My personal take on the Chester County Housing Authority is that it’s a cesspool of public corruption that is beginning to smell better.

The CCHA has been sticking Coatesville and other low income areas of Chester County with Section 8 Housing for decades. In the video below Barry Cassidy as the Main Street Manager of Phoenixville in 2008 is telling his opinion of the CCHA’s efforts to increase the density of Section 8 housing in a particular spot in Phoenixville. 

The section about the Housing Authority begins at 4:33 in the video below:

The Chester County Housing Authority has been segregating low income people and creating what might be called ghettos for decades doing the exact opposite of the intent of Section 8 housing.  That may be changing. I believe the Obama Administration has begun a clean up of  HUD and the CCHA is basically the administrator of the HUD program in Chester County. 

”The rationale behind Section 8 Vouchers is to give low income people a chance to move to middle income areas where hopefully their family will have a better chance for a good education, access to jobs and maybe most importantly a chance to socialize with higher income people. President Reagan put the kibosh on that when he cut the Section 8 Voucher funds in half. From then on Section 8 Vouchers were basically only usable in areas with low real estate values. Another important fact is that the Section 8 Voucher amount is the same all across Pennsylvania and can be used anywhere in Pennsylvania.Right now just about the only place in Chester County that Section 8 Vouchers can be used is Coatesville. Most of the rest of Chester County has property values too high for Section 8 Vouchers to be usable.”

SEE:

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2011

Section 8 Housing Turning NIMBY on its head and Coatesville is exquisitely positioned to be the epicenter of the next real estate boom of Chester County