Are you willing to help the homeless?
Patrick ChilesPro Member
Member since 2019 · 4 posts · 35 votesAre you willing to help the homeless?
Most Popular Reply
I actually participated in this program with 10 houses last year, and yes-- I always got rent during COVID, got double security deposit, and we had 1 success story (maybe 2). They sell you rainbows, yes-- feel good, warm and fuzzies, helping the community, guaranteeing rent, getting people back on their feet...
After participating myself, let me tell you with 100% certainty there is NO CHANCE IN H*** I WOULD EVER DO IT AGAIN! ZERO. NADA. Don't' call it a charity-- call it what it is … "Free Rent Ride for 1 year"-- and btw the tenants and the program get PISSED at you for not renewing , and the charity withhold the last month rent.
If a person doesn't actively have skin in the game, there is ZERO respect for your house. Also, it's not them you're helping, it's them-- and likely their BF, and sister, and her 5 kids are also moving in. I had beautiful renovations TRASHED within 1 year, when I say trashed-- I mean TRASHED, had to repaint/refloor after 1 year-- damage so bad, gosh I don't even know how it happens. Absolutely disgusting! It's not worth it, the amount of damage done to a house! I would NEVER recommend the program to any new landlord. I'm so glad to wash my hands with the program, seriously, it's NOT a warm and fuzzy story. I had pest control on 3 houses, only when they move out-- tenants never let them in, so it was a crazy mice infestation and another was a really bad roach problem! It's absolutely disgusting.
Also-- if you have to do an eviction (I had to with 3) the charity walks away, no help whatsoever. It's a crock of ___.
84 Replies
- New to Real Estate · Member since 2019 · 16 posts · 8 votes5y
Thanks for the information, Patrick!
Mary
- Rental Property Investor · Member since 2021 · 385 posts · 197 votes5y
Thanks for sharing this info! @Patrick Chiles
- Member since 2019 · 4 posts · 35 votes5y
Fair Question …. The funds are already distributed and in the hands of the states and the local programs. In fact, if they do not distribute the funds soon, they could lose them. Landlord gets his money when he signs. Landlord does not give up the right to evict, but he/she may have to refund a portion of the money.
And yes, the details are important and each local program will have their own set of policies.
- Rental Property Investor · Sioux Falls, SD · Member since 2015 · 9k+ posts · 18k+ votes5y
@Patrick Chiles this program has great intentions, but I would only use the program if you are able to carefully screen tenants. During the pandemic there were hotels across the country that opened their rooms to homeless people. The results were bad in every case. People refused to leave when the time was up and damaged the hotels. The challenge is that a good percentage of the homeless population is mentally ill or addicted to drugs. People end up homeless for a reason. The media will do stories and they cherry pick that one situation where a stable person fell on a bad situation. That creates the perception that people only end up homeless due to no fault of their own.
https://www.fox46.com/news/u-s...
https://alphanewsmn.com/minnea...
It is great you are drawing attention to this program and it may be a great option for certain landlords. Just be aware that after taking a years rent, you have that tenant for a year or more. Be very careful because this "easy money" could end up costing you.
I actually participated in this program with 10 houses last year, and yes-- I always got rent during COVID, got double security deposit, and we had 1 success story (maybe 2). They sell you rainbows, yes-- feel good, warm and fuzzies, helping the community, guaranteeing rent, getting people back on their feet...
After participating myself, let me tell you with 100% certainty there is NO CHANCE IN H*** I WOULD EVER DO IT AGAIN! ZERO. NADA. Don't' call it a charity-- call it what it is … "Free Rent Ride for 1 year"-- and btw the tenants and the program get PISSED at you for not renewing , and the charity withhold the last month rent.
