Does Section 8 help or hurt city?

MIDDLETOWN — While the term “Section 8” may evoke different ideas in the minds of Middletonians, it is a public program meant to provide rent subsidies for low- to moderate-income families to live in safe, decent and clean housing.

Its roots date back to the federal laws enacted during the Great Depression, and now Section 8 also includes programs that provide housing assistance to the elderly and disabled in public and private complexes and rental houses.

Jim Cunningham of the Cincinnati office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, said the “tenant-based program allows people to rent on the open market. The tenant pays 30 to 40 percent of the rent.”

Cunningham said tenants pay their portion to the landlord while the housing authority pays the difference in the rent for units that must meet HUD housing quality standards.

According to HUD regulations, there is no limit on how long a person may keep a voucher, so long as the income limits — no more than 50 percent of the median income for the county or city — are not exceeded.

Also, the vouchers are portable and can be used anywhere in the United States.

HUD spends more than $16.8 billion annually on the housing choice program that nationally assists more than 1.4 million households.

Growth of Section 8

The 1,662 housing choice vouchers assigned to the Middletown Public Housing Authority represent about 7 percent of the city’s households.

As of Wednesday, July 15, there were 1,576 active vouchers in use, according to the city’s Community Revitalization Department.

While it has been proposed to reduce the number of vouchers to about 800 through attrition, Middletown City Council has not moved forward with the proposal.

“I believe that the Section 8 program is a good program that benefits people in need,” said City Manager Judy Gilleland. “We need to ensure that Middletown residents have access to affordable housing, and Section 8 vouchers help to that end.”

Middletown, along with Parma, are the only two municipally run public housing agencies in Ohio. Throughout the rest of the state, public housing is overseen by county or multicounty housing authorities.

Lucrative leases

In its 2009 budget, the city projected to receive more than $11.75 million in federal funding for the Section 8 voucher program.

The number of vouchers in Middletown has more than doubled from 767 in 2000 to 1,662 in 2009. In federal funding, that has grown from $2.47 million in 2000 that is pumped into the city’s economy.

The program is big business for local landlords, with some owning as many as 20 to more than 40 rental units.

Housing ‘imbalance’

In 2008, Gilleland proposed transferring the 30-year-old program to the Butler Metropolitan Housing Authority because the city was not equipped to administer the complex program.

She also cited the imbalance of Section 8 housing vouchers in Middletown compared to Butler County, which has just under 1,000.

Middletown holds more than 50 percent of the housing choice vouchers in Butler County, yet the city only represents about 15 percent of the county’s population. The city’s poverty rate also nearly doubled the past eight years from 12 to 22 percent.

She said the city in the past acquired vouchers “without a conscious conversation with Council.”

City staff in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003 wrote letters of support in applications seeking an additional 790 vouchers. The applications were prepared by CONSOC Housing Consultants of Columbus, which has managed the program for the past 19 years. Council gave its approval as part of its annual consolidated plan sent to HUD.

Although City Council capped the number of vouchers at 1,554, HUD also converted 108 site-based units to the housing choice program, which increased the total to its current level at 1,662 vouchers.

Addressing issues

“The city of Middletown has experienced issues with Section 8 housing,” Gilleland said. “The city wasn’t doing its due diligence with housing inspections and criminal activity among the residents of Section 8 residents.”

In May, City Council ratified a new three-year contract with CONSOC, and both are now working on updating the administrative plan and policies to ensure there is quality housing and to curtail criminal activity, Gilleland said. Some tenants involved in criminal activity already have lost vouchers.

“We’ve tightened up the provisions ... and we’re confident that there will be major improvements in the Section 8 program in the very near future,” she said. “In fact, we’ve seen some positive changes already.”