I've been giving some thought recently to Section 8 vouchers

[BlueStateBlue]

I am currently looking for a rental in northern NJ, since the place I'm currently living in was sold last year and the owner is going to knock it down and put up new construction in the hopes of making a fast million. *#$#(@! housing bubble!

Anyway, I got to thinking that the rents are so ridiculously high in the suburbs because the inner city rates are kept artificially high because of Section 8 vouchers. Suburban landlords figure hey, they're getting $1200 for a 2BR in Newark, I can get $1450 in the burbs!

I earn a respectable but modest income, probably around the median for the state. In order to rent a decent 2 BR apt in a safe neighborhood, I would need to spend roughly half of my net income.

Maybe it's just me, but this feels like another way the middle class is being drained...

Any thoughts?

[msongs]

1. supply and demand ->

a lot of people here badmouth supply and demand as some sort of bush capitalist conspiracy, but you have just outlined how it works.

you say, "In order to rent a decent 2 BR apt in a safe neighborhood..." so you are defining a specific area. You have set the terms.
now you must decide what that safe area is worth to you. Would be nice if all areas were "safe", wouldnt it?

Not sure what section 8 people have to do with it. my guess is that section 8 suits landlords because the income is backed by the government, which might lead to more stable income.

Msongs
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[wellstone dem]

2. An awful lot of

landlords refuse to take section 8. Also, the section 8 rents are based on the median rents in an area, therefore it is the other rents that set the rate that landlords can receive for section 8.

[salvorhardin]

3. Right

And in most cities and communities, Section 8 housing units are almost always clustered in economically depressed areas.

[MercutioATC]

4. I loved Section 8 vouchers when I owned inner-city rental properties.

Sure, there were some hoops to jump through, but it was guaranteed rent you didn't have to collect in person.

[Journeyman]

5. My brother has a Section 8 housing voucher. . .

he's totally disabled, receives only SSDI, and through the Section 8 program his out-of-pocket housing costs are kept at 30% of his income. I assume the government makes up the balance, but how that's done I'm not certain, and what the total take for the owners may be is anyone's guess.

My brother tells me the owner of his present place would love to get rid of him, since Section 8 keeps the rent artifically low and he can't raise it until the Section 8 holder (my brother) leaves. So far, to try to force him into moving, the owner has refused to eradicate a massive cockroach infestation, has turned off the heat in the building, and lets the elevator sit broken, keeping my brother and the other disabled residents virtual prisoners in their freezing, vermin-infested cells (this is in Denver).

We've tried to get him an apartment here in California, so he can be closer to family, but so far we've been unsucessful. Prices are beyond exhorbitant here in the Golden State.

When I finally won the confidence of an Independent Living Center worker and got him to talk about the true situation for housing for the disabled, he told me they were doubly screwed, since first they had to find someone willing to take Section 8, and then they had to compete against the large numbers of people who are willing to share an apartment at a reasonable per-person cost but a windfall for the owners.

"Who do you think the owner wants to rent to," asked this worker. "Your brother, who has a ceiling on the amount he can pay and a cap on the cost the government will bear -- maybe $800 total, or a dozen-and-a-half recent immigrants, each willing to pay $200 a piece for the opportunity to sleep in shifts?

"It's a question of math," he said. "It may be illegal but the slumlord makes five times as much renting to the group over your brother, and chances are much better they won't lodge complaints about the accommodations."


So I guess my question, BlueStateBlue, is how you see this so differently from the way I do. Am I missing something? Are you maybe talking about something different? Are there different forms of Section 8 vouchers, some for able-bodied individuals that may pay considerably more than my brother can. I just don't understand, given my limited knowledge as filtered to me through my brother.

[REP]

7. Low-Income Able-Bodied Families Qualify for Section 8

Disabled singles without children go to the bottom of the list. (Anyone without children goes to the bottom of the list for most social services - if they get on the list at all.)

[Journeyman]

9. Do they get more money than a comparable disabled person? . . .

I assume they qualify for larger quarters, though my brother is authorized for a two bedroom apartment. But are you saying that for the same apartment, able-bodied families are given larger vouchers than the disabled? Do you know how that works? If they work, it would make a 30% figure harder to pin down, but is the voucher itself for a larger amount? Thanks for any light you can shed.

[REP]

11. Not Sure About The $ Amount

But people with children get priority over those who don't (or can't) have children, even if they are able-bodied.

I am lucky; I am disabled but do not need S8 housing (now). Sure, it'd help - but I doubt I'd live long enough for my number to come up if I applied!

[originalpckelly]

8. Yeah my aunt had a section 8 for years in Denver...

Eventually she managed to go through Vocational Rehabilitation to find a good job, and now makes a lot of money, so she doesn't need the section 8 anymore. She lived at this apartment complex called the Fenton or something like that, and she said the same kind of bad treatment is what she received.

[Journeyman]

10. Unfortunately, my brother will never have the opportunity to make money...

He was a very successful biochemist, with contracts from a number of universities, but his accident left him unable to ever work again.

[undergroundpanther]

12. I had section8

And the landlord I dealt with was a total dick-head.
He wanted to raise rents, I was in a "nice neighborhood" I was lucky.
Anyways he was doing everything he could to piss me off and threaten me out.
But I had a a most wonderful disability lawyer, who could kick his ass in court with his eyes closed. This fortunate for me situation was because of some other shenanigans this retard landlord had pulled with me,So basically because the landlord and the rental company lost a case against me,and they could be implicated in fraud ,so if they pushed me I might decide to push back. I had this landlord so tied up by his own bullshit backfiring on him that if he tried to evict me,he'd have his ass in a sling....fast.And he knew it.

So I stayed there for almost 7 years.I was friends with the maintenance guys,two of them lived in the building across from mine and when I had to get something fixed instead of bullshitting around with the"proper channels". I'd call the guys up at home and they'd come over and fix it. We used to do cookouts together and I would help out with their cats and stuff for them ..I got a heads up on any bullshit the landlord was thinking of pulling because the maintenance guys knew the office grunts.The landlord couldn't do shit,and I never broke the lease rules,so he had nothing on me..

[Thtwudbeme]

6. S8 vouchers do NOT raise rents!

The aggregate percentage of them (S8s) in the market plus the fact that they are at or below FMR (And FMR is notoriously BELOW a real FMR anyway) have ZIP to do with I imagine 99% of America.

Did you get this from Rush or one of his cronies?

Next will you claim that Davis Bacon cost you a job?

Try the Heritage Institute for the Right Blinded for the statistics that suit your complaint.

[SoCalDem]

13. LOTS of people spend half or more of their income for housing

None of the old "rules" apply in a freemarket frenzy :(