Posted on 06/10/2015 5:23:46 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
The Federal Trade Commission warns those looking for Section 8 housing help, that scammers have made websites that look like registration sites for Section 8 waiting list lotteries. "If you pay a fee or give your personal information, the scammers will take it. And you still won't be on a real Section 8 waiting list. In fact, there is no fee to register for a Section 8 waiting list," explains Lisa Lake, FTC Consumer Education specialist.
Section 8 housing is government subsidized rent assistance for low income families who qualify.
Section 8 is a program so much in demand that there are always lines when the city of Lake Charles accepts applications ever so often. And there are long waiting lists in Calcasieu and Lake Charles .
If a site asks for personal information or money, Carmen Million with the Better Business Bureau says that's a red flag.
"You should not be charged any fee. It's Section 8. It's help for people who cannot help themselves."
In another twist, some fake sites list Section 8 properties that supposedly are available. They promise you can rent one, if you pay the first month's rent via wire transfer or a prepaid card. The properties might exist, but the ads are fakes placed by scammers. If you pay, you just lose your money.
"You don't want to send money to a scam because you will never see the money again,"said Million.
In the City of Lake Charles, you know you've got a problem if you're applying online because they only accept applications in person at the local housing office. Ben Taylor is the Executive Director of the Lake Charles Housing Authority.
"You have to be in person to apply.We want the people to walk through the door so that we can get all the necessary documentation: social security card, birth certificates, all that. All that has to happen before you can house somebody,"said Taylor.
Nor does the Calcasieu Parish Section 8 Office take applications on line. And Taylor reiterates the warning not to pay up front.
"You don't send anybody cash in advance. That's not the way HUD works. You don't pay to apply,"said Taylor.
In Lake Charles alone there are an estimated 600 people on a waiting list for Section 8 housing...there's no telling how soon they'll again open up the application process. When Lake Charles or Calcasieu Parish do take applications again, they will announce it publicly. Lake says if you search online for the Section 8 voucher waiting list, the top search results often are bogus sites. "The sites look very real: their names may say “Section 8,” and they might show an Equal Housing Opportunity logo. They ask for fees and your personal information, like your Social Security number, but they won't do anything for you. The scammers will keep your money and disappear. They also may give your personal information to identity thieves," she said.
Lake describes the "real way" things work as follows. "The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)'s Section 8 program gives funding to local government housing authorities. The local authorities issue housing choice vouchers to help people find housing in privately-owned rental units. To get on the waiting list for a voucher, find your local housing authority and call or email them. Ask how to sign up for the Section 8 waiting list lottery in your area. As I said, there is no fee to register."
In other parts of the country, Lake says people have lost money and personal information to scammers – but they've also lost the chance to be in the actual lottery. Most people don't realize they've been scammed until after the waiting list is closed.
The FTC offers these tips in mind to avoid a Section 8 lottery scam:
•Contact your local housing authority to find out how to register for the Section 8 waiting list lottery. You'll find their email and phone number on the HUD site. Follow their instructions to sign up.
•Housing authorities do not charge fees, and they won't reach out to you by phone or email to suggest that you join a waiting list. A housing authority also will never ask you to wire money or pay with a prepaid card. Those are sure signs of a scam.
•Treat your Social Security number and other personal information (say, credit card numbers), like cash. Don't give them out on a website you find through a search.
•Have you seen this kind of scam? File a complaint with the FTC and HUD. Some people have gotten help from the Better Business Bureau, so you also can file a complaint there.
My give a damn is broken on this one.
Oooh, ooh, new government program needed. Educate and empower them. Let’s fund the study and get some flaming libs on this post haste.
Section 8 should be eliminated.
I have yet to see the word “empower” used in a context that didn’t damage the country.
New apartment complexes being built right now in your neighborhoods are all targeted to become section 8 just a few years from now. When they become section 8 your neighborhood will become the HOOD!
Scammers are just going where the easy money is ...
Section 8, food stamps, FI (Family Independence), WIC, Medicaid: this and much, much more all paid for by us generous US taxpayers.
If someone wants to go through all the trouble of stealing the identities of people who live off EBT cards and lottery tickets, so be it.
I think maybe the scammers figure that their fellow section 8 scammers have more money than they are reporting.
The frightening part is the raft of ordinances on a local level about “income discrimination”.
They are trying to say landlords cannot discriminate against tenants based on source of income, AKA, if they have low income but section 8, you are legally required to accept the tenant’s section 8 income.
Various landlord and property owner associations are fighting it, because Section 8 is a government program subject to extra checks and paperwork - and voluntary.
The ordinances come dangerously close to “landlords have to join section 8 program and rent to people in that program”.
Ahhhhhhh. Maybe so.
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