George W. Bush, soft on homelessness: Approximately 40,000 D.C. residents are on a waiting list for government housing assistance, according to a spokesman for the D.C. Housing Authority. "This is a scandal. It’s terrible," said housing authority Vice Chairman Lynn Cunningham, who claims that the list of persons awaiting public housing units or Section 8 rent-assistance vouchers in the District is closer to 50,000. . . Cunningham, a clinical law professor at George Washington University, pointed to declining federal funding for the housing authority's HOPE (Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere) VI projects as a contributing factor to the lack of available housing. "Across the country, there are $28 billion in backlog in housing needs. Congress has not come forward to meet that need," Cunningham said.