All Forum Posts by: Bradley Bogdan

@Brad Thompson

 It is neither good nor bad, it all depends on the tenant. The requirements of the landlord are often overblown here on the message boards. There is only one set of paperwork to fill out at lease-up (though sometimes a PHA will break it into two sections) and an initial inspection for cleanliness and safety. After that, there is a single annual inspection that is just in place to ensure the rental is still clean, safe and functional. In some areas (like yours) there is a short class to inform landlords of the process, which will give you the finer points on the way to get things done in your locality. 

If you were to rent to others in the program, I'd encourage you to be thorough in your screening. Many people seem to skip this step with subsidized tenants thinking "well some/all of their rent is guaranteed." There are plenty of good tenants out there to go along with the plenty of bad ones. Just like any rental, its your (or your PMs) job to sort them out.

@Damon Duperre

 Not to pick on you, but there is actually little to no evidence to support the notion that subsidized housing depresses property values. Numerous studies, such as this 2007 Harvard study, fail to find any causal link between introducing housing subsidies and depressing property values http://www.jchs.harvard.edu/sites/jchs.harvard.edu...

Without knowing the area, tough to make too much of an informed guess. I'll say my gut would lead me to guess one of two things:

-Its a very depressed area and this is a tax credit complex (or similar subsidy) where the rents are fixed at a % of Area Median Income (AMI) rather than open market rents

-Its such a crappy area that you're only able to attract the lowest of the low income folks: not anyone with a voucher, but the folks on straight SSI (no SSDI) for a reasonable proportion of their income. 

A thought: remember FMRs are set at 40 or 50th percentile of rents for the area calculated. That means there are units well lower than the FMR in the area. That seems to be your complex. Also remember, as I'm sure you do, that sometimes those basement rents are deserved.

 Exactly. The closest parallel I know of is a few PHAs that "require" the tenant to have the carpets cleaned annually, but they don't/can't actually require a receipt or anything, they just hold the tenant to that level of cleanliness. If the tenant is immaculate, they could presumably go a decade and never clean their carpets. If an inspector ever tells a landlord something like powerwashing yearly is a requirement, I'd take it as a statement that they're expecting that level of cleanliness or upkeep to the exterior of the building. 

 Exterior mildew can certainly be something an inspector could pick on if its bad enough (as it would go against the overarching inspection criteria of "clean and safe"), but according to the Jacksonville PHA website, power washing is not listed as a requirement. Its not like the PHA can demand to see your receipt from a power washing guy to verify. 

@Vanessa Wright

 Kudos that you're looking to truly invest in and support your community through your work. 

The lower income rentals niche is not something that everyone is cut out for. @Marcia Maynard

 is spot on in describing how you can be successful. Take pride in keeping your units clean, quiet and safe. 

Most of the things I would suggest have been mentioned by others, but the couple things I would add are that you should definitely make sure your cashflow is large enough to support large, expensive repairs. When you don't have a very high amount of rent per unit, even if the unit is cheap to buy, it will still cost roughly the same to maintain as a more expensive unit in terms of roofs, water heaters, etc. Second, become familiar with the local non-profits who have housing assistance programs. If you develop a good rapport with those agencies, they can both funnel you tenants as well as help those tenants with move in costs, deposit, etc. and provide some support moving forward. That makes it much more likely that that tenant will stay for a long time and not be a nuisance. 

Good luck and keep us updated on your journey!

That is a very area specific thing that most areas do not do. There isn't usually a move out inspection completed by the Housing Authority in most places, and only in a few locales is there any sort of program through the PHA for damages caused by renters using a Section 8 voucher. Unless you specifically know if a program in your area, assume that your deposit (and small claims court) is your only protection against damages. 

@Sharon Powell

I actually run the HUD-VASH program for Humboldt County, not all that far away from you, and are lumped in the same region as the VA in SF, so I've probably worked with whomever is working with your vet before. Hopefully I can offer some helpful advice.

As great as HUD-VASH is, it is absolutely not a cure for all problem tenants. I find that the vets I work with that have evictions on their record often struggle to make future rentals work, even with support. While HUDVASH tenants have a substantially better success rate than your average Section 8 tenant due to the VA support system that comes with the program, it doesn't mean that the behaviors that brought about those evictions always go away.

I'd look at the following:

- What % of market rent would you be getting with the tenant on the program?

- If there is a discount, is it one you'd be ok with in order to help one of our nation's veterans?

- What caused the move from Houston to SF? Most people don't move across the country when they get evicted. 

- Have you met her social worker? If there's a future issue, a good relationship with the social worker is important, they want to work with you to solve problems, so its always helpful to meet before there are any. 

- What does the previous landlord say about the eviction? While some evictions are actually mostly on the landlord, I'm always skeptical of the ones where rent is withheld for repairs, as it usually indicates a poor relationship and use of legal resources to solve the problem before someone gets evicted. I'm not saying it didn't happen as she states, but I am just saying its more likely to have not. 

- I'm guessing you're renting a 3BR unit if its for a family of 5. If this isn't the veteran for you, there's always the possibility of calling the social worker and explaining that you don't feel comfortable with this tenant due to the eviction, etc. but would love to still rent to someone in the program. If the social worker has half a pulse, they'll find someone else. While there are relatively few families in the program (most vets receiving services are actually older single males), SF is a big enough program where they should have another family with a 3BR voucher at the moment. 

- If you do feel comfortable with the tenant, or are still on the fence, get a maximum deposit to help buffer yourself from risk. There are multiple programs in SF that help with deposits, including a veteran specific one, so the tenant should be able to afford a hefty deposit to get in the door. At 2x the rent in CA (don't know if that's also the same for SF) that can be a big number when you're dealing with SF rents, so should give you some piece of mind. 

- One last thought, assuming you're happy with your experience with the program, definitely continue to develop a relationship with your local social worker/program. If you keep them appraised of upcoming vacancies and what your criteria are, they'll do their best to find you vets as quickly as you have space for them. Especially in areas like SF where the HUD formula for allowable rents tends to lag the market, the less time social workers like myself have to spend looking for available units and hand selling clients to landlords, the more face time the housed veterans get and the more veterans get/stay housed. It can be a really good and profitable relationship.

Wow, this seems like a giant invitation for the township to be sued over violating fair housing laws. Considering the Supreme Court just ruled that you're allowed to sue HUD over unintentional clumping of low income housing, I'm guessing you'd probably be pretty safe to sue a township over overtly excluding it. The article makes it seem like this is a knee jerk reaction to one complex that was owned by a slumlord for a few years combined with the housing bubble. They realize their 17% rental to total housing stock ratio is about half of the national average, right?

If you're not banning all rentals, how do you enforce a "No Section 8" policy? A landlord's relationship with the local PHA isn't public record, so even if they leave it to the HOA to enforce, how do you force someone to tell you if a tenant is on a voucher program or not? Also how does a town enforce whether your rents are "fair market" or not?

Yeah, I can't see a situation where it wouldn't be worth the short amount of time and small cost to just politely insist that you're going to change the locks and cover yourself. If they hem and haw, you can always (correctly) say that its not a big deal and you'll just be using the old locks on other properties you own/will own so its not a big deal.

Definitely contact the Section 8 office and your caseworker. Provide any proof you have that the hole was caused by the repair folks and not yourself. Legal Aid is also an excellent suggestion, however you should be able to work this out with just your caseworker at the Housing Authority. 

Lastly, if your landlord is retaliating against you like this, its time to find a new landlord. Legal aid will be able to direct you to whatever housing resources are in your community that might be able to help with some of the expenses and hassles of finding a new place.