Holocaust Survivor Hails HUD Action in Cutting Rent
An 83-year-old Holocaust survivor said Friday that she’ll throw a party for the staff of her retirement home to celebrate her victory over the federal bureaucracy.
Fanny Schlomowitz found out the Department of Housing and Urban development is changing a policy that nearly quadrupled the rent in her subsidized apartment because of compensation payments she gets from Germany.
“I was dancing in the middle of the room,” Schlomowitz said. “My leg hurts me but I still dance.”
Schlomowitz has been scrimping for nearly a year to make the rent at her apartment in the Kivel Campus of Care housing project for the elderly. HUD raised her share of the rent from $63 to $227 a month last April, after officials found she gets a compensation check from the German government in addition to Social Security.
News stories brought her situation to the attention of Sen. Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.), who complained to HUD officials.
On Thursday, Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros announced the rules would be changed to exclude the compensation payment from the income used to determine her rent.
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