Posted on 08/09/2008 4:57:40 AM PDT by reaganaut1
Under the Section 8 federal housing voucher program, thousands of poor, urban and often African-American residents have left hardscrabble neighborhoods in the nation’s largest cities and resettled in the suburbs.
Law enforcement experts and housing researchers argue that rising crime rates follow Section 8 recipients to their new homes, while other experts discount any direct link. But there is little doubt that cultural shock waves have followed the migration. Social and racial tensions between newcomers and their neighbors have increased, forcing suburban communities like Antioch to re-evaluate their civic identities along with their methods of dealing with the new residents.
The foreclosure crisis gnawing away at overbuilt suburbs has accelerated that migration, and the problems. Antioch is one of many suburbs in the midst of a full-blown mortgage meltdown that has seen property owners seeking out low-income renters to fill vacant homes. The most recent Contra Costa County records available show that from 2003 to 2005, the number of Section 8 households in Antioch grew by 50 percent, to about 1,500 from 1,000. Many new residents are African-American; Antioch’s black population has grown to about 20 percent, from 3 percent in 1990.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Of course. Thugs, slugs, and other assorted vermin don’t change their behavior just because their locale has changed.
Any self-respecting landlord would reject Section 8 vouchers.
WTF????? Have we gone mad?
When the units were emptied, the owners who previously thought they were doing such a grand thing, we greeted with destroyed walls, appliances pulled out and just gone, carpet matted with urine and various other bodily fluids from both man and animal, a conspicuous lack of toilets. (Who steals toilets? Honestly)
This was in the exurbs of DC mind you--far far far from the inner city. Our answer? We moved into a single unit house, taking on a bit more mortgage than we really wanted in exchange for knowing that larger single family houses are much harder to rent out.
Who are these so called experts? Probably Ivy tower academics who base their research on what they read in "Mother Jones", "The Nation". and the NYT. They live far away from the people/culture they profess "expertise" on.
Sounds to me like the Big City has just found a way to reduce their crime and problem statistics by forceing them on to someone else.
People who WITHOUT A DOUBT do not live in the affected neighborhoods.
Which creates an incentive for the landlord of an old apartment in need of renovations, to rent to destructive Section 8 tenants. He then gets a government-paid renovation when they move out
The government pays the absolute MINIMUM for the replacement, not the true value. It was and is a losing proposition for someone who wants their house to stay in good condition
except that it is highly illegal to reject section 8 tenants and it lands you a big fat discrimination lawsuit. One of the reasons there are people that would rather loose their property than rent it.
I have a friend who rented to section 8 tenants. They did over 50,000 in damage to a 150,000 unit (basically he had to take everything to the studs and start over)
I am not aware he got one dime from the government to help pay for the damage.
....here’s a hypothetical question:
....if foreclosures continue on government backed mortgages does that mean the government takes possession of the empty house?
.....and if the government ends up with a bunch of empty houses what’s to stop them from just GIVING them to folks now living down in the projects?
.....coming soon to your and my neighborhood???
We are renting a large farmhouse on 80 acres. The last tenants were ghetto escapees. They wrecked the place.
This practice has ruined an area and school in my hometown. This is an affluent and mostly white town. Thanks to Habitat and the county we have seen crime skyrocket. Many Katrina refuse.
The county used it as revenge for various parts of the county voting for cityhood and escaping their tax heavy service non-existant clutches.
Do you mind if I ask where? We moved out from the NoVa suburbs about 10 years ago.
This is not quite true. I used to rent to S-8 tenants and I assure you the government does not pay for the repairs.
You actually believe that the government pays enough to repair the damage?! Welfare commandeered a local motel for welfare recipients. They wrecked it. The owners finally tore it all down. It had been cute cabins with an inground pool. The inground pool was the first casualty of the “less fortunate”.
So which is it? Are these welfare recipients being "stalked" by crime or is it just a coincidence that wherever they are,crime is?
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