If a person doesn't actively have skin in the game, there is ZERO respect for your house. Also, it's not them you're helping, it's them-- and likely their BF, and sister, and her 5 kids are also moving in. I had beautiful renovations TRASHED within 1 year, when I say trashed-- I mean TRASHED, had to repaint/refloor after 1 year-- damage so bad, gosh I don't even know how it happens. Absolutely disgusting! It's not worth it, the amount of damage done to a house! I would NEVER recommend the program to any new landlord. I'm so glad to wash my hands with the program, seriously, it's NOT a warm and fuzzy story. I had pest control on 3 houses, only when they move out-- tenants never let them in, so it was a crazy mice infestation and another was a really bad roach problem! It's absolutely disgusting.
Also-- if you have to do an eviction (I had to with 3) the charity walks away, no help whatsoever. It's a crock of ___.
- 5yJay HinrichsBusiness MemberReal Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
Originally posted by @Greg H.:
As with most government programs, the devil is in the details. How and when is the money received as most programs have a lag? Does the landlord give up the right to evict? Probably
knowing our homeless in PDX this is a ROCK HARD PASS
- 5yJay HinrichsBusiness MemberReal Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
Originally posted by @Linda S.:
I actually participated in this program with 10 houses last year, and yes-- I always got rent during COVID, got double security deposit, and we had 1 success story (maybe 2). They sell you rainbows, yes-- feel good, warm and fuzzies, helping the community, guaranteeing rent, getting people back on their feet...
After participating myself, let me tell you with 100% certainty there is NO CHANCE IN H*** I WOULD EVER DO IT AGAIN! ZERO. NADA. Don't' call it a charity-- call it what it is … "Free Rent Ride for 1 year"-- and btw the tenants and the program get PISSED at you for not renewing , and the charity withhold the last month rent.
If a person doesn't actively have skin in the game, there is ZERO respect for your house. Also, it's not them you're helping, it's them-- and likely their BF, and sister, and her 5 kids are also moving in. I had beautiful renovations TRASHED within 1 year, when I say trashed-- I mean TRASHED, had to repaint/refloor after 1 year-- damage so bad, gosh I don't even know how it happens. Absolutely disgusting! It's not worth it, the amount of damage done to a house! I would NEVER recommend the program to any new landlord. I'm so glad to wash my hands with the program, seriously, it's NOT a warm and fuzzy story. I had pest control on 3 houses, only when they move out-- tenants never let them in, so it was a crazy mice infestation and another was a really bad roach problem! It's absolutely disgusting.
Also-- if you have to do an eviction (I had to with 3) the charity walks away, no help whatsoever. It's a crock of ___.'
Totally agree.. we end up chasing homeless out of our homes and the cops wont do anything. folks need to keep in mind there are some that fall on bad times i get that.. however the vast majority this is a lifestyle choice dont kid yourselves.
- 5yBruce WoodruffPro MemberContractor/Investor/Consultant · San Diego / Phoenix · Member since 2021 · 12k+ posts · 15k+ votes
No fricking way!!! People are homeless for a reason (Most). Even those that 'fell on hard times through no fault of their own' - Ha - are suspect in their ability or caring to take good care of a home...
- 5yJay HinrichsBusiness MemberReal Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
Originally posted by @Linda S.:
I actually participated in this program with 10 houses last year, and yes-- I always got rent during COVID, got double security deposit, and we had 1 success story (maybe 2). They sell you rainbows, yes-- feel good, warm and fuzzies, helping the community, guaranteeing rent, getting people back on their feet...
After participating myself, let me tell you with 100% certainty there is NO CHANCE IN H*** I WOULD EVER DO IT AGAIN! ZERO. NADA. Don't' call it a charity-- call it what it is … "Free Rent Ride for 1 year"-- and btw the tenants and the program get PISSED at you for not renewing , and the charity withhold the last month rent.
