Social housing, or Communism for the poor in America

Фото: Depositphotos

There is a federal program in the USA HUD. This is when the state helps to pay your housing and household bills. This privilege did not rely on us, since we bought a house on credit in 2005, and the state does not help to pay for such personal property. That's when I regretted that I forced my American husband to buy a house on credit. If we rented a flat at the time of his illness, the state would help us pay for it with vouchers.

In 2011, I got my Russian husband to work as a finisher for a government organization called the Mobile Housing Office. We did not immediately realize that Sergei mine works in the field of so-called social housing. And when they understood, I interviewed the general manager of this office, Call Appleton. It was he who opened my eyes to the federal program for the poor, disabled and pensioners in this country.

It's called “HUD”!

Why dry numbers? Imagine the situation. A family with children rents an apartment, everything is fine and then - bam! The father either becomes seriously ill or divorces his wife. Let's call her Mary. In any case, there is no financial support for the family on his part. And let’s say they paid $800 a month for the apartment. And without a breadwinner, a woman earns only $1200. So here she can apply for the state to provide her with subsidized housing. Mary will receive benefits such as Medicaid (free medical care), food stamps (card for purchasing food) in at least a month, but subsidized kindergarten and housing will have to wait several months.

The law is. The cost of housing along with household services (electricity, water, gas, telephone) must not exceed 30% of the applicant's income. So, Mary will pay for housing and all services no more than $ 400, and the rest of the state will pay extra in the form of a voucher. That's what state-subsidized housing is. But Mary and her children will most likely have to wait at least a year of such freebies and first live under the roof of a relative.

The Department of Construction and Urban Development in the United States is building both whole sleeping one-story districts for low-income families, and high-rise complexes for pensioners and people with disabilities. In addition, many private apartment complexes that will rent housing to people supported by the state program.

My friend, disabled from birth, Michelle, a single mother, receives a lifetime pension for herself and her child in the amount of $1400 per month. She found a private apartment complex that accepts housing vouchers. And he pays $420 for housing and household services from his pension. The apartment complex has a children's playground and a swimming pool. The apartment is 3-room or American style: double. Michelle sleeps in one room, her daughter in the other. Of course, the kitchen has a refrigerator, a microwave, and a dishwasher. Americans don’t know what it’s like to have hot water turned off for weeks. Michelle pays for her car, her insurance, her cell phone. She will never be able to save up for a cruise, to see other countries, and will be treated and fed at the expense of the state all her life. Why isn't it heaven? Those who do not have particularly high demands will, of course, be happy with such a life.

In the residential area where my Sergei worked for the state for a year and a half, mostly black families live. With his keen eye, he noticed that it was mostly women who worked, and men gathered in a group in the morning - and they were having a “joint” in a circle - smoking marijuana.

“What do they have to worry about? – said Sergei. — One family member works at any low-paying job (whether as a cashier, a cook, a taxi driver, a cleaner or a waitress, a kindergarten teacher), and he still has hard-earned money left over. Since the state provides them with housing, where we replaced the floors, toilets and baths, kitchens, windows and doors, all household appliances, painted, laid tiles or linoleum. There are Food Stamps and Medicaid. They can easily buy themselves an inexpensive car, have fancy phones and dress normally.”

So the state saves the country from crime, alcoholism and depression. Because America has a lot of debt. The country spends a lot on its people.

Sometimes it seems to me that America, which was so afraid of communism, itself created it in its system. Remember the communist slogan of the future: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”
Here in the USA it was carried out at the expense of preferential programs. A person can be short-sighted, illiterate, sick, but if he is a pensioner, disabled, or works as he can, for pennies, has a family, then all his basic needs will be met - the right to decent clean housing, food, treatment. Truly communism is for the poor.

About the author: Oksana Leslie is a writer, author of the novel “Is America Mother Calling?”, Author of the popular video blog about life in the USA.

Original article published on Online Oksana Leslie and reprinted with permission of the author.

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