so section-8 always seems like it is a safe option when you need to rent your place.
But what we find in reality is the section-8 wants no part of the tenant they assign vouchers to,
no responsibility or accountability. they just hand out voucher's to anyone.
so you check out a "low income" applicant that wants to rent the place out. Fine. You get a few
calls and one of them seems ok. You make a deal and they have the sec-8 folks come out and do an inspection. the first issue comes up when sec-8 tells you that it will pay $1300/mo for the unit and not the advertised $1400/mo. ??? they say they did comps for the sec-8 units around the area
and this is the going rate, I say i am renting the same unit upstairs for $1400. that's my comp!
and they say this is what we will pay. then they say that I need to fix this and install that
and bring this or that into the sec-8 compliance. so two red flags right away.
but your desperate and you go for it anyways. and the tenant promises that she will pay the extra
amount to make me happy and so she can get the place.
She moves in and the sec-8 yahoos determine through their super high tech algorithm that the tenants portion is $124 mo and the state will pay the rest. Cool. But she said she would pay
the extra $100 so I could get the price I advertised for. Well, it is illegal to ask for more
than what was signed for the sec-8 contract. No one tells you that. But the section-8 quacks know that so as the first month comes around they pay $124. then you say that HEY! you said that you would pay the extra so it's $224 not $124. they say o well we don't have the money now, we are going to get some money next month from a state fund or whatever.
Then months go by and now they aren't even paying the $124. You think, these mothereffers!! you want to get them out, but it costs so much to evict over $400 of back rent because you know
you are getting the rest $1176 from the state automatically.
Here's the third problem with sec-8, you actually have 2 tenants when you rent sec-8. the actual tenant and the sec-8 office. they have inspections. See when a person moves in I feel it is up to them to fix anything that breaks because they broke it. If the power or the plumbing breaks, or the roof suddenly leaks or some such, ok I can take care of that. but if the doors are kicked in, or the knobs are broken off, or the shower valves are stood on and break, or windows are broken, or the carpets are never cleaned or there are roaches because they never clean and are total pigs, these kinds of things are on them, NOT me. but when you get the sec-8 inspection they will fail you because the door knobs are broken and you won't get yer $1176 now til you fix all these things. this is BAD!!! the tenants are like fuckin waterbuffalo in the house and I get abated because they trash the fuckin house, NO WRONG!!! but this happens all the time. It is a side affect of the "low income: culture, not to give a shit about anyone or anything.
I had a tenant that hoarded alot of crap. She kept bikes and books and cans and clothes bags and boxes of stuff in the back yard, doors would appear, suitcases, shoes and they would build up in the back yard. One day there was an inspection and the unit failed because of all the stuff in the backyard and they said it was my responsibility to get all the stuff removed. MINE??!!!
I didn't put that shit there. but apparently I have to go there everyday and tell them it is not ok to put that there and physically stop them. That is ridiculous!!
so this unit was part of a 5-unit building and guess what, ALL 5 were sec-8!! so I got abated for ALL 5 units. like $7000 a month til "I" cleaned it up. what a bunch of crap!!!! so I had to go there and remove it all, AND tell people they can't have anything in the backyard.
Well, they don't listen so they kept piling shit back there knowing that I would eventually have to pick it up and so they don't have to care about it, "that's the landlords problem"
so time goes along and now the tenants have built up maybe $1,500 in back rent or some such, and you have to weigh if it's cost effective to evict over this amount or just accept the $1176 a month and forget about it. If the tenant was neat and clean and made the property look better, maybe I would do this, but that is never the case they usually throw trash and wrappers all over the yard and keep junk all over bringing down the value of the property and making it less than attractive for any other person you want to bring in and rent to. It is a disturbing cycle.
so you decide to evict, now the fun starts, the tenant usually calls and swears at you up and down calling you names and whatnot because you are the asshole that is evicting, they have said to me "I didn't tell you to evict me" but in fact she did because not paying rent is the same as saying "please evict me" it is just a shitty process and needs to be changed.
anyways I delivered the eviction notice and she lashed out at me, then she did something I didn't expect. She called her buddy section-8 and told them I was not fixing anything for her.
She then broke everything in the house!!! the doors, windows, cabinates, doorknobs, tore the magnetic strip off the fridge, (that fails a unit), broke shower valves, and the toilet seat, broke all the window locks on the windows!!!! so I have to replace the whole window!!!!!!! 8 of them!!!!!!!!! she started complaining about mold and that her kids are getting sick... then they have an emergency inspection to verify her claims and sure enough all these things are broken, But not from wear and tear and there had not been any word of anything to me about anything needing to be fixed. so sec-8 sends me a letter asking that I fix these neglected items or they will abate me the rent!!!!! this is the sick fucked up cycle that sec-8 has for all these fuckin losers. so I did not fix it up i just evicted them. and now I am fixing it up for another potential asshole to break up.
Here's what section 8 needs to do.
first, don't give vouchers out to anyone that is not going to be enrolled in classes or vocational training or college or something. If they do not attend classes to become contributing members of society then they don't get the free money. next, make a limit on the voucher, give them 5 years to get some kind of degree and start working, otherwise cut them off.
next, have the state pay the ENTIRE amount of the rent, no portions, because 80% feel their portion is optional. Pay it all and get them in a program. this generational handout and sense of entitlement is ridiculous . Next make them accountable for their actions, make them take domestic classes to teach them how to clean and keep things nice and that breaking things is not ok in a unit owned by someone else.
as a result I will not rent to another section-8 ever again! I have been burned over and over no matter what they tell me.
having a lawyer and being in court all the time is not a good thing! it means that the general expectations of lower income folks are way different than the reality of the world.