If a person doesn't actively have skin in the game, there is ZERO respect for your house. Also, it's not them you're helping, it's them-- and likely their BF, and sister, and her 5 kids are also moving in. I had beautiful renovations TRASHED within 1 year, when I say trashed-- I mean TRASHED, had to repaint/refloor after 1 year-- damage so bad, gosh I don't even know how it happens. Absolutely disgusting! It's not worth it, the amount of damage done to a house! I would NEVER recommend the program to any new landlord. I'm so glad to wash my hands with the program, seriously, it's NOT a warm and fuzzy story. I had pest control on 3 houses, only when they move out-- tenants never let them in, so it was a crazy mice infestation and another was a really bad roach problem! It's absolutely disgusting.
Also-- if you have to do an eviction (I had to with 3) the charity walks away, no help whatsoever. It's a crock of ___.
Govmit needs to risk THEIR PROPERTIES not ours.
I respect that you want to help homeless people, and if this works for you then great.
Hard Pass for me...Sounds like a recipe for disaster for the landlord.
Rapid re-homing programs have already severely burned a number of property owners. They do not require that a homeless person becomes clean, sober, or takes their meds if they're mentally ill but puts them in a house. Want a nightmare tenant you can't evict who is entirely crazy and stopped up your sink to keep the gremlins from getting her? The druggie who tears out the copper for drug money? Or lets his six friends who are also druggies crash their and get high/trip all day? These are nightmare tenants with government shackles.
Originally posted by @Ian Walsh:
I have done something like this in the past and it worked out.
Was it actually rapid rehousing or something else? There are homeless programs that place people after they've been rehabilitated to functional members of society or who just help those who have a combination of bad luck and bad choices but don't have some severe underlying issue, and those often work out just fine. Rapid rehousing is that you take the person who is STILL so anti-social that there is not a human on this earth who will let them sleep on their floor to keep them off the streets...and put them in the house you own.
- Real Estate Agent · Commerce CIty, CO · Member since 2018 · 127 posts · 78 votes5y
I probably wouldn't be willing to do this. I'd prefer to keep government out of my business but it seems like a decent program.
It's not my business model, but having anyone live outdoors like an animal in the USA when they hand out Section-8 to illegals upon arrival is a hard pill to swallow.
They need to sort the homeless into short term vs. forever types.
Steer the help to the short-term helpable when they need it, and publicly house the "more eccentric" types out in the county away from civilization.
Maybe have a poor farm where they can plant gardens to feed themselves if they are able...something to keep them busy.
It would give all of them someplace to live indoors at least.
This street begging/tents on sidewalks thing is Un-American.
Just my 2 cents
Originally posted by @Scott Mac:
It's not my business model, but having anyone live outdoors like an animal in the USA when they hand out Section-8 to illegals upon arrival is a hard pill to swallow.
They need to sort the homeless into short term vs. forever types.
Steer the help to the short-term helpable when they need it, and publicly house the "more eccentric" types out in the county away from civilization.
Maybe have a poor farm where they can plant gardens to feed themselves if they are able...something to keep them busy.
It would give all of them someplace to live indoors at least.
This street begging/tents on sidewalks thing is Un-American.
Just my 2 cents
Of course you're from Austin....
People--particularly addicts--engage in destructive behaviors as long as the cost of that behavior is lower than the benefit to them. You're trying to argue that we should make it more comfortable to be an addict or a crazy person who don't take their meds because everyone deserves a certain level of comfort. This is the equivalent of giving a suicidal person a gun to make yourself feel good. You subsidize the behaviors, you get more of them. This is what happened to PDX, among other places.
What actually works is to make living and anti-social and self-destructive life as intolerable as you possibly can within the confines of decent behavior, along with a constant offer of a hand up, out of their circumstances. Everyone hits some sort of rock bottom before they change. Society can determine whether their rock bottom results in an OD death in a government-provided shooting gallery or whether their rock bottom consists of being woken up for the 20th time in 24 hours and not being able to find a place where they can sleep off the results of their last bad trip. If you choose the first, then you just helped kill the person.
We should stop murdering people to feed our own smugness. It's sick and twisted.
