re: Questions about Section 8 Housing

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"Section 8" is an obsolete name...it's called the Housing Choice Voucher (HVC) program. Any landlord anywhere can decide to participate in this program...landlord simply has to agree to accept someone who has a voucher & then the property has to pass HUD's (rather rigorous) inspection. At least in my state, there is no way for a municipality to disallow a landlord to participate in this federal program. Of course, some places have attempted to do so by passing ordinances eliminating rental property altogether, but that creates a whole new set of issues. Before you full on freak out, ask some simple questions: is the development in question a mixed-income development? Some developers happily accept federal subsidies for construction under the agreement that X% of the units are rented to subsidized (voucher-holding) tenants, while the rest of the units are rented at market rate. Generally speaking, I've seen lots of positives at mixed-income developments...some have better on-site services thanks to the developers' subsidies--and the developers put additional amenities into the complexes to "sell" the idea of mixed-income developments to market-rate payers. And the management is usually more present/hands-on to head off potential problems than in your average apt complex. No, HCV (Sec 8) doesn't necessarily mean poverty and violence and crime. It does mean you'll have people of lesser means living nearby.

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