Section 8 Voucher Question

[Jason V.]

So I’ve heard all about the issues that can come from accepting a section 8 voucher that only partially covers rent – the tenant is only responsible for $50/month, but still won’t/can’t pay it, and you wind up either evicting over that, or accepting only the money you get from the voucher.

My question: can you choose not to rent to an applicant because their voucher only covers a part of the rent, and not the whole amount?

Thanks!

[Marcia Maynard]

We've been have been participating with the Section 8 program for almost 20 years. Our local housing authority administers the S8 program for our area. Not all housing authorities (or other entities) operate the S8 program in the same way, so check with your local housing authority or program administrator for information specific to your locale. We have had great success renting to S8 tenants.

The amount of the housing voucher can change over time, especially at the time of the tenant's annual review with their S8 case manager. From our experience, rarely does it happen that S8 will cover all of the rent. All of our S8 tenants pay a portion of their rent. We have never had a S8 tenant  not pay their portion and rarely have we had a S8 tenant pay late. If they violate any terms of the rental agreement, we address the issue with them in a timely manner. If we need to serve a legal notice of any kind, we send a copy to their case manager too. Our S8 tenants are highly motivated to abide by the S8 program rules and our rental agreement as well. If they don't, they run the risk of losing not only their tenancy with us, but also being expelled from the S8 program. Currently the waiting list is so long, it takes many years for a person to qualify for S8 in our area.

Also of note, we determine our unit rent and can raise rent when necessary. We use our own rental agreement and treat all of our S8 tenants the same as our other tenants. We maintain a contract with our housing authority to be able to participate in the program. Their requirements are very reasonable. If we need to raise our rent, we simply need to give 60 days notice to our S8 tenants and their case manager. The case manager then does an interim review of their client's file and/or financial situation to determine how much of the new rent S8 will cover and how much will be the tenant's responsibility. If we were to raise our rent above what is considered "fair market", then the S8 tenant would need to move to housing that was more affordable for them.

When filling a vacancy and qualifying tenants, we will consider the value of a S8 voucher as "income". We also count other income and income equivalents (benefits such as utility vouchers, food stamps, public assistance, etc.) when qualifying and determining if a person has the means to afford to rent one of our places. Since a new law passed in our local jurisdiction that restricts landlords to use rent multipliers only on the amount a S8 tenant is required to pay toward rent (their portion), we decided to no longer use multipliers. Instead of saying required income is 3x rent, we state required income as a specific amount. For example, if the unit rents for $700/month, instead of minimum income of 3 x rent, we state minimum income as a flat $2100/month. Since we count the value of the S8 voucher as income, as well as the value of other income equivalents, low income folks may still qualify to rent one of our units, even if they have little or no earned income. Also, be aware that in some jurisdictions laws have been passed that do not allow landlords to discriminate on "source of income". If that is true for your jurisdiction, you may not be able to make a flat statement of "We do not accept Section 8" or refuse to participate in the Section 8 program.