I’ve read and reread Cutler Fetherston’s article, (“Housing assistance deadline approaches,” SN 10/31) hoping that I have misinterpreted its intentions. The quote from Katharine Gurin gives the impression that the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Rental Assistance Program is a cheap alternative to living in the residence halls or having roommates. If this is so, then my response is to remark on how arrogant and presumptuous it is to use this type of program as a way for students to save a few dollars.

If I seem unduly outraged, it is because I know of women who are sleeping in their cars, another who is day-by-day counting on the generosity of others so that she can share a single bed in a single room with her three children. Every day, I speak to women who return to assailants who abuse them because there is a dire shortage of affordable housing in the Lansing area, and leaving their abusers is futile if there is nowhere to go. For those of you who thought this was an easy way to get cheap housing, please think beyond the end of your own nose.

Terri Schmidt
1995 alumna