{"id":707,"date":"2018-03-06T12:15:44","date_gmt":"2018-03-06T17:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=707"},"modified":"2018-03-21T12:32:23","modified_gmt":"2018-03-21T16:32:23","slug":"two-landlord-guys-explain-what-sucks-about-accepting-section-8-vouchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=707","title":{"rendered":"Two Landlord Guys Explain What Sucks About Accepting Section 8 Vouchers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"byline\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dallasobserver.com\/authors\/jim-schutze-6371486\">JIM SCHUTZE<\/a><\/span>\u00a0|\u00a0<span class=\"pubdate\">MARCH 6, 2018<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Dallas Housing Authority grants rental assistance vouchers based on need. A stubborn problem with the program, however, is that many landlords refuse to accept the vouchers, even when a prospective tenant qualifies on all other grounds.<\/p>\n<div class=\"mobile-fold ex-fold\">\n<aside class=\"pullquote\"><strong><em>\u201cI don\u2019t think there is anything that could make us jump up and down for joy over being told we have to do anything.\u201d \u2013 Ian Mattingly<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>A growing consensus in the city (that means me and people who agree with me) is that Dallas pays a bitter price for being so stubbornly and intractably segregated. If you think segregation is great and makes this a better city, you and I are out of business already.<\/p>\n<p>The progressive wing of the council wants to pass some kind of ordinance that would make it easier for poor and working, law-abiding, minority families to live in areas where there are better schools for their kids. The common thinking has been that we should just make it against the law to discriminate against people because they want to pay most of their rent (they usually have to pay some of it themselves) with a housing voucher.<\/p>\n<p>Landlords, generally speaking, hate the idea. The idea also is not as popular as you might expect among minority elected officials, some of whom view it as draining away their voter base. I said last month the danger ahead is that the landlords in North Dallas, who hate vouchers, will make common cause with southern Dallas leaders, who love them, against the reform element at City Hall, including our very promising new city manager, T.C. Broadnax. Together they could kill the proposed ordinance.<\/p>\n<p>That way, North Dallas goes on not having to desegregate. Southern Dallas goes on resegregating itself. Business as usual.<\/p>\n<p>Last month when I talked to him about it, Dallas City Council member Philip Kingston took issue with my bleakness. He said he doesn\u2019t believe the issue of source-of-income discrimination and vouchers necessarily has to come down to a pitched battle or zero-sum game. There must be measures, he suggested, that would make a source-of-income ordinance less throw-uppy for the landlord class.<\/p>\n<p>Interesting. So I sat down with two landlords, Ian Mattingly of LumaCorp and Matthew E. Haines of The Tangent Group, to ask what could be done to make vouchers more palatable for them. Both have some tenants in their properties who pay with DHA vouchers. Both say voucher tenants tend to be stable customers. Neither one likes the idea of being forced to take vouchers, however.<\/p>\n<p>Mattingly said, \u201cI don\u2019t think there is anything that could make us jump up and down for joy over being told we have to do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Both guys are white. I told them the public accusation is that they don\u2019t want to want to take vouchers because they are racists. Nobody punched me (my bar for when I\u2019m doing well socially), but they really did not like that.<\/p>\n<p>Haines said, \u201cIt bothers me as an owner who\u2019s trying to do this when I hear people turn it into a discussion that really has nothing to do with the issue that needs to be solved.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Both men said their properties are already occupied by a tenant base that is at least half minority, sometimes more. The idea that there are all-white quasi-affordable apartment complexes somewhere in the city, they said, is nonsense anyway. The apartment universe is already ethnically diverse everywhere, although they concede that rents may impose a certain economic stratification.<\/p>\n<p>So what\u2019s the problem? Why would a new ordinance making it mandatory to accept vouchers be so painful? Is it that they think the ordinance would force them to take on less desirable tenants? When I asked that one, I also did not get punched again. Instead, they told me what the problem is. Or, I should say, the problems.<\/p>\n<p>The Dallas Housing Authority, they said, has a completely paper-based system for processing applications. Haines told me about finding a homeless vet to whom he wanted to rent an apartment. Almost none of the intensive approval process at DHA, he said, can be handled online.<\/p>\n<div class=\"img-box middle-size \">\n<div class=\"inner-img-box\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/images1.dallasobserver.com\/imager\/u\/blog\/10431511\/dallas-housing_authority_by_dha.org.jpg?ssl=1\" alt=\"Nice HQ. Now how about getting all your paperwork online?\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"insert\">\n<div class=\"cap\">Nice HQ. Now how about getting all your paperwork online?<\/div>\n<div class=\"cred\">dhadal.com<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>A voucher, they explained, is not money. It is a certificate saying that the landlord may be paid by DHA if he rents a certain type of apartment at a certain rate to the holder of the voucher.<\/p>\n<p>In the case of the homeless vet, who was sleeping outside in temperatures in the teens, once he had shown the voucher to the landlord, he then had to ride buses across town in order to wait in line for hours at DHA to be handed something called a \u201chousing packet,\u201d then ride buses back across town to hand the housing packet to Haines.<\/p>\n<p>Then Haines had to wait for DHA to inspect his rental unit. The total period from when the vet signed his application to when he could actually move in was two and a half months, during which time Haines\u2019 apartment remained empty with no rent paid. He let the vet move in before DHA dotted the last i and crossed the last t on the deal because he couldn&#8217;t stand to make the guy sleep on the street anymore.He said his loss of income while the unit was empty was about $2,000.