Laura Glesby Photo
Neva Caldwell at the Mothers and Others for Justice meeting.
There were no empty seats at dinner in the basement of 660 Winchester Ave., where a group of 20 moms brainstormed how to bring landlords to the table in their fight to protect rent assistance.
The April meeting of Mothers and Others for Justice, a local housing and anti-poverty advocacy group, drew more people than usual last Wednesday evening.
They were there to strategize after The New York Times reported the week prior that the Trump administration is eyeing slashes to the federal Housing Choice Voucher program, also known as Section 8.
It’s not currently clear what exactly, if anything, the Trump administration will cut from the program. Amid DOGE’s mass downsizing efforts, 2,300 staff members have so far left the agency, according to the Times.
“If you thought you couldn’t reach them before, you ain’t seen nothing yet,” said Meryl Eaton, the advocacy and education director of Christian Community Action.
The rental vouchers enable recipients to pay 30 percent of their income toward rent while funding the difference. They support about 2.3 million families across the country, and 5,778 families in New Haven — nearly 10 percent of the city’s 59,626 total housing units, according to CTData.
Many at the Mothers and Others for Justice meeting said they rely on Section 8 vouchers to make their monthly rent.
They feared that any cuts to the program — however uncertain or undefined at the moment — would place their own housing in jeopardy.
“Even if it doesn’t happen next month — even if it doesn’t happen next year — the threat of it happening needs to stay at the forefront of our minds,” said Myra Smith, a Mothers and Others for Justice co-leader.
"We Are The Experts"
Myra Smith.
Mothers and Others for Justice was founded in 1993 under the umbrella of the local housing and homelessness nonprofit Christian Community Action (CCA).
For more than three decades, the group has convened New Haven-area residents who have personally experienced housing insecurity. They meet monthly, with both dinner and childcare provided at no cost to attendees.
Many members have become prominent anti-poverty advocates in the city, drawing from their own life experience — including Smith, who started out as a client at CCA and now works as the organization’s neighborhood services advocate.
As Smith repeatedly told the group on Wednesday, “We are the experts.”
Over the course of the two-hour meeting, the attendees traded stories, brainstormed strategies, and carved some room for hope in their communal space.
Attendees of Wednesday’s meeting wondered why more organizations and media outlets aren’t doing the same.
“I think people think that, because it will make such an important impact, it will not happen,” posited Smith.
Section 8 tenants are often stereotyped as “lazy, taking advantage — and it’s not the case,” said Kay Brown.
“I think a lot of people see Section 8 as a handout, when it’s a hand up,” added Lisa McKnight. “There’s a difference.”
“Section 8 is a hand[,] period,” commented Kas Young on a Facebook livestream of the meeting.
That image resonated. Eaton suggested that it could become a symbol for their advocacy.
Landlords As Unlikely Allies
Kay Brown, center: Landlords have a stake, too.
Meryl Eaton, who heads CCA’s Advocacy and Education Project, asked the room about the people who have a stake in keeping Section 8 funded — and who could potentially build a coalition.
The room immediately pointed to tenants who rely on Section 8 vouchers to pay rent.
“It’s important to me because that subsidy is helping me to stay caught up with my utility bills,” said Kimberly Hart. “If I had to pay my full rent, I wouldn’t be able to pay my utilities.”
Brown observed that landlords also have a lot to lose if cuts are made to Section 8.
“If they’re not getting money, they have a lot of evictions, and then they go into foreclosure,” she said.
“Right now, they’re not paying attention to this,” Eaton echoed. “But they should be.”
Dilias Ratchford pointed out that many people are waiting for Section 8 vouchers. More potential allies could include “people in shelters” and the “social workers trying to get them vouchers.”
Others pointed to faith organizations and unions as potential collaborators.
Brown proposed that the group raise awareness about the stakes of possible funding cuts to Section 8 at the upcoming May Day rally on the New Haven Green on May 1. “I’m pretty sure they don’t know about this,” she said.
Members could recruit attendees for a future meeting, she suggested, to come up with more strategies around protecting the voucher program.
“We have to get in contact with our legislators in Hartford and our legislators in Washington,” Hart urged as well.
Smith suggested that community-building and solidarity within the group should be a priority as well.
“When you get that letter in the mail, for those of us that have Section 8, saying at the end of the month it’s gone, you’re gonna need somebody to lean on,” she said. “And if you don’t have it, you may be the person that’s gonna have to be the help for that person.”
At the end of the meeting, each attendee spoke aloud a word that captured their state of mind, per Mothers and Others tradition.
“Hopeful,” someone said.
“Motivated.” “Optimistic.” “Educated.” “Tired.” “Driven.” “Resolute.”