LOOKING FOR AHOME: AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN SHORT SUPPLY IN REGION

Affordable housing is almost nonexistent for families with low and moderate incomes in Cape Girardeau County and other counties in Southeast Missouri.

Families with household incomes between $25,000 and $35,000 are having a tough time finding a home with affordable rent or mortgage payments, and many are turning to government agencies for help. Most are going unserved, though, because the agencies do not have the supply necessary to meet the demand.

"It's really hard to find a decent place in the price range we need," said Robert Newbern, who rents an unsubsidized two-bedroom house for his family in South Cape Girardeau. "You usually can't find a place with low rent without having to fight off the rats and the roaches and all; they're basically a hole in the wall. I think we were really lucky to get our house with the rent we did."

Families looking for homes with more than two bedrooms are battling against each other in a seller's market, according to Bill Tucker, supervisor of the East Missouri Action Agency (EMAA) in Cape Girardeau. Several factors have escalated the problem in Cape Girardeau, he said.

"I think between the highway coming through south Cape, the flood of '93 and the city taking some units, the city of Cape lost around 150 properties," Tucker said. "The majority of the units were of the rental variety, so folks in this area are really scrambling for housing. Three-bedroom properties are almost nonexistent."

Robert Fulton, executive director of the EMAA, said the agency receives funding from Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to provide subsidized housing, mainly in the form of Section 8 certificates, for qualified applicants in seven Southeast Missouri counties.

Families receiving Section 8 certificates live in private rental properties and pay a set portion of their rent each month, up to about one-third of their income. The landlord receives the rest of the payment from the government.

Demand became so high for this program that in 1993, the EMAA stopped accepting applicants. When the list was reopened this year on Jan. 6, response was just as high, Tucker said.

"We've already taken over 1,100 applications in the seven-county area, and we've only got around 1,200 units," he said. "We probably average 10 to 12 applications a day throughout the area."

As families are removed from the welfare rolls and able-bodied parents look for work, many will face a housing crisis. A majority of those families will probably slip through the cracks, Tucker said, because there are no emergency housing programs set up to accommodate them.

"What I see happening is we have X-amount of dollars and as incomes shrink, more subsidy dollars are going to be used on fewer families," he said. "We're going to be essentially losing families because it's going to decrease the number of families we can help."

Tim Berry, president of Housing Missouri, which has sponsored several low- and moderate-income housing developments in Southeast Missouri, agreed.

"If you're just getting by and you get your income reduced some more, that just makes it more difficult," said Berry. "Welfare reform will probably have a big impact on housing, because if you have a Section 8 person who is also on welfare, and income is reduced, then it makes the tenant more likely to have more problems."