There was a reason for the libertarian post and the uneven playing field post, besides my need to rample and rail against stuff. Now my reasons shall be revealed.

The Naughty Professor, (aka my Mexico travel buddy) thinks of himself as a lefty libertarian. According to him the only job government should have is the redistribution of wealth. He thinks people should be given credits for things such as water and food and education if they are to poor to afford them on their own. Now I adore the Naughty Prof, but he is a bit of a priveldged git who has never in his life had to apply for the kind of things he’s talking about and doesn’t know the process.

As it stands now, every different type of assitance requires a different appliccation process and a new investigation into someone’s finances even though the information required for each application is virtually identical. For example, the same application is used for food stamps, medicaid, and TANF (temporary aid to needy families) grants, but there is a seperate application for any kind of housing assistance, day care subsidies, WIC (the women, infant and children’s food program) utilities assistance, job training, college grants, etc. The beuracracy is huge.

Everyone who qualifies for food stamps or TANF qualifies for housing assistance via HUD’s Section 8 program because they must be at or below the poverty level. Hud usually requires that people be at 50% or less of the local median income to qualify for Section 8 (generally a much more economically succesful program than public housing because it allows tenants to rent market rate private units instead of being trapped in often dangerous and run down public ones). That means in Seattle a single person has to earn less than 27,000 a year to qualify for housing assitance .