Section 8 Housing

There are programs for people in need of housing all across the country. After looking at the website for "The Philadelphia Housing Authority", it was clear that a lot of people truly needed help. The other websites had waiting-lists that were years long, with thousands of families in need. The Philadelphia Housing Authority or PHA is not the only agency in Philadelphia that provides assistance for housing. It is the largest, but there are also community organizations, churches and civic groups that provide Housing Choice rental to low or moderate income people. The Housing Choice Voucher Program is federal assistance provided by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development to sponsor subsidized housing for low-income families and people. Most people know it as Section 8. This comes from the portion of the U.S Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 under the original subsidy program. The United States Code, covers this type of program in Title 42, Chapter 8 Section 1437f. Federal housing assistance programs began during the Great Depressions to help the country’s housing crisis. The federal government created subsidy programs to increase the production of low income housing in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Housing authorities selected eligible families from their waiting list, and placed them in housing after determining the rent that the tenant would have to pay. The housing authority would then sign a leave with private landlords and pay the difference between the tenants rent and the market rate. This was under Section 23 Leased Housing Program amended the U.S Housing Act in 1961. The Section 8 program has tenants pay about 30 percent of their income for rent, and the rest is paid with feral money. The Section 8 program initially had three different subprograms. The New Construction, Substantial Rehabilitation, and Existing Housing Certificate programs. The Voucher Program was added in 1983 and the Project based Certificate program in 1991. The main Section 8 program involves the voucher program. A voucher, could be either project based, where its use is limited to a certain apartment complexes or tenant based, where the tenant is free to choose a unit. The private sector could be anywhere in the United States or Puerto Rick where a PHA operates a Section 8 program. The voucher program, has individual or families with a lease on a specified complex or a private sector pay only a portion of the rent, its usually based on income. Its no more than 30 percent of the persons income, with 40 percent being the maximum at time of lease up. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development or HUD will add income even if the tenant doesn’t receive interest income from something such as a bank account. They call this “imputed income from assets”, they calculated the imputed income from the asset, and in the case of a bank account they establish a stand “Passbook Savings Rate”. It makes the section 8 tenant contribute more since their gross income is made higher by HUD. The public housing agency pays the land landlord the remainder of the rent, based on the cap known as the “Fair Market Rent” or FMR. This is all determined by HUD. The FMR is determined by a couple factors. It could be the city or county, and where the unit is located. If the unit is in a metropolitan area it will have a higher FMR. The size of the unit, the number of bedrooms and if it’s a studio apartment it would generally have lower FMR. The last reason is if the tenant or owner pays for the utilities. The landlord is not allowed to charge the tenant more than FMR. Landlords are required to meet fair housing laws, but are not required to take part in Section 8 program. Some landlords do not want the government involved in their business, they might want to charge more than FMR, fear that their unit will not be maintained by the Section 8 tenants and even racial profiling. All of those factors are reasons landlords do not accept Section 8 tenants. Depending on the state laws, it could be illegal to deny a person rent because they have Section 8. Landlords can only use reasons such as credit, criminal history or any past evictions to not accept a tenant. The other side of landlords who do not want tenants using Section 8 housing, are the landlords who willingly accept. There is a large amount of applicants wanting to be potential renters. The payments are usually prompt coming from the tenant and PHA. Their unit will also be less likely to be damage because the tenant will be removed from the Section 8 Program if they damage the rental unit. While the programs help people, its obvious that they are just merely placing a band-aid on a gaping wound. It helps them for the time being but never addresses the issue that there are millions of people who can't afford to put a roof over their heads. The economic structure places people in a position where they are financially trapped. The years of reasons for poverty are difficult to fix, but need to be in order to truly help people. In terms of gentrification, many people are forced out by their lack of money and then require Section 8 Housing. Those areas were practically doomed but the people do not deserve to be removed from their homes and suddenly can't pay for necessities themselves. In my opinion, Section 8 is a symptom of Capitalism and appears to be beneficial for a short time span.