Has anybody been able to raise rents for Tarrant Housing Authority Section 8 tenants?

[Raman Saka]

Hi, 

I inherited a Tarrant Housing Authority Section 8 tenant when I bought this property around 2 years ago in Fort Worth TX. For the last 8-10 months I have been telling my property manager to talk to Tarrant Housing Authority people and raise the rent for this property. The current rent is around $ 200- $300 below the market rent. First response from Housing Authority was that they have a max allowed % increase and based on that they can only raise rent by $150 per month. I did not agree and asked my Property Manager to resubmit with the increment of $250.  Then 3-4 months passed, and we never heard back anything even after repeated pings. Finally in Dec 2022, I got tired of waiting and I grudgingly agreed to $150 rent increase. But now it's been 4 months and still I keep getting the same rent. My property manager keeps saying that the Tarrant County Housing Authority people are NOT responding to her voice messages and even when she gets them on phone, they are not very forthcoming with the next steps to approve this rent increase. 

Has anybody dealt with a similar situation? As a landlord can I call or chat with somebody OR its best to communicate thru the property manager ONLY? I am tempted to give the renter a Notice to vacate and then find another tenant. BUT the current renter is OK and if possible, I want to save myself the expense of yet another make-ready on this unit. Given the vacancy and make-ready expense, I am assuming it will take me at least year to breakeven with the increased rent.  Your expert tips and suggestions are greatly appreciated. 

Cheers!!