DC is violating federal law by overpaying landlords tens of millions of dollars

[Anonymous]

Voucher program is a mess with no recourse for the landlord. I am a small landlord and don't rent to section 8. So much is expected from the landlord where there are little consequences of the tenants getto behavior.

Someone by our house rented toma homeless mom and it was 2 yrs of hell from our block, constant loud music, weed, kds being yelled or beated, shooting, ambulance, and over 15 people living in a house.

Voucher on its own is not enough their needs to be done consequences for these families and support to learn to live in a civil manner.

You realize that if you are in DC, refusing to rent to Section 8 tenants is illegal? It is because "source of income" is a protected class under the DC Human Rights Act identical in importance to race, gender, religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation. Nor are there any "small size" carveouts for small landlords like there is for the rent control program. That's why we promptly sold the single family rental property we had in the DC as soon as Section 8 tenants started applying. I didn't want to deal with the hassle that participating in a government rental program brings, on top of DC's already extremely favorable tenant laws, which prevent a landlord from evicting a tenant no matter how they behave or damage the property so long as the government continues to pay their rent.

So I took property out of the rental housing stock and sold it to "gentrifiers" thus reducing the availability of affordable rental housing. Had there been a small size carveout for landlords who own fewer than 4 units, then we might have continued to rent the place out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Voucher program is a mess with no recourse for the landlord. I am a small landlord and don't rent to section 8. So much is expected from the landlord where there are little consequences of the tenants getto behavior.

Someone by our house rented toma homeless mom and it was 2 yrs of hell from our block, constant loud music, weed, kds being yelled or beated, shooting, ambulance, and over 15 people living in a house.

Voucher on its own is not enough their needs to be done consequences for these families and support to learn to live in a civil manner.

You realize that if you are in DC, refusing to rent to Section 8 tenants is illegal? It is because "source of income" is a protected class under the DC Human Rights Act identical in importance to race, gender, religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation. Nor are there any "small size" carveouts for small landlords like there is for the rent control program. That's why we promptly sold the single family rental property we had in the DC as soon as Section 8 tenants started applying. I didn't want to deal with the hassle that participating in a government rental program brings, on top of DC's already extremely favorable tenant laws, which prevent a landlord from evicting a tenant no matter how they behave or damage the property so long as the government continues to pay their rent.

So I took property out of the rental housing stock and sold it to "gentrifiers" thus reducing the availability of affordable rental housing. Had there been a small size carveout for landlords who own fewer than 4 units, then we might have continued to rent the place out.

+1

My DH owns several properties but refuses to buy and rent in DC. The laws are untenable and all it takes is one bad tenant. It’s too risky and potentially expensive.