One of the most interesting questions to come out of the debate over public housing in Galveston is whether some units could be designated for students.
You can see the logic if you consider the possibilities for redeveloping the site of Magnolia Homes, a housing project destroyed by Hurricane Ike on Sept. 13, 2008. The property is on the edge of the University of Texas Medical Branch and is not far from downtown.
A proposal by Galveston Housing Authority for redeveloping Magnolia Homes assumes a mix of incomes. Some residents would make up to $19,150 a year. Others would earn $19,150 to $31,900. Still others would earn $31,300 to $38,300, and some would make up to $51,050.
You can imagine employees of the medical branch in those income brackets living in some of those units. The question came up about whether the housing authority could designate some apartments for students.
The answer is that the housing authority can’t assign public housing units specifically for students.
However, students could be included under a provision that allows 20 percent of the Section 8 vouchers — vouchers that subsidize rents for low-income people living in private housing — to be set aside for specific purposes.
The housing authority recommends that the 20 percent of Section 8 vouchers be earmarked this way:
• 20 homes for full-time students at institutions of higher education;
• 80 homes for families working at least 30 hours a week;
• 15 homes for workers in health-care fields;
• 35 homes for veterans;
• 20 homes for trade school students; and
• Five homes for essential emergency workers with the city or the county.
All of those folks, of course, would have to meet income guidelines of the Section 8 program.
Still, people pointed out that Galveston has three institutions of higher learning — the medical branch, Texas A&M University at Galveston and Galveston College. They’re essential to the island’s recovery from the storm.
Some communities in other states have been granted exemptions to federal rules after being hit by hurricanes. Is the student-housing rule something that congressional leaders could get an exemption for, given the role of those schools in the island’s recovery?
The answer: Yes, the community could begin lobbying its congressional representatives.
But consider the cost.
Since the hurricane hit, the housing authority has put 1,219 people on the waiting list for the public housing and another 761 on the waiting list for Section 8.
Before the storm, 65 percent of those in public housing units were elderly, handicapped or disabled.
Does anyone really want to shove those folks aside in favor of the students?
And is the housing authority the agency that should be primarily responsible for finding housing for students? Don’t those schools and perhaps the foundations that support them have some responsibility?
Since the storm, some people have described the housing authority as the community’s largest developer. That might well be true. But there is a danger, in looking at grand projects, of forgetting that the housing authority has a core mission. Its primary responsibility is not to stimulate the recovery of the island but to provide housing to those who really need it.
