Section 8 myth may be more fact than myth

I posted earlier that one myth about Section 8 vouchers in Cedar Rapids is the preponderance of them in Wellington Heights, the neighborhood from 10th to 19th Streets SE between First Avenue and Mount Vernon Road.

Housing officials pointed out to me that there are nearly twice as many vouchers in southwest Cedar Rapids than in southeast Cedar Rapids, which has only 185. But it turns out, when you zoom down and count up the vouchers, you find that 107 of those 185 are in Wellington Heights.

That's almost one in eight vouchers in use in the city of Cedar Rapids. And there are another 40 across First Avenue in Mound View.

As I've

already reported, housing experts are concerned about high concentrations of vouchers in a neighborhood. Whether HUD considers the levels in Wellington Heights to be a high concentration, I'm not sure, but Scott Seibert of the Cedar Rapids Housing Authority argues there are less vouchers at work in the neighborhood than there used to be. He's going to provide numbers to that effect some time soon. (No pressure, Scott!)