Is it fair that Section 8 is not raising the rent?

Recently when I was looking at the rental rates of our current residents I realized that some of them are below $150 of the FMV. Now we have been at full FMV untill recently when occupancy took a major hit and we now have lower the rent by $50. The problem is that because Section 8 has had a freeze on rent increases we can not even renew them at the current rental special therefor we are losing out on even more income. I don't think this is fair to do this to Apartment Communities or owners all beacuse they have over flooded themseleves with vochure ushers and continually let it be abussed. Is anyone else having this issue? Is there anything we can do short of not renewing the section 8 people?

We had the same issue here this year. We weren't even doing a rent increase, the resident came in on a special and the special had ended. I deal with 3 different sect. 8 offices, all but one approved my increases. Some of my sister properties couldn't get any increase at all through sect. 8, however. The residents were still allowed to renew, but we billed them the full amount monthly and wrote off the difference each month so that the owners had a record of lost rent due sect. 8's freeze in rents.

I had a similar problem at my prior property. I sent a renewal letter to section 8 and the resident, not even raising rent to market rent, but Section 8 sent me a letter declining the increase! I think market rate at the time was $650, her rent was $575, and we tried to increase it to $590. Fortunately for me, the resident gave notice to move before finding out that Section 8 wouldn't allow the increase, so we were able to rent the unit to a non-section 8 resident for market rate instead.

I get a lot of calls from prospects that request for us to accept section 8, but I can understand why the owner doesn't want to accept it. The last time I checked, the waiting list for section 8 was four years, and then they only have 60 days to find a place that will accept their voucher before they lose it and have to re-apply to get back on the waiting list.

At my previouse property in a diffrent county they let us keep raise the rent if there had been an increase but only to what the current special was. But here in Jacksonville it is a complete freeze so if they moved in say a year ago at $616 that was a special and we had an increase sense then in the market rate which is now $671. There is no way I can increase the rental rate to at least our special price of $625. I think it is highly unfair to the owners and fee management companies. Ultimately if they don't start allowing increases as our occupancy starts to go up ( which it will) I do belive we will be non-renewing prople just to get the market rate. Which is sad because I know these Seniors don't want to go anywhere else that takes section 8 and honestly some of the places that are out there I can't blame them. There has to be a way to fight section 8 non-rental increase with out hurting current residents and the owners.

I am not aware of a federal or even state freeze on rental rates. Many local agencies take it upon themselves to freeze increases/rates so they can spread their funds around to help more clients. This is a really touchy issue as you do not want to start to lose referrals from your agencies that administer the program. Familiarize yourself with the law and Section 8 program. The idea behind the program is to make quality housing affordable to everyone; in this case those who have HCV's. Remind agencies that if they are not willing to pay HUD FMR, they stand to only be able have clients at sites that are not at the standard of yours. Find out the HUD FMR for your county and you should expect to receive 80 to 120% of FMR. This was/is a hot topic in Michigan. I would be happy to discuss it with you more. I could write a book on this topic and became fairly well versed in it while working for a management company that challenged how local agencies were administering increases and rental rates. Feel free to call me at 614-546-9308. I would be happy to share more!

Thanks Sandi. I want to research this more. It really bothers me to see that I have residents that are paying full FMV but the section 8 residents are no where near those rates beacuse of the freeze. I know they talk to the head person at the Housin Authority and was told this is the way that it is. I just know that I can rent those apartments out once I hit full occupancy at the FMV or at least for a higher amount. Besides I think all seniors should get assistants if the qualify instead of others who are on it but that is a whole other issue in its self. Can we per fair housing say listen you are being unreasonable with the no rate increase either let us bring them to the special rate or they have to move?

Here in Los Angeles, last year, Sec 8 actually went backwards. They lowered rent payment and increased tenants per bedroom

Wow so had did that work by going back wards on the Section 8? I'm thinking of sugesting from here on out with the section 8 that they have to rent at the max rent and not the special rent. It's not fair to the residents who come in on a special with no section 8 to have to pay max rent after their first year but for those who are on section 8 that came in on special they will stay the same. They already pay a reduce rental rate as it is. Plus it is also not fair to the current residents that are paying the max rent to have been increased over the past two years and yet Section 8 is not allowing the increase. It is not our fault that the county over budgetted the amount of vochurers. So why should the owners and fee management companies have to be penalized for it?