How Billie Vaughn is trying to help others overcome the Section 8 stigma in Pittsburgh
Courier Newsroom
Billie Vaughn, 29, of Allentown, poses for a portrait at the Community College of Allegheny County’s campus on Jan. 25, 2018, on the North Side. Vaughn, an advocate for affordable housing, is a single mother who lives in Section 8 housing and wants to dispel the stigma. (Photo by Justin Merriman/PublicSource)
In early 2016, Billie Vaughn got a clerking job in the City of Pittsburgh’s finance department. And when you get a city job — even a part-time one with a salary of $13,400 — you have to live in the city.
That doesn’t pose a major barrier for everyone, but Vaughn soon found that the requirement deeply complicated her search for a home as a Section 8 voucher holder.She didn’t expect to encounter such difficulty in finding affordable and livable housing. And because vouchers can expire, the clock was ticking.A single mother with three children, Vaughn wanted a quality home in a safe neighborhood. Yet many of the sites she saw accepting Section 8 vouchers fell far below her expectations. She toured properties with walls made lumpy by water damage, flooring gnawed away by termites and other conditions she called “deplorable.”
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