
that the program is only designed to
be one way to get a home, not the
way. ,
'Actually the city office is only half
the LHA story. The authority also acts
as an organ of the city government,
most visibly at Lincoln Air Park.
Richard Burke, executive director
of the authority and principle overseer
at the Air Park, explained that the
prime responsibility of LHA in this
area is to administer the operation and
maintenance of the 1,000 units the
city of Lincoln purchased from the Air
Force last July.
Only some of the Air Park units are
eligible for the HUD rentlease
program. LHA works for the city in
this separate role, not the federal
government.
Burke reported the City is currently
looking for a builder to put up 120
additional city -owned units - mostly of
the badly-needed three, four, and five
bedroom type. Administration of
these units will also be an LHA
responsibility, and city officials hope
eventually to operate all LHA units
similarly to the ones in the rentlease
program.
