The Crone - Rants, News, Opinion from the old lady 

Mrs. Mary Landrum

President Barak Obama

White House

1600 Pennsylvania AV, NW

Washington, D. C. 20500

Dear Mr. President,

I read with growing horror about the PETRA bill HUD is proposing.  It is a terrible idea, and I find it absolutely shocking that your administration should be the one urging privatization of public housing.

Based on the bill it self,  “...provide the opportunity for public housing agencies and private owners to convert from current forms of rental assistance under a variety of programs to long-term, property-based contracts that will enhance market-based discipline and enable owners to sustain operations and leverage private financing to address immediate and long-term capital needs and implement energy-efficiency improvements.”

I know little about reading long and complex legal arguments or proposed bills, but even I can see what that means to public housing.  It means hundred of thousands of people on the streets, homeless nation wide.

The people who will benefit from this proposal will be private investors who can force people out and then get paying customers in.  They’ll make a bundle. The banks will benefit from the mortgages they will supply.

I can promise you, with an income of $10,000.00 a year, I can not possibly afford a rent increase of 10% above market rates, a criminal figure by the way.  I understand that the difference will be paid by the Government, but Mr. President, why would you want the government to pay more that it has to?

Given the anti-poor bias growing in this country you must certainly believe that the proposed program will be cut back again and again forcing people like me to pay more and more of their income to the blood suckers who take over.

Will you be paying my rent then?  As a tax payer, for a while yes.  Can my family and I move in with yours when we’re homeless?  What about other families, do you think they can live in or on rich people’s property?

I have always thought of you as intelligent and compassionate.  One reason I voted for you was your work in Chicago.  Why are you making a mockery of that success?

I can’t understand why your administration above all would propose this law.  Not even Bush was that cruel for all of his distain of anyone making less then six figures a year.  Is it a secret deal for getting the finance bill or health care through?  What good is health care reform if thousands of people just here in Nashville are homeless?  Is it a secret deal for the banks now that they’ve lost the financial bill that you recently signed?

Mr. President,  help me to understand you radical shift to the right.  I didn’t vote for George Bush part three.  I voted for a man who had high principals and a desire to return America to the land of the free with liberty and justice for all.

If this bill goes through those sentiments will be a lie.  Stop this insanity now, before it’s far too late and you legacy is tarnished beyond redemption.

We’ve already gone through a great depression but even people who lost their house had a way to stay off the streets with public housing.  If this bill becomes law that will no longer be true.

I remain hopeful, sir please don’t destroy that hope.

Sincerely,