Tenants of government-subsidized housing rallied in support of federal protection Saturday.
The 15 protesters called for buildings subsidized by U.S. Housing and Urban Development to keep their Section 8 contracts. The contracts allow disabled and aged tenants security in keeping a place to live, said May Steiner, a low-income housing advocate.Steiner lives at the Escalante Apartments, 1000 N. Redwood Road, and serves on the National Alliance of HUD Tenants. She spent five days in Washington last week visiting senators and HUD officials.
"My biggest thing is to keep people from being afraid," Steiner said. The memory of a friend and neighbor who recently died reminds Steiner why her work is important. The elderly woman had no income and no family. When the threat of losing Section 8 housing got larger, the woman got more and more worried. She died, and Steiner and other neighbors attribute her death to her fear of not having a place to live.
"She had no place to go, no relatives, no income," Steiner said. "These people need to know they are going to be safe."
Steiner and others from the newly formed Salt Lake Area Alliance of HUD Tenants called for the support of SB513, which renews contracts and allows voucherization only as a last resort in areas with high vacancy rates. Steiner said Utah would be exempt because of the state's low vacancy rates.
"We're fighting for something we really need," said Mike Egan, tenant president at the Villa Cumorah Apartments, 81 S. Main in Midvale. He said without HUD protection, landlords could raise rents or evict disabled and elderly tenants.