I am located in Oregon, first time landlord. Our open house is tomorrow and someone has already mentioned they have Section 8 vouchers. My understanding is that it is an opt-in program? But that conflicts with the fact that it is "discriminatory" to tell people that you do not accept Section 8, or to refuse to accept it. I'm so confused. I am not interested in jumping through hoops to get my home "qualified," it would likely delay the move in and therefore impact my income.
Can I still hold the applicants to the same income requirements or am I forced to make accommodations for Section 8? That almost seems discriminatory toward everyone else. Would their voucher count toward income requirements?
Residential Real Estate Broker · Beaverton, OR · Member since 2014 · 335 posts · 149 votes
11y
@Amanda H., Under the new law, you cannot refuse a Section 8 applicant, but you also do not have to change your criteria specifically for them. As long as you use the same criteria for all applicants, then you are good to go. One thing they do mention is that you cannot "opt-out" of the program just because you don't want to hassle with the paperwork. See the links below for more information.
Augusta, GA · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
9y
It would appear Mr. Bishop has rental property for this program (and before you toss such descriptive terms around you might consider some of the investors who post here have experience with this program as well as being individually diverse both racially and in their own sexual orientation).
philadelphia, PA · Member since 2017 · 52 posts · 12 votes
7y
there are more than one section 8 program, the one most will run into is the hcv one, that is used by housing authorities and the va, it sets a % that the tenant can afford base on income , roughly 30% to 3.5 income , sometimes more or less, the authority pays the difference, so the tenant will qualify based on your income standards, the program states you dont have to take it,as well as you dont have to take a person of color or nationality, but you cant turn down because of that, and that is what they are getting to, you cant use it as a sole reason to deny, in many states and localities they go further to define that, there are many testers out there, be warned, and a lawsuit will be against government, they even recoup their legal fees, so putting it out there or any questionable wording is inviting scrutiny, might as well be saying no children, you may get by one time or two but guideline is advertise the property, not the tenant you want in it or dont want, more and more states are making it law, and I wouldnt want to be their test case, HUD does view it as discrimination, if they have sec 8 because a disablity, but you cant ask that, best way to fight a lawsuit is if you do have a "good" sec 8 tenant just dont make it a qualify factor, the housing for returning veterans is hcv section 8, do you want to be the landlord that turned away war hero? PR from hell, he may be on section 8 waiting on disablility, also that section 8 (vash) puts a socialworker inside the home every month to check on living conditions, paying bills etc, more than you can with regular tenant, they have more backup if they lose their job too, their amount to pay is much lower than reg tenant if they get behind and it may affect their va benefits, look for veterans and meet your sec8 that way, they wont have entire family moving in, sw checks, again rule of thumb only advertise the unit not the tenant