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By STEVEN DU BOIS; Times Leader Staff Writer
Friday, October 02, 1998     Page: 3A

KINGSTON- The Luzerne County Housing Authority stopped taking applications
for Section 8 rental assistance Wednesday because 601 names are on the waiting
list.
   
The authority figured new applicants would wait about two years for a
coveted certificate, which allows low-income residents to rent a house or
apartment for 30 percent of their income.
    “It’s not a good idea to give anybody false hope that they’re going to get
housing assistance in a reasonable period of time,” said David Fagula,
executive director of the authority. “Hey, anybody that was applying today
probably has no reasonable prospects of us contacting them for several years.”
   
The authority continues to take applications for public housing.
   
Fagula said there is no shortage of housing stock for those seeking rental
assistance; however there is a shortage of government money to subsidize
participating landlords.
   
The authority cannot add to its approximately 1,000 slots because of
Department of Housing and Urban Development budget cuts.
   
Ed Britz, the authority’s Section 8 coordinator, said people on the waiting
list are not homeless. Instead, they are paying too much of their income for
rent or are staying with parents.
   
One 36-year-old woman can’t wait for her name to be called. She applied for
the housing assistance last month, but is far down on the first-come,
first-serve list.
   
“They told me that it would be a year and a half,” she said. “If you can’t
get help with housing, you can’t go ahead with your life.”
   
The woman has four children and bounced from family member to family member
since breaking off an abusive relationship. She and her children, ages 2 to
17, are living in a women’s shelter.
   
“It’s not a good environment to raise a family. I’m lucky to be here, but
it’s not where I want to be,” said the woman, who asked that her name be
withheld.
   
The woman, who is on welfare, said she previously lived with an abusive man
for economic reasons.
   
“It was out of desperation. You don’t always make the right choice when you
need a roof over your head.”
   
Wednesday’s application shutoff isn’t a new phenomenon. The authority has
closed the list at least three times in 15 years, sometimes for several years
at a time, Fagula said.
   
The clogged list was closed in 1997. It reopened in March 1998 when those
waiting fell to less than 100.
   
“When I came in that first day there were people waiting outside the door,”
Britz said.
   
Other housing authorities are still taking Section 8 applications, but they
also have lengthy waiting lists. The Wilkes-Barre Housing Authority has about
400 names on its list. Hazleton has 276 people on its list.
   
The woman from the shelter said she’s not on other lists because she think