[Digital Sniper]

Life cycle of Section 8 houses:

1. Government's Section 8 furnishes house in thriving communities to people who cannot afford housing.
2. Because the people living there have no real investment in the house, they run the property into the ground.
3. Property values plummet to the point that good neighbors sell while they still have some property value left.
4. More vermin moves in.
5. Area becomes ghetto-ized.
6. Wholesale condemning of houses occurs.
7. Area razed.
8. Area turned into industrial park.
9. Government relocates people who ruined the area into thriving communities under Section 8 housing.
10. Cycle repeats.

[doodad]

Don’t forget 2(a)- good neighborhood school ruined.

[riverdawg]

Yep. Some older apartment buildings here that have gone the Section 8 route have been transformed into crime-ridden slums in the space of a very few years. I have long argued that we ought to sell (or even give) public housing units to the tenants, with the condition that the buyers can’t sub-lease; at least there would be an incentive for the owners/residents to maintain and improve the units and organize to get rid of crime.

[Gabz]

I will go with you up to #5. Beyond that, I’m not so sure, although I do know it happens of occassion.

I lived in a Section 8 neighborhood for 11 years and there was never any wholesale condemnation. In fact only one house was declared unfit for habitation but only after a fire, then it was repaired.

I’ve been out of there 5 years and it still exists, nothing has been razed and it was primarily a section 8 neighborhood for more than 10 years before I bought my house there, and I’ve been out of there 5 years.

[BBell]

Section 8 ruined East New Orleans.

[Polyxene]

We have the 60’s “Great Society” to thank for this cycle. This was the RAT’s “War on Poverty” that was supposed to eliminate poverty, but all it did was escalate into the behemoth it is now. Thanks, LBJ!