By Tom Waring
Times Staff Writer

U.S. Rep. Joe Hoeffel is getting to know the issues that affect the Northeast, but he already knows about the federal Section 8 housing program.
Hoeffel (D-13th dist.) served as a Montgomery County commissioner from 1992 to ’98 and received complaints about the rental program geared toward low-income people. Though Norristown accounts for just 5 percent of the Montgomery County population, the city had 50 percent of the county’s Section 8 vouchers.
Hoeffel and his fellow commissioners convinced the county housing agency to hire more enforcement agents to crack down on violations. Landlords not in compliance and nuisance tenants were removed from the program.
In an effort to promote home ownership, the commissioners also sought federal subsidies to provide Section 8 renters with help making mortgage payments.
That effort failed because the federal government never gave its approval, but Hoeffel thinks that the Department of Housing and Urban Development can play a role in reforming Section 8 in the Northeast.
Hoeffel first learned of the Northeast’s concern about Section 8 last month when City Councilwoman Joan Krajewski (D-6th dist.) urged him to address the issue after she endorsed his candidacy.
The congressman and councilwoman have talked since then, and Hoeffel is convinced that reforms are needed.
“As I’ve been meeting people in the Northeast, this is a big issue,” he said. “It cannot continue as is.”
Hoeffel last week met with Philadelphia Housing Authority executive director Carl Greene at his Washington, D.C., office.
During the meeting, Hoeffel endorsed Greene’s effort to seek a waiver from HUD that would limit Philadelphians to seven years on the Section 8 program. As an incentive, the government would provide mortgage assistance for 15 years after that seven-year period.
The waiver would not apply to senior citizens or the disabled. The request is in front of HUD secretary Mel Martinez, and Hoeffel plans to contact him to ask him to grant the waiver. In Hoeffel’s view, the government should reward cities that come up with creative suggestions to a federal program.
Hoeffel is also happy to hear that Greene, in an effort to keep Section 8 renters in their own neighborhoods, wants to use any excess funds to renovate and build housing units in low-income areas.
Hoeffel, who lives in Abington, supports federal housing programs as long as they are run well and are lawful and free of nuisance properties.
Hoeffel said Section 8 encourages people to remain renters and discourages home ownership. City blocks suffer from unruly tenants, and property values decrease.
“That’s not the way it’s supposed to work, and Carl Greene seems to understand it,” Hoeffel said.
Dr. Melissa Brown, a Republican candidate in Tuesday’s primary, supports the seven-year limit for Section 8. Her philosophy is that the Northeast is made up of middle-class folks who want to live and retire in stable communities.
Brown wants to bring Martinez to the Northeast for a community forum on Section 8.
“He needs to see it firsthand,” she said.
Brown is proposing a “get-tough” policy. She’s calling for yearly background checks of Section 8 tenants and unannounced property inspections. Anyone with a felony conviction would have their voucher revoked.
Brown has heard complaints about Section 8 on the campaign trail and, if elected, will work with state House Majority Leader John Perzel (R-172nd dist.) to correct the problems.
“We need to make sure that the new neighbors are good neighbors,” she said.
In a related issue, Greene told Hoeffel that he’ll limit PHA’s extravagant expenditures for public relations and that highly paid PHA official Jackie McDowell will finally buy the subsidized house in which she’s been living.