'There's no money': Shutdown freezes HUD funds for low-income senior citizens

January 11, 2018                               By: Suzy Khimm and Laura Strickler

"If something major broke, I wouldn't have the funds to replace it," said a manager of an affordable housing building for seniors in Florida.

The government shutdown means that the long-leaking roof of San Jose Manor II Apartments won’t be replaced anytime soon, says Alma Ballard, who oversees the building for low-income senior citizens in Jacksonville, Florida.

Shirley Henderson, 69, is worried about the impact of the shutdown on the federally subsidized building where she lives in Jacksonville, Florida.

“That’s definitely not going to happen,” said Ballard, executive director of the nonprofit Family Housing Management, who said that water has at times dripped into some residents’ rooms.

Ballard said Family Housing Management had been saving up for a new roof for the 50-unit government-subsidized property, but had to put the plans on hold because its contract with the Department of Housing and Urban Development was still in the process of being renewed when the shutdown began. The company never received its December and January payments from HUD, totaling about $40,000, immediately putting the property under financial strain.

The few federal employees left at HUD have been scouring the books, looking for a last-minute solution to fund hundreds of affordable housing contracts that have expired under the shutdown.................Read More