Word: sectioners
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...suffering from what critics call "HUD fatigue" - frustration with dealing with government bureaucracy when it comes to getting the government to fork over the subsidies. Dean Chaussee, who has owned and managed properties in suburban Seattle through his Westwood Management since 1975, is waiting to opt out of his Section 8 contract when it expires because of what he says is unfair treatment from HUD. "We sign a contract to provide housing for people who otherwise wouldn't be housed by the private sector," he says. "HUD's job is to pay us for doing it, but they are consistently...
According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, as many as 13,000 Section 8 contracts will expire by 2013, meaning 800,000 privately owned buildings could potentially be put up for sale or have the rents on their apartments raised to full market rates. Michael Bodaken, executive director of the National Housing Trust says about 1.5 million apartments housing between three and five million people will be affected. "Generally it's bad for cities to the extent that they lose the needed mixed income and affordable housing resource that is difficult to replace," says Bodaken, whose non-profit...
Larry Gross, executive director of the Los Angeles-based Coalition for Economic Survival, says as many as 12,000 units in the city will have subsidy contracts expire by 2013, most within the Section 8 program. "This is a tidal wave of disaster headed our way, unless we take emergency action," says Gross. "Most of these buildings are in areas that have gentrified over the years. [The landlords] see the dollar signs and think they can get more money...
Cities like Los Angeles and New York face the biggest problems because they have more people living under subsidy of some type, including those provided by their states. According to HUD, New York City has 124,000 project-based units, the most in the nation - and the Section 8 deadlines are compounded by the fact that the New York State-sponsored Mitchell-Lama initiative is expiring as well. A total of 40,000 Mitchell-Lama units are vulnerable to buyout under the program, meaning owners can raise the cost of occupied housing to market rate...
...affect largely middle- and working-class residents. Says Chan: "In a worse-case scenario, owners [would] buy out all the Mitchell Lama [New York State's housing subsidy] program buildings; they go straight to market rate and no government agency would regulate the buildings, and people might not get Section 8 vouchers, so the question becomes whether it can sustain working and middle class people...