Originally posted by @Genny Li:
Originally posted by @Scott Mac:
It's not my business model, but having anyone live outdoors like an animal in the USA when they hand out Section-8 to illegals upon arrival is a hard pill to swallow.
They need to sort the homeless into short term vs. forever types.
Steer the help to the short-term helpable when they need it, and publicly house the "more eccentric" types out in the county away from civilization.
Maybe have a poor farm where they can plant gardens to feed themselves if they are able...something to keep them busy.
It would give all of them someplace to live indoors at least.
This street begging/tents on sidewalks thing is Un-American.
Just my 2 cents
Of course you're from Austin....
People--particularly addicts--engage in destructive behaviors as long as the cost of that behavior is lower than the benefit to them. You're trying to argue that we should make it more comfortable to be an addict or a crazy person who don't take their meds because everyone deserves a certain level of comfort. This is the equivalent of giving a suicidal person a gun to make yourself feel good. You subsidize the behaviors, you get more of them. This is what happened to PDX, among other places.
What actually works is to make living and anti-social and self-destructive life as intolerable as you possibly can within the confines of decent behavior, along with a constant offer of a hand up, out of their circumstances. Everyone hits some sort of rock bottom before they change. Society can determine whether their rock bottom results in an OD death in a government-provided shooting gallery or whether their rock bottom consists of being woken up for the 20th time in 24 hours and not being able to find a place where they can sleep off the results of their last bad trip. If you choose the first, then you just helped kill the person.
We should stop murdering people to feed our own smugness. It's sick and twisted.
I would just like to have the government house those who are forever homeless AWAY from the towns, out in the country paid for by the taxpayers for the benefit of the taxpayers.
Giving them a 'Hand Up" works for the short-term homeless people (those who have experienced some misfortune but can get back to normal with some help) but it seems like a large swath of them need to be "cared for" indoors by the government.
If that is sick, twisted or smug, then so be it, but living outdoors on city streets will not cure their drug behavior or their mental illness either.
There are two separate issues here:
[1] "America" has a homeless problem.
[2] The Homeless have drug problems and mental health issues.
I am focusing on issue [1], you are focusing on issue [2].
Just my 2 cents.
- 5yBruce WoodruffPro MemberContractor/Investor/Consultant · San Diego / Phoenix · Member since 2021 · 12k+ posts · 15k+ votes
Originally posted by @Scott Mac:
It's not my business model, but having anyone live outdoors like an animal in the USA when they hand out Section-8 to illegals upon arrival is a hard pill to swallow.
I gotcha re the illegals, but look at the REAL studies on the homeless....some have the number at 90%+ of homeless people that actually prefer that way of life - no rules, free or cheap booze/drugs/sex.
- 5yJay HinrichsBusiness MemberReal Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
Originally posted by @Scott Mac:
It's not my business model, but having anyone live outdoors like an animal in the USA when they hand out Section-8 to illegals upon arrival is a hard pill to swallow.
They need to sort the homeless into short term vs. forever types.
Steer the help to the short-term helpable when they need it, and publicly house the "more eccentric" types out in the county away from civilization.
Maybe have a poor farm where they can plant gardens to feed themselves if they are able...something to keep them busy.
It would give all of them someplace to live indoors at least.
This street begging/tents on sidewalks thing is Un-American.
Just my 2 cents
do you recall the CC camps during the depression this is what your saying and what we need.
- 5yJay HinrichsBusiness MemberReal Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
Originally posted by @Bruce Woodruff:
Originally posted by @Scott Mac:
It's not my business model, but having anyone live outdoors like an animal in the USA when they hand out Section-8 to illegals upon arrival is a hard pill to swallow.
I gotcha re the illegals, but look at the REAL studies on the homeless....some have the number at 90%+ of homeless people that actually prefer that way of life - no rules, free or cheap booze/drugs/sex.
I worked with Homeless folks since the late 60s there is no question that the vast majority its a lifestyle they choose and embrace.