<\/p>\n<p>Troy Broussard, CEO of DHA, confirmed to me that there is no online way for the paperwork to be done at present and that tenants and landlords must come to headquarters to get it done. He said DHA hopes to introduce a fully online system by the third quarter of this year. \u201cThis system is universal in the private sector [already],\u201d he said, \u201cso a lot of our business partners are excited that we [will be] using this system because they understand it, and they know how it works as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"pullquote\"><strong><em>\u201cIt bothers me as an owner who\u2019s trying to do this when I hear people turn it into a discussion that really has nothing to do with the issue that needs to be solved.\u201d \u2013 Matthew E. Haines<\/em><\/strong><\/aside>\n<p>Mattingly explained to me that he must maintain two separate ledgers for each unit rented with a voucher \u2014 one for the cash that the tenant pays and a second for the money from DHA. In addition, federal regulations require a landlord to sign a special lease that allows the federal government to reduce the amount paid under the voucher and requires the landlord to accept that reduced payment for the life of the lease or until the government changes its mind.<\/p>\n<p>There are ways to reduce what Mattingly described as the \u201cfrictional costs\u201d of dealing with DHA. On some of his properties, a nonprofit entity called Inclusive Communities Project has agreed to step in and act as middleman. ICP signs the lease with Mattingly, collects money from DHA and pays Mattingly, reducing his paperwork and risk. He says it\u2019s a good deal.<\/p>\n<p>Both men insist they are willing to take vouchers \u2014 they\u2019re doing it now \u2014 but they also insist it should be their right to decide how many.<\/p>\n<p>Mattingly told me, \u201cWe also have to mitigate risk. Like everything else we do, this is one more business risk, so we manage that by limiting the amount of participation we will do at any given property.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we have an ordinance, at least the way it has been proposed, I can no longer cap that participation. That\u2019s one more risk I cannot manage. So this does strike directly at the way I do business.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Both landlords do business or have associates who do business with public housing authorities in the suburbs. They say DHA is unique in the region for its antiquated, slow-as-molasses, analog way of doing business and for its extreme rigidity regarding minor regulations. They describe DHA as more interested in paperwork than in getting people into homes.<\/p>\n<div id=\"sub-id-10431508\" class=\"vmgs widget subscribe\" data-vmgs-widget=\"subscribe\">\n<div class=\"innards\">\n<h4 class=\"sub-action city-color-variants-1-back\"><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>That\u2019s their version. They didn\u2019t talk me out of my conviction, which is based on listening to and reading a raft of urban experts in the last few years. I truly believe healthy diversity is the key to the city\u2019s better destiny and that source of income discrimination is the most proximate and pernicious threat to that better destiny.<\/p>\n<p>But, c\u2019mon.\u00a0How can we even think of enacting new ordinances to push the private sector around if the public sector isn\u2019t up to speed with the 21st century yet? That just seems wrong. Wouldn\u2019t it be a solid gesture of good faith for DHA to get its new slick online system up and running first, and then we crack down on the landlords and tell them they have to accept vouchers?<\/p>\n<p>Some of this reminds me of what I saw in West Dallas when City Hall was trying to<a href=\"http:\/\/www.dallasobserver.com\/news\/lulac-national-convention-lauds-dallas-khraish-for-role-in-affordable-housing-9650855\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u00a0paint the Khraish family as demons because they rent to poor people<\/a>. West Dallas would be so much better off and better able to deal with gentrification now if City Hall had merely shown the Khraishes the respect they so eminently deserved as honest business people.<\/p>\n<p>The silver lining in what I heard, however, was that possible solutions exist to some of these problems. The interposing of ICP in the rental deals, for example, sounds brilliant. The landlord gets his rent. The tenant gets a place to live. ICP gets the acid reflux and the irregular heartbeat. Hey, the headaches have got to go to somebody. You want them?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-footer\">\n<div class=\"authorPicBox\">\n<div class=\"authorPic\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dallasobserver.com\/authors\/jim-schutze\">\u00a0<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"authorInfo\">\n<div class=\"bio\"><b>Jim\u00a0<\/b><b>Schutze<\/b>\u00a0has been the city columnist for the Dallas Observer since 1998. He has been a recipient of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies\u2019 national award for best commentary and Lincoln University\u2019s national Unity Award for writing on civil rights and racial issues. In 2011 he was admitted to the Texas Institute of Letters.<\/div>\n<ul class=\"follows\">\n<li class=\"legend\">CONTACT:<\/li>\n<li class=\"em em-a\"><a class=\"city-color\" title=\"email\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dallasobserver.com\/about\/contact?author=6371486\">Jim Schutze<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JIM SCHUTZE\u00a0|\u00a0MARCH 6, 2018 The Dallas Housing Authority grants rental assistance vouchers based on need. A stubborn problem with the program, however, is that many&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8VBh7-bp","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":921,"url":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=921","url_meta":{"origin":707,"position":0},"title":"HUD Floats a Plan Intended to Reduce Reliance on Housing Assistance","author":"Donnie","date":"April 25, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"By\u00a0Glenn Thrush\u00a0\u00a0April 25, 2018 Ben Carson, the secretary for housing and urban development, at a Senate hearing this month. The proposed legislation could triple rents on the poorest tenants in federally subsidized housing.CreditErin Schaff for The New York Times WASHINGTON \u2014 