Why I Lease to Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program Participants

A brief information about the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program:

If you are not familiar with the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program, it is a federal government assisted program to help low income families find decent living outside of subsidized housing projects. These participants can rent apartments, condos, townhomes, single-family homes or duplex from landlords who are willing to participate in the program, and the program will pay landlords on behalf of the participants.

The program is run locally by the Public Housing Agency (PHA). Each PHA runs the program differently. Click here if you want to find out more information about the Housing Choice Voucher Program.

Getting to the main purpose of this article:

Ok, now I’ll get to the point. I can hear you say “dude, get to the damn point, already!” A few reasons why I rent to the voucher program participants:

• Guaranteed direct rent payment deposit to my bank account every month
• No need to send monthly invoices or demand letters for payments
• Long term tenants
• Participants cannot have a criminal background, no sex offenders, no substance abuse, no eviction on their record
• Participants must pay their rent portion if they have a portion to pay or they will lose their voucher if you file an eviction
• The program’s payment standard is higher than the market value for certain areas and zip codes
• No need to constantly search for tenants or hire a realtor; they come to you

Most people shy away from participating in this voucher program for several reasons:

• They hear horrid stories of families damaging the property. Shit yes, it does happen, and I’ve experienced a few, but that’s no different than with non-voucher program families. The income you get outweighs the expense you have to spend fixing the property. Regardless of voucher program or non-voucher program families, you must do your due diligence and screen the families.
• They don’t know much or know nothing about the program and how it works. If you attend one or two workshops that teach landlords about the program, you will get all the information you need in order to lease to these participants with very little issues. There are people in every department who will be able to answer your questions.
• They think it is a tedious process. It could be. It depends on the PHA. Some PHAs are easy to work with and all paper work is done via email, and the contract can be signed within 2 weeks. Other PHAs may take months to get all the paperwork done and you must go to their office to turn in all the paperwork. They can also ask for many documents that are not readily available, which will delay the process.

Many of the voucher program participants I talked to want to lease properties outside of the housing projects so that they have  a better opportunity for their kids to go to decent schools and get away from high crime areas.

They have quite a difficult time finding landlords who will lease to them because of the reasons I mentioned above. Because of these reasons, most of the voucher program families are unlikely to damage your property as they do not want to spend months and months looking for a place to live. There is no guarantee that they will take care of your property like it’s their own, but it is very unlikely that they will damage your property, other than wear and tear. They have rules that they must follow from the PHA.

Not all of my properties are leased out to the Section 8 program. Only those properties in certain areas where the program pays about the same as the market rent amount or higher are leased to Section 8. My brother, on the other hand, lease all his properties to Section 8.

He said it's less time-consuming for him as he does not have to hire a realtor to find tenants for him. Rarely does he have any properties that are vacant for more than 2 weeks. Most tenants are long term tenants.

I hope you learn something new today. If you have any questions regarding the voucher program, please feel free to comment below or contact me and I will try my best to answer your questions. In my next article, I will explain the process on how landlords can participate in the program and get guaranteed direct rent payment deposit to your bank account every month. Thanks for reading and have a good one!

Disclaimer: All content is the opinion of the author. No investments is guaranteed to generate income. Please do your own research before you jump into anything crazy.