The Section 8 program has many rules imposed by the federal regulations governing the
program. The Housing Agency has other areas where it has discretion to act in the City’s best
interests. One of those discretionary areas involves Section 8 landlords who are delinquent on
their real estate taxes.

As part of the updates to our program and the adoption of the new
Administrative Plan for Section 8, Consoc suggested and the City incorporated the HUD
regulation that prohibits the issuance of new or renewal Section 8 contracts to property owners
who are delinquent on their property taxes. The effect of this change is that the delinquent
owner can continue to receive Section 8 rents for any unit under contract, but under our
policies, the owner cannot renew the existing unit at the end of the annual contract or add
additional Section 8 units until the property taxes are current on all Section 8 properties.
 

The Section 8 program guarantees rent payments, generally providing the owner with hundreds
of dollars per property each month. There is an obligation to keep the taxes paid and the
property maintained as part of the acceptance of that payment.

The City has notified property owners of 51 delinquent parcels being utilized in the Section 8 program, that they will be
unable to renew or add new Section 8 units until their property taxes are current. These 51
parcels combined owe over $186,000 in delinquent real estate taxes. As the Middletown City
School District receives the largest portion of collected property taxes, this represents over
$100,000 that has not been paid in support of our local schools.

View The Complete City Managers Report Here:  Weekly Update to City Council from the City Manager