This affects the poorest of the poor. Typically these people are on welfare or social security and therefore have a fixed minimal income. They also have to pay other bills, like groceries and utilities. Which other bills should they stop paying? Would they rather get kicked out, lose electricity, go to jail, or starve.
I'm just thinking back to when I was 10. An acquaintance came over. He opened up the fridge in our apartment and saw a single apple on a shelf, nothing else. Then he laughed and told everyone about it. Sure, we had an apartment, were not homeless at that time, and had a fridge. But that rent subsidy difference of $100 could fill or empty the fridge. Where is it coming from? What will it do to people?
It won't affect welfare or social security recipients unless their monthly income is below $450/month, which is uncommon. It will affect people with essentially no source of income whatsoever. I didn't even realize there were individuals that qualify for $50/month housing but can not qualify for social security or disability. How does that even work?
The only government cash program these days for those who don't qualify for SS, or SSI come from TANF, ( temporary aide to needy families ) and the maximum benefit for a family of two is less than 300 dollars a month, so there are single parents with one child, who do make less than 500 a month. There are also people who get less than 500 a month from SS. This is common among low income folks who never paid into Social Security for more than 10 or 15 years. I've known a few like that. If they are disabled or over 62, they might qualify for SSI, which brings the total monthly income up to around 6 or 700 dollars. These folks are not all that uncommon. The other thing is that, at least in most states, you can't have assets worth more than 2000 dollars, to qualify for most of these programs.
TANF is only available to families where one parent is not in the home, or one parent has recently left the work force. The total income for the family must be below 1000/per month for a family of 3 in order to qualify. If there is no other income besides TANF, that does leave some families well below the 450 a month limit. The aide is temporary and job training is also a part of the program. TANF replaced the former welfare programs back in the 90s so it's always surprising to me that a lot of people don't realize this. There is usually a five year lifetime limit on how long one can receive benefits. I think it was sometimes extended during the worst years of the "great recession." I've worked with a lot of very poor people and believe me there is no incentive to go on TANF, if you can get a job. Desperate people are the ones that usually apply for aide from TANF. If I left anything out, you can look up the details on the Department of Human Services site.
Anyway, the bottom line is that if your total income is 400 a month and you've been paying 50 a month for rent, Carson wants to raise it to 150 a month. Even if SNAP isn't counted in the total, that's very little left over to try and survive on, especially if you have school age children. And before someone starts going on about how these women shouldn't have had any children, it would certainly help if agencies like Planned Parenthood and local Public Health Departments were fully funded. Women who are educated have fewer children and poor women who have access to free or low cost birth control tend to have fewer children. But, having known many, very poor women over the course of my life, I know that being a parent is sometimes that only thing that gives these women a sense of worth and purpose. I don't feel it's my place to judge them.
Carson can't do this without Congressional approval, but considering our current Congressional leadership, it just might be implemented.
