Dorothy Guest and her 13-year-old son, Joseph, were first in line Wednesday morning as hundreds of people turned out to join the waiting list for a handful of federal housing subsidies available through the Du Page County Housing Authority.
Guest, 38 and a mother of four, had been outside the auditorium at the Du Page County complex, 421 County Farm Rd. in Wheaton, since noon Monday.
Her tenacity was necessary because she was hoping to get a subsidy certificate for a three-bedroom apartment, a rare commodity. And she will have to hope still longer.
”After all that, I found out that three-bedroom units are not so easy to come by,” Guest said with tears in her eyes. ”I found out two-bedrooms you could get quickly. People who need two-bedrooms will be getting them before me who needs a three-bedroom.”
More than 700 people added their names to the list of people waiting for housing subsidies within the first hour of the housing authority`s one-day registration Wednesday. As many as 1,000 people were expected to apply by the end of the day.
However, less than 50 of the 620 federal housing subsidy certificates currently allocated to the housing authority are available, said Elaine Libovicz, executive director of the authority.
”Here`s me and my son, and the lady at first told us (a certificate might be available in) about a month because she thought it was just the two of us,” said a frustrated Guest, of Bensenville. ”Then when she discovered I had four kids instead of one, she said, `You need a three-bedroom. That won`t be so quick.`
”I suppose I`ll be No. 1 on the list for three bedrooms, but No. 1 in this line doesn`t seem to mean much,” Guest said. ”Landlords don`t rent to women with four kids. They don`t even talk to you if you say you have four kids. That`s the end of it.”
The registration procedure was marked by an early-morning demonstration by the Single Mothers Support Group of Du Page County, a Glen Ellyn-based organization, which distributed more than 400 leaflets decrying the lack of affordable housing in the county.
”We are seeing some people who need a housing certificate for a three-bedroom place and they actually get the certificate but lose it because they can`t find housing and the county isn`t looking to alleviate that,” said group spokesman Linda Sanders, of Wheaton. ”We want to know why there are so few units for families who need three-bedroom apartments.”
Wednesday`s sign-up procedure and the authority`s handling of the waiting list also came under attack from Bernard Kleina, executive director of the Glen Ellyn-based HOPE Fair Housing Center.
”We have good reason to believe that they are not following their waiting list as they are obliged to by law,” Kleina said as he watched a stream of people, including mothers with strollers and elderly people using walkers, file through the auditorium.
Kleina described the authority`s handling of the registration procedure as inhumane, unfair and unnecessary. He said a mail-in registration and a lottery would have been more practical, less chaotic and less discriminatory against elderly or handicapped people who are unable to stand in a long line. ”We`re concerned that after all of this, are people still going to be treated fairly?” Kleina said, adding that his fair-housing group has evidence that the authority is not handling its list properly.
”We have documented evidence and we will take whatever steps are necessary to resolve the problem,” Kleina said. ”I think the housing authority has to be very careful about making judgments of who is needy and who isn`t.
”We don`t see any justification for the authority giving preferential treatment to the families it has been,” he added, saying it seemed to favor certain social service agencies who make referrals. ”It`s the process that we`re looking at. We want to make sure that people who waited in line here are treated fairly.
”Making them camp out overnight isn`t necessary. You certainly don`t do that for other kinds of subsidies,” Kleina said. ”Do homeowners have to camp out overnight to get a tax exemption on their home? It`s only when people are looking for low-income housing assistance that they are treated so poorly.”
Libovicz defended the registration procedure as fair and said her office`s handling of the list could withstand scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which allocates federal funds for housing subsidy certificates.
”We`re following the list,” Libovicz said.
By 8 p.m. Tuesday night, more than 40 people had joined Guest in her vigil. About 350 people were waiting when the auditorium doors opened at 8 a.m. Wednesday.
Many in the line, made up mostly of women, said they had little hope of getting a subsidy certificate but came because the authority takes
applications only every two years. The authority`s existing waiting list, parts of which have been depleted, was established in September, 1983.
One young Wheaton woman, twice divorced, said she was living in housing that cost her more than half of her wages.
People who pay more than 30 percent of their monthly income for rent are among those eligible for the subsidy program.
