Section 8 Rental Applications

In today’s session, we will be talking about Section 8 tenants.

The Section 8 program and how it works

The Housing Choice Voucher Program, formerly known as Section 8, is the US government’s housing choice assistance program. It authorizes the payment of rental housing assistance to private landlords for low and very low-income households in need of decent, safe, and sanitary housing. 

Local Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) manage the housing selection vouchers. The family issued with a housing voucher is responsible for finding the appropriate housing unit of choice whose owner has agreed to rent under the program. The PHA pays the housing subsidy directly to the landlord on behalf of the participating family members; the family then pays the difference between the actual rent and the amount funded by the program.

The program has evolved since its inception in 1937 and remains to be one of the essential programs for low and very low-income individuals and families.

How do Section 8 tenants qualify for a property?

Like anything else, there are good and bad people; there are good tenants and bad tenants. But whatever the case may be, you can not discriminate against anyone who is under the Section 8 program. 

We make sure to qualify them in the same way we would any other tenant. They still have to have the same type of credit score; we would ask them to make the same type of income, which can be difficult for some Section 8 tenants. We want to make sure that their voucher is applicable for the property they are applying for.

In addition, the Section 8 tenant will inspect the property; some tricky nuance is that the property has to be vacant for them to inspect it. So they cannot inspect the property when the current tenant is living there and then expect that 30 days later, they are going to pass through.

We treat Section 8 tenants equally regardless of the additional paperwork.

We want to make sure that Section 8 tenants are treated equally, in the same way as everybody else. So we put them through the same process, and yes, the paperwork can be significantly more because we have to work with a caseworker for their voucher. That caseworker makes us go through an application process, even for ourselves, and we have to submit different types of paperwork and financial requirements for them to be able to pay us. 

Then there are the nuances of both renewing them as well as the re-inspection and getting the rent in general. But, in our commitment to being a proactive property management company, that is something that we do and will take care of for you.

If you or anyone else you know is looking for a proactive property manager to handle any situations, such as Section 8 tenants or applicants, please think of Green Ocean Property Management: where you get more than a property manager, you get peace of mind.