Has anyone rented to a section 8 tenant or been a section 8 renter?

[Anonymous]

Everyone calm down and try to hide your ugly biases, having Latino children in our local schools is a good thing as it adds to the diversity and perspectives in our school community. I wonder in reading some of these posts if I have time warped into a 60s school busing conversation. The more things change, the more things stay the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone calm down and try to hide your ugly biases, having Latino children in our local schools is a good thing as it adds to the diversity and perspectives in our school community. I wonder in reading some of these posts if I have time warped into a 60s school busing conversation. The more things change, the more things stay the same.

I think you're reading a different thread from everyone else, dear. Take your hysterics elsewhere unless you have something to add to the conversation.

[Anonymous]

NP here who has just read with interest through the entire thread. I do not live in McLean, so I have no horse in this contest. First, as far as I can tell many McLean homeowners live in 7,600 square foot houses, and are proud of that fact. Do we resent this particular PP McLean homeowner because she is Latina, or because she has the nerve to help out a Latino family in need and send their children to local schools?

Second, having traveled extensively over the years throughout Latin America and the entire world, it is more common in other countries among the upper-middle class, and certainly among people as wealthy as those people who live in McLean, to have live-in help. Some PPs attribute to the McLean Latina some arrogant attitude in opening her home to live-in help, but that might reflect more our own American-centric attitudes and experiences, i.e., only an arrogant elite would actually have live-in help. She probably opened her house to live-in help and their family, because that is not uncommon in other parts of the world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone calm down and try to hide your ugly biases, having Latino children in our local schools is a good thing as it adds to the diversity and perspectives in our school community. I wonder in reading some of these posts if I have time warped into a 60s school busing conversation. The more things change, the more things stay the same.

I think you're reading a different thread from everyone else, dear. Take your hysterics elsewhere unless you have something to add to the conversation.

The hysterical, in every sense, post was the previous post about the denizens of McLean "clutching their pearls" when they came to school next year to find that Latino children had overrun the schools.

[Anonymous]

OP, have you considered HUD-VASH vouchers? They are basically Section 8 vouchers given to formerly homeless veterans. It is very difficult to find a decent place that accepts voucehrs, HUD-VASH or Section 8. Most of the places are totally run-down. If you choose to go this route, thanks very much for providing a decent alternative.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, Mclean mom, but it is not legal to rent out your basement to another family, regardless of your good intentions. It is a zoning violation. You don't care about breaking the law?

Did your housekeeper's family show a lease when they registered for your elementary school with the same address as your own children?

[Anonymous]

The law in Fairfax is that if you, the homeowner, are living in the house then you can only rent to two additional tenants. Not five. We talked to the zoning office when we were thinking of buying a house with an inlaw suite.

You are running an "illegal boarding house" in Fairfax right now. Here's the regulation:
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/code/property/overcrowding.htm

[Anonymous]

I admittedly have no experience with Section 8 as either a landlord or a tenant, but I wonder if this thread has not latched on to, and highlighted, the most egregious and exaggerated examples, and then made generalizations about these outliers. I recall reading a newspaper article, several years back, about a town which was showing hostility to its Section 8 tenants, based on attitudes like the ones demonstrated in previous posts. In that case, the Section 8 tenant was a young African American, single mother in her early 30s, with three children, who was studying to be a nurse and working at a local hospital.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here who has just read with interest through the entire thread. I do not live in McLean, so I have no horse in this contest. First, as far as I can tell many McLean homeowners live in 7,600 square foot houses, and are proud of that fact. Do we resent this particular PP McLean homeowner because she is Latina, or because she has the nerve to help out a Latino family in need and send their children to local schools?

Second, having traveled extensively over the years throughout Latin America and the entire world, it is more common in other countries among the upper-middle class, and certainly among people as wealthy as those people who live in McLean, to have live-in help. Some PPs attribute to the McLean Latina some arrogant attitude in opening her home to live-in help, but that might reflect more our own American-centric attitudes and experiences, i.e., only an arrogant elite would actually have live-in help. She probably opened her house to live-in help and their family, because that is not uncommon in other parts of the world.

Did she know it was against the law here?

[Anonymous]

I think many area people break the law. Some test the limits on their tax returns, others fail to pay nanny taxes, some people keep backyard animals, or have unpermitted work done on their houses, some people routinely drive 5-15 mph over the posted speed limits. I am sure that we can come up with a myriad of examples, but I generally am of the attitude of live and let live.

As an aside, cannot children attend local schools if they come back to their grandparent or an after-school caretaker who lives in the school district? I remember way-back-when there was a woman who worked at a McLean-area child care or school precisely so that her teenage daughters could come to her place of work after school and attend MHS.

[Anonymous]

I also recall three children who spent a couple of years at the local schools living with family friends, and attending school with their children because their mother was very sick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I admittedly have no experience with Section 8 as either a landlord or a tenant, but I wonder if this thread has not latched on to, and highlighted, the most egregious and exaggerated examples, and then made generalizations about these outliers. I recall reading a newspaper article, several years back, about a town which was showing hostility to its Section 8 tenants, based on attitudes like the ones demonstrated in previous posts. In that case, the Section 8 tenant was a young African American, single mother in her early 30s, with three children, who was studying to be a nurse and working at a local hospital.

I think there likely is a tendency to generalize based on the absolute worst-case experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think many area people break the law. Some test the limits on their tax returns, others fail to pay nanny taxes, some people keep backyard animals, or have unpermitted work done on their houses, some people routinely drive 5-15 mph over the posted speed limits. I am sure that we can come up with a myriad of examples, but I generally am of the attitude of live and let live.

As an aside, cannot children attend local schools if they come back to their grandparent or an after-school caretaker who lives in the school district? I remember way-back-when there was a woman who worked at a McLean-area child care or school precisely so that her teenage daughters could come to her place of work after school and attend MHS.

No, this only works for children who need child care, not teenagers.

Still wondering if the Mclean mom is OK with breaking the law. She had so much to say earlier about what a kind, generous person she is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think many area people break the law. Some test the limits on their tax returns, others fail to pay nanny taxes, some people keep backyard animals, or have unpermitted work done on their houses, some people routinely drive 5-15 mph over the posted speed limits. I am sure that we can come up with a myriad of examples, but I generally am of the attitude of live and let live.

As an aside, cannot children attend local schools if they come back to their grandparent or an after-school caretaker who lives in the school district? I remember way-back-when there was a woman who worked at a McLean-area child care or school precisely so that her teenage daughters could come to her place of work after school and attend MHS.

That's nice for you, but the laws exist for a reason. I'm generally of the attitude that people should follow the law.

[Anonymous]

We live in Mclean. Now every time we go to a classmate's giant house, I'm going to be soooo curious about whether there is a secret family living in the basement.