Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Online NewsHour: Report | Public Housing Tenants Evicted | October 5, 2006 | PBS

Online NewsHour: Report | Public Housing Tenants Evicted | October 5, 2006 | PBS: "MARLA BIG HORSE, Evictee: See, I need more boxes. Myrna? Or, Nicki, grab me just a couple little-bitty boxes.

LEE HOCHBERG, NewsHour Correspondent: They packed boxes to move, but Marla Big Horse, her 19-year-old son Adam, and 17-year-old daughter Myrna had no idea where they were going. The family has lived in this public housing unit in Denver for almost 20 years. They always paid their rent. But on the day we visited in August, Big Horse and her family had just been evicted.

MARLA BIG HORSE: I don't got no place to go. I don't got no family here. All I got's my kids. My circumstances, when it came down to it, is I'm homeless.

LEE HOCHBERG: They're one of the first low-income families in the country to lose their subsidized housing for violating a controversial federal law. It requires each family member perform 96 hours of unpaid volunteer service every year. The government said everyone in the Big Horse family fell short, so the family was kicked out."

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