To my California peeps: now that we must accept Section 8 as of next year, how will it work?

To my California peeps: now that we must accept Section 8 as of next year, how will it work?

you must?

They still have to meet other requirements such as credit

Matt that’s what I was curious about. What about income? Do we just leave that to the state to figure out?

Tony Leon Sec 8 or housing will figure out their income and you will get a contract that spells out how much the resident owes AND how much sec 8 will pay (they normally do not pay garages or pet rent or storage ( we normally generate one lease minus add on for housing) then another one with the add on (we only generate the 1st page only) because the resident has signed the rest

Tony Leon you do not do anything with income housing will figure it out-they have to provide housing with all sources of income-Tony-go onto your counties website for housing there is a zip code directory- It will show you how much rent for studio-5 bdrms. that sec 8 is will to cover-what is nice here in Chicago they must have 2 people per room-this stops the single mom of 1 from wanting a 3 bdrm just because she wants a guest room or office or move friends in 2 people can not rent anything larger than a 1 bdrm. housing is cracking down on abuse within the system

Tony Leon take that out - unless you require they make a certain amount for utilities

But they still have to qualify, most people on section 8 wont make 3 times the rent . So that will be your way around it.. some of them wont qualify credit wise either .. I used to take section 8 at 1 of my properties

But I though they did not have to qualify income-wise. I figured that the income part of it would be left with the state?

Marie Simmons don’t you have to include voucher amount as source of income?

not in Florida

Brenda Andrews Sherrill in California, the short answer is yes

I am at a section 42 property. We accept the section 8 voucher. Everyone else has to qualify at 3 times the rent. Section 8 participants have to qualify at 2 timea the rent.

You just can’t deny someone BECAUSE they receive assistance. You’re already not allowed to discriminate based on source of income, now those assistance/subsidy programs are recognized as sources of income to my understanding

Doesn’t their voucher amount still need to be inline with your rent amounts? Also, if you only hold vacant for 10 days, don’t they need to move in within that time?

Brenda Andrews Sherrill with section 8 i try to prelease what i know will be available at that time. If not, you have to hold the apartment longer than 10 days.

every county has a zip code directory it states how much they will pay (housing) on all size units within that zip code. If your rent is not within those limits they can not rent there. it will be up to your owner if they want to reduce the rents but be careful laws are going into effect through out the country on rent control.

Here's what we do since we have to accept in the city we are in. They still must meet posted rental requirements (income/credit score/rental history). If they have a voucher say for $800 and rent is $1000, the income requirement would be less the voucher. rent would be $200 they'd pay x 3 so they would have to make at least $600. That's how we do it. The thing we have been finding is ra won't authorize a lot of people for the rent we have posted and my boss rarely adjusts it, so in the end, it was not that big an adjustment for us.

Kathi Blatz you cant place income minimum on Section 8 but still have to meet other criteria

Kathi Blatz thats not how it works. Their portion is based on their income only. The rest is the subsidy portion. They have a budget and the rent (in full) needs to be within the budgeted amount. If the rent is $1000 and their budget is $800 the unit doesnt qualify. If it was the other way around, the budget $1000 and rent $800 their portion is 30% of their adjusted income.

They still have to meet your credit qualifications. The income qualifications are different. For example. Market rent is $3K and they have a voucher for $1500. You qualify them off the difference. This is per KTS.

Not really a big deal.
Section 8 must still be willing to accept your rental rates; prospects must still qualify and there’s a lower probability of delinquency.

They have to meet same standards..except income...as most of them will have rent paid by state...but if your acceptance is based on credit, criminal, all standards have to be the same...one major difference..at least in our state...housing inspects the property once a year..and any repairs have to be done asap or payment could stop..no matter who caused damages...charges can be added to tenant ledgers..it just suck cuz sometimes people do alot of damage....and the owners usually lose money..and it's a hassle when tenants dont take responsibility..good luck

Will we be forced to accept co-signers for them if they do not qualify credit-wise?

Tony Leon why would you think that? You’d treat them like ANY other applicant.

Here is PA it's not required by law. It's up to the Landlords descretion.

We take Section 8 all the time ..just regular residents wih guarenteed rent.

Not exactly. They can go down the very next day and say “ I changed my mind i dont want my payments vendor”. Landlord is never notified

We've had a fair chunk lose their subsidy recently, so its not guaranteed, and they usually cant afford rent on their own...

