[reaganaut1]

The Atlantic article by Hanna Rosin mentioned in the story was discussed in the thread http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2034891/posts .

[clee1]

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.

[Drango]

a large, new home, with a pool, for $2,200 a month.

WTF????? Have we gone mad?

[SoftballMominVA]

A few years ago, in our townhouse community, 5 out of 40 units on our block went 'section 8.' The impact was immediate and noticeable. Our street went from a typical middle class situation to the ghetto within weeks. Instead of quiet streets in the evenings, we had rap music blasting out until the small hours of the morning. Instead of clean sidewalks and streets, we had trash strewn everywhere. Even things as little as assigned parking spaces became an issue. Yes, we called the police, as did everyone, constantly. So that earned us a semi-permanent police presence. Following that came tensions between the 'Section 8' residents and the police.

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.

[isrul]

If you live in the “hood”, it's difficult to avoid some association with dirtbags and gang bangers. If you move to the “burb” these associations may continue. Then you have the dirtbags and gang bangers introduced into the “burb”. I've seen it happen. Nice people move in. But some of their visitors, not so much.

[rbg81]

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.

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.

[SECURE AMERICA]

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.

[STONEWALLS]

....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???

[doodad]

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.

[Gay State Conservative]

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

So which is it? Are these welfare recipients being "stalked" by crime or is it just a coincidence that wherever they are,crime is?

[STONEWALLS]

...I used to work in the rental office of a large apt complex....it’s hell to evict a Section 8 tenant...you’ve got to take all kinds of photos and documentation to the hearing....we had one where the pet urine was so heavy it actually buckled the floor....we had another guy who was on disability and every govt. program available....said he had a chronic bad back....yet on the night he skipped, he managed to wrestle the refrigerator out of the apt and into the back of his mazda pick up.

....you’d be surprised at how knowledgable these people are about welfare laws and regulations...being on the tit is a way of life for many....they know the ropes better than you do...once you get ensnared with them it’s hard to get free....stay clear of them if you can.

[meyer]

Section 8 merely serves to disperse the deadbeats through the neighborhood instead of keeping them concentrated in dense, isolated public housing complexes. Like most forms of welfare, the program should be abolished.

[PowderMonkey]

An inner city single mother with five children gets dropped into a suburban home with all its attendant maintenance requirements, child daycare headaches encountered by long-distance commuters, and social responsibilities to the neighbors, and somebody thought that was a good idea. Weekends and summer months in our neighborhood exhibit a spike in criminal activity as friends and relatives come to visit, and eventually stay, with their Section 8 “Aunt” in the ‘burbs. Driving down the street to my home recently, I was confronted by a group of surly teens blocking the street as they slowly stolled along. They refused to clear a path, and exhibited clearly confrontational intent. All wore red bandannas, oversize white T-shirts, and super-baggy pants. More bullet-riddled cars with out of State plates are showing up in the area. Violent crime and drug busts occur with regularity; something unheard of around here ten years ago. In law enforcement these are known as “clues.” Yes sir. Section 8 was a real good idea.

[FreedomPoster]

That Atlantic article is well worth reading. The results of this whole thing are very much a case of Liberals getting mugged by reality, and an “Oh we’re doing so much GOOD!” program creating much harm.

[Popman]

Ms. Payne, a 42-year-old African-American mother of five, moved to Antioch in 2006. With the local real estate market slowing and a housing voucher covering two-thirds of the rent, she found she could afford a large, new home, with a pool, for $2,200 a month.

two-thirds of the rent of $2,200 is $1,465. That's $17,600 a year. $8.50 a hour for a 40 hour week.

The federal government is giving that much money to poor people so they can live in the burb's???

We have lost our ******* minds, that we as citizens aren't marching on DC.

[Popman]

Wow, I just realized the people down the street where I live are probably section - 8

The former home owner moved and the new owner, I thought, are probably renters.

I wondered how people who look and dress like a small step up from the ghetto, have two Lexus, muliple children, and surly attitudes could afford to live in my neighborhood

The housing crunch in Florida is fertile ground for people who own homes that are struggling to pay their mortgage, rent them out to section -8 vouchers.

Subsidy your high mortgage and live in a cheap rental unit until the housing market comes back so you can sell your home and not lose your ass

[RayBob]

They did this in Pittsburgh a few years ago. They moved the lowest scum of all from Braddock where they burned down several multi-family housing units (no I’m not exagerating) to the nice suburbs (not the lower price houses, but houses at the higher end of the market, including new construction single family housing!)

In one area the moving truck were met by protesters who refused to allow the section 8 tenants to unload the trucks and move in. In the front of the line blocking access? Black families who worked their way out of the ghetto who didn’t want their new neighborhoods to go to hell.

[SeafoodGumbo]

I lived next door to Section 8 people a number of years ago, and I've seen first hand how one house of uncivilized trash can ruin a block.

I never knew exactly who lived in the house permanently, but Grandma would come to get the kids every day, sitting on the horn instead of walking the ten feet to the front door. Naked kids were often running around outside. Whenever I pulled into our driveway which was next to their house, I heard yelling -- there was always yelling.

And that driveway of ours -- how many times did I have to get them or their friends to move cars from our driveway? Twenty?

Then there was the creepy son who looked like a predator who only came home in the middle of the night, walking to the back door, always with an air of menace.

Of course, there was the garbage, the radios blaring, and the constant cursing -- mf this, mf that.

These people had no respect for anyone or anything. We ended up selling our house to get away.

[Skooz]

Two Section 8 apartment buildings have ravaged my once quiet, peaceful neighborhood on the outskirts of town.

A middle school sits between the two apartment buildings. It was once one of the best schools around — a country school with good teachers and attentive students.
A friend who teaches there now recently told me “No learning happens there. It's just trying to keep them from killing each other until 3:00.”

Section 8 has destroyed my part of town.

[smedley64]

"...Law enforcement experts and housing researchers argue that rising crime rates follow Section 8 recipients to their new homes, while other experts clueless leftist ninnies discount any direct link...

It's just another way for leftist idiots to ruin nice neighborhoods via their moronic "do-goodism" which never does anyone any good at all, except to make them feel morally superior by acting like they "care." Who are these "experts" that claim moving people out of high crime areas into low crime areas doesn't increase crime in the low crime areas? More clueless liberal idiocy run amok.

What these "experts" are really saying is that law abiding citizens don't have the right to live in clean, peaceful, low crime areas. It's unfair, so we'll ship some people that don't give a crap about laws, or noise ordinances, or litter ordinances into your area and see how you like it, since it's your fault that crime, noise, and trash are at high levels in other areas because you don't "care" as much as they do.

Liberalism is a mental disorder.