The Trump administration has proposed legislation that could triple\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;National News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"National News","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?cat=21"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/2018-04-30_22-43-33.jpg?fit=626%2C417&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/2018-04-30_22-43-33.jpg?fit=626%2C417&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/2018-04-30_22-43-33.jpg?fit=626%2C417&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1155,"url":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=1155","url_meta":{"origin":707,"position":1},"title":"An Iowa woman said her husband repeatedly raped her. Almost no one believed her. She&#8217;s not alone.","author":"Donnie","date":"January 24, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Since 2013, 18\u00a0Iowa husbands have been charged with forcing their wives to have sex. Only two have been sent to prison. Kathy A. Bolten, Des Moines Register Published 11:14 a.m. CT Jan. 24, 2019 | Updated 3:42 p.m. CT Jan. 25, 2019 \u00a9 Copyright 2019, Des Moines Register and Tribune\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;National News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"National News","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?cat=21"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/battani.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":692,"url":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=692","url_meta":{"origin":707,"position":2},"title":"5 Things to Know About Texas Sen. Ted Cruz&#8217;s Connection to the Cambridge Analytica Scandal","author":"Donnie","date":"March 20, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"STEPHEN YOUNG\u00a0|\u00a0MARCH 20, 2018\u00a0 Honestly, who couldn't love a face like that?\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Gage Skidmore Over the weekend, Sen.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;National News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"National News","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?cat=21"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-21_11-27-45.jpg?fit=743%2C484&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-21_11-27-45.jpg?fit=743%2C484&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-21_11-27-45.jpg?fit=743%2C484&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-21_11-27-45.jpg?fit=743%2C484&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":199,"url":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=199","url_meta":{"origin":707,"position":3},"title":"Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods CEO says company will stop selling assault-style rifles, set under-21 ban for other guns","author":"Donnie","date":"February 28, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"By\u00a0Rachel Siegel\u00a0February 28 at 10:15 AM\u00a0Email the author Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods will no longer sell assault-style firearms, will ban high-capacity magazines and will not sell any guns to people younger than 21, chief executive\u00a0Edward W. Stack said Wednesday. Stack appeared on\u00a0\u201cGood Morning America\u201d\u00a0on Wednesday morning, two weeks after a mass\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Weapons&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Weapons","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?cat=19"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-03-01_13-53-50.jpg?fit=899%2C574&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-03-01_13-53-50.jpg?fit=899%2C574&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-03-01_13-53-50.jpg?fit=899%2C574&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-03-01_13-53-50.jpg?fit=899%2C574&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":383,"url":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=383","url_meta":{"origin":707,"position":4},"title":"A Georgia Republican\u2019s threat to Delta: Restore NRA benefits, or you won\u2019t get your tax break","author":"Donnie","date":"February 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"By\u00a0Marwa Eltagouri February 27, 2018 at 7:04 PM Georgia Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle (David Goldman\/Associated Press) Days after Delta Air Lines\u00a0announced it\u00a0would stop offering discounted fares to National Rifle Association members, a top Georgia Republican retaliated\u00a0by vowing to kill state legislation that would hand the airline a\u00a0lucrative tax break. Lt.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;National Politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"National Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?cat=11"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-03-02_22-55-09.jpg?fit=600%2C402&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-03-02_22-55-09.jpg?fit=600%2C402&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-03-02_22-55-09.jpg?fit=600%2C402&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":242,"url":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=242","url_meta":{"origin":707,"position":5},"title":"North Carolina Is Ordered to Redraw Its Congressional Map","author":"Donnie","date":"January 9, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"By\u00a0ALAN BLINDER\u00a0and\u00a0MICHAEL WINESJAN. 9, 2018 Photo Republican State Senators Dan Soucek, left, and Brent Jackson review historic maps during a special legislative session in 2016 to set North Carolina\u2019s 13 congressional districts.CreditCorey Lowenstein\/The News & Observer, via Associated Press A panel of federal judges struck down North Carolina\u2019s congressional map\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;State Politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"State Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-03-01_11-41-13.jpg?fit=769%2C510&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-03-01_11-41-13.jpg?fit=769%2C510&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-03-01_11-41-13.jpg?fit=769%2C510&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-03-01_11-41-13.jpg?fit=769%2C510&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=707"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":708,"href":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707\/revisions\/708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}