Just think of the Hobo' pre curser to homelses
Originally posted by @Jay Hinrichs:
Originally posted by @Scott Mac:
It's not my business model, but having anyone live outdoors like an animal in the USA when they hand out Section-8 to illegals upon arrival is a hard pill to swallow.
They need to sort the homeless into short term vs. forever types.
Steer the help to the short-term helpable when they need it, and publicly house the "more eccentric" types out in the county away from civilization.
Maybe have a poor farm where they can plant gardens to feed themselves if they are able...something to keep them busy.
It would give all of them someplace to live indoors at least.
This street begging/tents on sidewalks thing is Un-American.
Just my 2 cents
do you recall the CC camps during the depression this is what your saying and what we need.
Not work camps (they had those in WWI Europe and it wasn't a very good thing).
Just build something like 1 story 300 sq ft rowhouses.
Bed, bath, kitchenet rooms out of concrete like a tilt-up, each with their own door outside.
Row after row, and blacktop between the rows.
Let them laze around all day--a leopard isn't going to change his spots, but we can change the spot the leopard lays in from city sidewalks to out in the country with a chow hall and roof over their head.
Using judicial order, like when someone is ordered into a prison or a mental institution.
Then if they want to come to the city, let them apply to an onsite judge. So they can visit relatives or work at a job.
If it fills up, build more concrete tilt up row houses.
- 5yJay HinrichsBusiness MemberReal Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
Originally posted by @Scott Mac:
Originally posted by @Jay Hinrichs:
Originally posted by @Scott Mac:
It's not my business model, but having anyone live outdoors like an animal in the USA when they hand out Section-8 to illegals upon arrival is a hard pill to swallow.
They need to sort the homeless into short term vs. forever types.
Steer the help to the short-term helpable when they need it, and publicly house the "more eccentric" types out in the county away from civilization.
Maybe have a poor farm where they can plant gardens to feed themselves if they are able...something to keep them busy.
It would give all of them someplace to live indoors at least.
This street begging/tents on sidewalks thing is Un-American.
Just my 2 cents
do you recall the CC camps during the depression this is what your saying and what we need.
Not work camps (they had those in WWI Europe and it wasn't a very good thing).
Just build something like 1 story 300 sq ft rowhouses.
Bed, bath, kitchenet rooms out of concrete like a tilt-up, each with their own door outside.
Row after row, and blacktop between the rows.
Let them laze around all day--a leopard isn't going to change his spots, but we can change the spot the leopard lays in from city sidewalks to out in the country with a chow hall and roof over their head.
Using judicial order, like when someone is ordered into a prison or a mental institution.
Then if they want to come to the city, let them apply to an onsite judge. So they can visit relatives or work at a job.
If it fills up, build more concrete tilt up row houses.
well that would never happen.. the CC camps were paid gigs this is how all our forest and parks got their trail systems built etc. WE had a CC camp next to our ranch in Northern CA it was something folks were proud of they worked got paid and got on their feet.
- Real Estate Broker · Cleveland Dayton Cincinnati Toledo Columbus & Akron, OH · Member since 2013 · 30k+ posts · 20k+ votes5y
Originally posted by @Patrick Chiles:
There is a program under HUD (Emergency Solutions Grant Program) that provides money and incentives to property owners to rent their properties to people who are currently experiencing homelessness. And within this program is the Rapid Re-Housing program that can pay a lease up to 12 months in advance, pay double the security deposit, and pay the landlord a signing bonus of up to 3 times the monthly rent. The program is managed differently in every state and I would encourage owners and property managers to check it out. Seek out departments and non-profits that work with the homeless in your community and ask about the Rapid Re-Housing program. The recently approved CARES Act allocated a lot of money to this program and organizations are having a hard time spending it all.
Problem with this is double the security deposit and a triple signing bonus is a drop in the bucket compared to the costs renting to this segment of the population is going to cost landlords. On average these kinds of people are going to do 10x the damage of these miniscule incentives.
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