The Housing Assistance Apocalypse
Rental assistance programs in their current state are a nightmare for everyone who deals with them, landlords and tenants alike. Once you are approved for benefits, it is an uphill battle to get them. More than a quarter of tenants approved for rental assistance never get to use it because they cannot find a suitable apartment which will accept them before their approval expires. Once they get their approval, it is a hassle every month to get the money, and it is not just their imagination that landlords treat them with less patience and less welcome than they do tenants who pay rent out of their own employment income. Imagine, though, if housing assistance programs as we know them today disappeared. The Section 8 housing voucher program, which has been around longer than most of today’s Medicare beneficiaries, may soon be going the way of all flesh, which means that tenants and landlords will be in for an unpleasant surprise. For help coping with the changing landscape of rental assistance, contact a Washington, D.C. real estate lawyer.
Terminating Section 8 Program May Throw Housing Market Into Chaos
The Section 8 housing voucher program is a provision of the Housing Act of 1937. In other words, it went into effect as the United States was coping with the Great Depression; it is older than most of today’s housing assistance programs, which have their origins in the Great Society reforms of the 1960s, which aimed to eradicate poverty. Section 8 provides rental assistance directly to tenants who qualify based on their income being below a certain level. More than two out of three beneficiaries of Section 8 housing vouchers are retirees, adults with disabilities, and households with children.
The proposed federal budget for 2026 would eliminate the Section 8 housing voucher program. It would instead direct the money to states in the form of block grants, which would distribute the money to beneficiaries, instead of the current system, where the federal government pays the money directly to the beneficiaries’ landlords. Proponents of the change argue that it is less expensive to administer housing assistance programs at the state level and that the new system would enable qualifying tenants to get housing assistance more quickly. Meanwhile, critics of the reform argue that the result will be less assistance for tenants who need it, since state budgets are already tight due to numerous federal funding cuts.
Federal Government Proposes Two-Year Limit on Housing Assistance for Able-Bodied Adults
Another proposed change is that able-bodied adults under the age of 65 would automatically lose eligibility for federally funded housing assistance after two years of receiving benefits. It is unclear whether the presence of minor children in the household would enable them to keep their benefits longer.
Contact Tobin O’Connor Ewing About Life After Section 8
A Washington, D.C. real estate attorney can help you if your tenants pay their rent through housing assistance programs, the future of which is in jeopardy. Contact Tobin, O’Connor, and Ewing in Washington, D.C. or call 202-362-5900.
Source:
housingwire.com/articles/white-house-proposes-elimination-of-section-8-housing-vouchers/
