Note: The Lawrence Times runs opinion columns and letters to the Times written by community members with varying perspectives on local issues. These pieces do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Times staff.
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When you’re on SSI and retirement, cost of living is tough enough without having to also worry about being able to find housing for yourself and children.
Lawrence housing costs are not only high, but prequalifying for said housing requires you to make three times the rent — something that excludes, automatically, the Social Security recipient and disabled from obtaining housing in Lawrence.
A sort of financial handcuff gets placed on the low-income, the disabled, the retired, on Social Security.
While programs like Section 8 exist to alleviate the high cost of housing, the waiting list is extensive.
Lots of homeless people are on Social Security and are, by and large, law-abiding citizens just stuck with the unavailability of low-income housing.
This needs to be a huge priority in Lawrence.
It’s amazing that folks with their basic needs met blossom in ways they didn’t, or couldn’t, before.
— Brian King, Lawrence
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More Community Voices:
Nathan Kramer / Lawrence Times
Lawrence school board President Kelly Jones: Schools must be safe, welcoming amid anti-trans onslaught (Column)
“The USD 497 Board of Education resolutely wants transgender students, staff, and their families to feel all love the whole school day and be afforded the right and dignity to show up to school as they are — especially now,” Lawrence school board President Kelly Jones writes in this column.
