Section 8

7

7shooter

Member
Joined
Nov 21, 2008
Messages
1,735
Reaction score
1,874
City & State/Province
In the Cloud
There is a house in my neighborhood that I was told was a section 8 house owned by a realtor from Minneapolis. There have been no residents for over a year which is fine because when there were none stayed more than a few months and there were numerous police calls. Someone comes by and mows the lawn.
I am wondering why it is no longer rented. Could this some sort of a scam ?
 
I did maintenance (supervisor) for a company with 1600 Section 8 units.

The only way to get rid of section 8 residents is to evict them for "Noncompliance", in other words, for not obeying the lease. Paying rent is the least of the problems! Depending on which program the tenant is in Section 8 pays up to 95% of the rent. If they just run off in the night without informing Section 8, you get paid every month until your yearly inspection, and sometimes well beyond that!

Dealing and using drugs was our number one noncompliance, prostitution was number 2 and unauthorized occupant was number 3!

If nobody is there and you still get the rent, you wouldn't complain....until it becomes a Crack House!

The program we were in was for mentally ill and or homeless people. We were paid an extra 10% over fair market value (called High Risk). The extra maintenance ate that up in no time! We also got other government grants.

My grandfather had an 8 unit apartment building he bought as a retirement project. It was section 8 in a smaller town with few apartments. His tenants all we very good and he never had any problems with them or the section 8 inspectors! It all depends on the program and the local Section 8 office.

Ivan
 
Last edited:
Someone will be quick to correct me if I'm wrong but...

My understanding is that it isn't the home or unit that is "Section 8" but rather the occupants living there.
 
A vacant section 8 house / apartment is a blessing. No neighborhood benefits from section 8 housing within 10,000 miles. Crime, drugs, prostitution and safe houses automatically seek out section 8 areas. A lot of nice people that qualify for the program suffer because of a majority of the abusers.
 
It’s kinda of both. The occupants get the voucher, but the landlord has to agree to accept it and the house has to pass the Section 8 inspection . . .

coltle6920 said:
Someone will be quick to correct me if I'm wrong but...

My understanding is that it isn't the home or unit that is "Section 8" but rather the occupants living there.
Click to expand...
 
From all the section 8 housing I've seen in Pittsburgh, the people CAN be called section 8s. You can tell them a mile away, and hear their cars' subs 3 miles away. I'm still bitter about the one's Rottweiler that got hold of my 2 year old daughter at the time. She's lucky because my other daughter grabbed the back legs of the dog. They ended up putting the dog down, 2nd offense, we went to court, the girl was dressed better than anyone in the courtroom, and we didn't get one dime. She was "coerced" into moving out pretty quick, though.
 
Number One Rule for anyone renting out a property: Get a criminal background check! Number two would be checking your property often.

The company I worked for had a policy of checking inside every unit every month. That wasn't really possible, But on my second day there, I found a unit that had 12 3-day eviction memorandums taped to the front door! That was 1 year! I brought that to the boss' attention in a staff meeting! I ask, If Tenant services checks each unit every month, How did this go on for at least a year? The dirty looks I got could kill! After the meeting I was walking back to the maintenance area, when this arm came upon my shoulder! I look over and the Big Boss has his arm around me. He smiles and says, "Just Keep asking those hard questions!"

I am sure there is a lot of fraud in Section 8 housing, but I have found, most of the problem is simple incompetence!

We were not allowed to be armed on company property. No grace, just get fired. But when I was hired, I was told there was an armed security company, that would escort my men on problem units late at night!
So as I settle in, I ask my man that had been there for 27 years, for that phone number. It turned out that they hadn't used that company or any company for 6 years! It was a bold face lie! The next day, I took my 8-man team into a conference room and told them "This conversation never happened! You are not allowed to carry a gun! You will be fired if you ever get caught carrying a gun! If you do carry a gun, FOR GOD"S SAKE, KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT ABOUT IT!"

I lasted just shy of 5 years!

Ivan
 
In a long LEO career I have dealt with a lot of section 8 stuff. Lots of murders, assaults, drug dealings and hordes of kids running around unsupervised. One of the worst units had over 100 apartments. Something bad was always going on there. I guess somebody got tired of it. They put in a woman manager and the first thing she did was build a 10 ft. fence around it and hire a security guard. One way in and one way out. All the bums and unauthorized people were kicked out and the tenants were ordered to keep things clean, including towing away a lot of junk cars. Kids are not allowed outside after 10:00 p.m. No pets allowed. (bulldogs) Crime went to almost nothing and the place now operates as it was originally intended. There's another large unit across the highway from this one and it's business as usual over there.
 
coltle6920 said:
Someone will be quick to correct me if I'm wrong but...

My understanding is that it isn't the home or unit that is "Section 8" but rather the occupants living there.
Click to expand...

Well, actually it is both but yes, the renter has to be approved but the house also has to be inspected, at least here in KS, and pass to be included in Section 8 housing.
 
So to Muss Muggins and Huskerguy I stand by my statement that it's the tenant that is "Section 8" and not the housing.

The property owner can have multiple units and have both types of tenants living in the building. The low income renters have the same expectation of living under the same conditions as everyone else in the building hence the inspections.

The property owner has the right to either accept the low income tenant or turn them down. The potential renter is highly screened before being accepted as a subsidized renter and the wait can be long.

There's an apartment complex near me that rents to both types of persons. For the same unit one person will for example pay $1500/mo and another will only pay $1000/mo.

All things aside I still say that it's the renter who is labeled "Section 8" and not the property unless the property owner offers it as such.
 
The owners of apartments and/or houses have to place the property in the section 8 program. The property has to meet physical standard conditions to be in the program. They are all inspected to see that the conditions are met. The owners are given time to correct any deficiencies found in the inspections.
The person in the program is given a list of available section 8 properties to choose from.
At least that's the way it is done here.
 
Section 8 absolutely destroyed 2 different neighborhoods I previously lived in. If'n folks have zero investment in their home burning it to the ground is usually remedied with an upgrade. Joe
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

olfart
MORE Tales from the East Texas Outback
Replies
12
Views
2K
Major 2
Major 2
RM Vivas
Archival Observations: History Is Where You Find It
Replies
0
Views
115
RM Vivas
RM Vivas
Doug M.
A hard lesson from John Farnam
2 3
Replies
66
Views
7K
Doug M.
Doug M.
Kiwi cop
Christmas Down Under
Replies
1
Views
344
LVSteve
LVSteve
S
Update on anti-2A proposed legislation in Virginia
Replies
1
Views
419
Jaco1234
J

Latest posts

Back
Top