SDHC.org
It’s based on city voucher programs not the state (yet) Example: City of SD is not County of SD
Effective September 2019:
SD City zips 921... and La Jolla 92037 is the exception bc voters vote in city of SD there. YARDI has a great affordable housing program to use for these calculations)
Debt to income ratio still in effect- and remember not all credit is considered in housing.
County of SD has its own voucher program
Cross country vouchers may be transferred— ask prospect to attend and receive proper RFTA to know exactly what they qualify for in the proposed areas.
It is effective that the voucher holder attends their orientation first to receive their RFTA paperwork (their landlord app PW) when they come to tour. This way they may apply right away and landlord submits to case worker by email.
SDHC will Pay deposit and rent starts the day after they apply- ( if applicable) a retro check will be in the mail!
It’s all good ☺️

Mary GoGo its a federal program not state or city. The program criteria is the same. The only difference could be the income limits of a city may be different than those posted by the State or HUD

Renae Maisano right however, here the county of SD - not all cities have voted to mandate the requirements to accept the voucher in a conventional or SFR rental. passed - so remain as “non-participating”.

Does this affect small privately owned and managed properties?

All apartment communities

Heather Leemon Raboff when does this go into effect?

January 1, 2020. Here’s a good article.

www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-section-8...5Y6omBov_uGfrxtnSJrI

There’s a lot of rules around ancillary income, additional lease fees and other non-rent income when it comes to accepting section 8. Anyone on saying “no big deal” is a damned fool.

It is no big deal. We have everything down and the process is fine tuned- We do not qualify them, housing does so no running around collecting taxes or check stubs. When the show up all we do is show them-run credits and crims, set an appt for housing to inspect and they move in

Find a job outside of California. That's your best option

Few issues with section 8
1.) They tend NOT to pay your market rate Its a lessor amount every month. Every case in my experience
2.) they inspect apartment yearly before lease renewal and pick it apart. Example. Switch plate cracked -replace. Screw missing , door stop broke front door and hole in wall from door knob going into wall, seal around refrigerator not sealing that perfect replace, tighten all door knobs, replace toilet seat
Rental increase to high we will only go $25
The problem the tenant damaged all these itemes and I disagree with the refrigerator seal. Sorry landlord either does these before lease ends or not signing new lease 

Tommy Carroll if you aren’t passing a section 8 inspection you likely are a slumlord. Their inspection requirements are so basic and if a tenant caused the damage you want to get that fixed ASAP so they can pay for it.

If you have 3 times the rent as multiplier in order to qualify leasing here as income  requirement i would ASK our income requirements for ANY one are 1 beds 2 beds 3 beds is. $ per month for this type of apartment. Our application fee is $. I can accept your money non refundable and process your application however if your income is not minimum of $ or MORE per month your disqualified .

Tommy Carroll ya it really doesn’t work like you are describing for source of income protection.
If you don’t want to rent to section 8 then the solution is to have properties that doesn’t meet the market demographic of that income. It’s really simple.

Miles Scruggs we’ve found over time here in Denver that housing providers will push back but will also end up increasing voucher subsidy amount if market is out pricing their subsidies in high rent growth areas. It will be interesting if this occurs in CA too.

Tracy Seib Martin well of course if the entire market goes up. That doesn’t matter to you if your properties aren’t bottom or bottom middle of the market.

The solution is really simple. Just own/manage properties that aren’t priced in the section 8 market range. If that is the class of properties you own/manage then you better not think about discriminating against people your property caters to.

This is crazy to me! I need someone to help me out in the thinking here. Instead of helping increase the job market California is increasing the support for low income through tax payers dollars and now forcing those tax payers into a mandatory requirement for their private business. This is why most of my clients are from California and I’m in Texas.... I am not being smart here, I sincerely don’t understand this thinking. PS. There are commercials in Texas from the state of California asking us to move there.... I was in California in August and the homeless population was out of control. Entire countries have already solved the homelessness issue but California doesn’t seem to take a page from those books, they do weird stuff like force people into things. ????

It's pretty simple. Their case worker will walk you thru it.

CAA is working on a webinar to explain all the details of this new law as well as the tent caps. As soon as its teadyvi will announce it here for CA peeps.
Hang tight,, I dont think our state government has even figured out the details yet, ????‍♀️

Yes, you will have to accept section 8, but they will still have to qualify per your policies....i.e. make 3 times the amount if rent, acceptable credit, .....

Ok so we run the highest priced apts in the city. The avg rent is 600-750 were 1625 to 3000 If Income is non issue we should take the $100 app fee. We wont explain 3 times rent. Fair housing laws ya know ! Ill explain to staff Shut up fair housing law take the money process app make them go bring back employment stubs burn up more gas waste time run app and then say after we ran and now read stated income the voucher has limits not enough to fill gap. However if your situation changes we would be happy to re run this process all over again keeping with fair housing laws of coarse and bring another $100 and we both know you loved that apartment best you have ever seen and will be back!
This thing we call life. Everybody wants what they can’t have! Fact!

From my understanding they have to meet 3 times the rent however the amount given to them is included as income i...e... Section 8 pays 1000 tenant has to make 2000 = 3000 total
If the utilities are not included Section 8 will adjust the voucher to make sure they have money to live off of and pay bills. All people who apply still have to meet all requirements and pass a background/Credit check I would also make sure to send out a rental verification to the previous place they lived to see what the condition of the previous apartment was in.

They will still need to make 3x their portion.