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What
is Section 8 Housing? - PART 1
Section 8 Information and Help for Landlords
Do
you own
rental properties in the United States? Then find out what is Section 8
housing and how becoming a Section 8 landlord can open up your world to
a
larger pool of tenants and more secure rental income with our Section 8
information for landlords.
What
is Section 8 Housing or Housing Choice Voucher
Program?
Section
8 is U.S. government
assistance program started in 1974 to help people with low income pay
for a sizable part of their housing rent.
Compared to other government housing programs, Section 8 tends
to offer more freedom because landlords are free to decide if they want
to accept or reject a tenant while tenants can pick which rental home
they want to stay (as long as the rental property is not too pricey or
high end).
A Section 8 tenant will be given vouchers that will pay for part of
their rent. The person will usually
have to pay 30 to 40% of the rent by himself and the rest will be
covered by his section 8 housing voucher. That's why the Section
8
Housing program is also commonly known as Housing Choice Voucher
program.
Tenants in this program will have their income reviewed each year to
see if they still qualify for their rent subsidies.
What
Type of Tenants Can You Expect from the Section 8 Program?
Just
because someone earns a low income does not
mean that he
will somehow turn out to be a bad tenant. This is the first and most
important you should know as a landlord. Some landlords avoid Section 8
housing like the plague because they tend to connect poverty with
difficult
tenants.
From our
personal experience and interviews with real-life Section
8 landlords, the tenants from this program are a mixed bag but
turn out to be okay in general.
The main
lesson here is to screen every
potential tenant carefully regardless of whether they are from Section
8 or not. Click here for
our step by step guide on screening tenants.
While Section 8 tenants comes in all shapes and sizes, single
mums with kids, physically disabled people, elderly couples and low
income families tend to be more common. If you are looking for
Section 8 tenants in your area, the GoSection8
directory is a good place for additional Section 8 information.
How
do You Join the Section 8 Housing Program as a Landlord?
Until
a potential tenant with Section 8 voucher comes knocking on your door,
there are no formal steps for you to apply as a landlord.
However
you should contact your local Section 8 housing agency and inform them
that your rental property is available to tenants with section 8
vouchers so that they can list your rental property for free. You can
find the contacts for the nearest public housing agency on this U.S. Department of Housing page.
After
taking down your property and contact details, your Section 8
information will be
shown to any potential Section 8 tenant as long as your property
location, property size (according to the number of bedrooms) and
asking rent matches their living needs.
Other
than listing with your local public housing agency, you can always
state in your ads that tenants with Section 8 vouchers are welcome to
apply.
After your property is rented out, you should contact the agency to
remove your listing so that you won't receive any more phone calls from
Section 8 renters.
Now
that you know what is Section 8 housing, are
you ready to learn what are the advantages and disadvantages of being a
Section 8 landlord?
Return
from this Section 8 Information page to our Full What is Section 8
Housing Guide
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