I’m writing this here hoping it’s found by other prospective landlords who consider renting to a FIT or CHAMP candidate. But let’s start with the federal housing voucher program – aka SECTION-8.
I’ve been renting to SECTION-8 tenants for over 10 years. The experience is OK.
- 10 out of 12 SECTION-8 tenants lie about occupancy. Single mom with 1 kid on the voucher, there’s always the baby daddy “visiting”. Impossible to prove, government turns a blind eye.
- entitlement attitude… I say I observe that in 5 out of 12 … it’s not a big problem
- SECTION-8 pays their portion with direct deposit and by the 3rd, a big plus…
- negative: landlord may have to chase after the tenant portion of the rent. If they lie about occupancy, they will pay on time though.
My observation is that a person who has a SECTION-8 voucher will almost never get off it. Why should they? I see right now 1 family where the boys all grew up (and work), starting this month, they pay the entire rent alone. The vast majority gets on SECTION-8 and stays on it. One family is “second generation SECTION-8”. An inherited life-style.
So, around 01/2017, I was contacted by some government worker. They had seen my ad on CL. They represented a program “Families in Transition” (FIT). There is another related program called “CalWORK’s Housing Assistance Move-in Program” (CHAMP). They kept calling every 6 weeks, I never had anything available until they called mid July. I told them I had a 3/3 coming up August 1st.
My regular rent was going to be $2800 plus $3500 deposit.
Families-in-Transition (FIT) was going to place 2 young homeless women with each 1 little child (under 6yrs) into the apartment. They offered to pay $5600 deposit (2xrent)… for EACH girl. I said “that’s against CA State Law” but they insisted on posting $11,200 deposit. Plus $1000 sign-on bonus… plus 1st month rent = $15,000.
“We guarantee the rent for 18 months” they said.
The Families-In-Transtion program (FIT) has regular meetings with their clients to help them develop job skills, improve their resume, get better paying jobs etc. They will gradually step down how much they pay until the client is self-sufficient.
Sounds great, right?
The 2 young women looked clean, well-dressed (better than me), drove nice cars (newer VW Passat, and a clean Honda Accord, I think), so, I figured, I take very little risk.
Boy, was I wrong. The girl with the Accord had come from Hawaii (she had had the money to ship her car from Hawaii) and during the first month of her tenancy, she decides that she wants to go back to HI. So she gives her 30 day notice and I need to refund her $5600 security deposit. Easy money, right?
I also found out that her parents own a house in San Francisco where she stayed at least part time while in California.
So, now I’m left with 1 girl and I get only 1/2 the rent. Families-in-Transition or CHAMP want to place a homeless family (2 adults, 1 kid) in the apartment with her. She says “no”. CHAMP then refuses to work with this apartment. Eventually, another single woman with a kid is located and she moves in (December '17). She has support from FIT. Now they feel they cannot post any security deposit, because they already posted over $11k. Alright… problem is, I refunded 1/2 and the other half had been partially used to cover the lacking rent during the 50% vacancy. The 2nd person had moved in in December, but I did not get paid until last week of March.
The staff at Families-in-Transition are horrible to work with after you signed a rental contract. (They’re very available prior to signing.)
No electronic rent deposit. Today is May 12th and the government check “got lost in the mail” (determined on the 8th, the new check has not arrived yet either).
They say that they guarantee rent for 18 months, but they cut substantially after 3 or 4 months and cut off completely after 6 months. They make the cut without much notice, e.g. let my tenant know on the 28th that their rent portion goes up by a couple hundred. My frustration is mostly with the program and the government workers, not really with the tenants.
Based on neighbor’s telling, my 2 tenants from Families-in-transition are not working. And I don’t think that this entire Families-in-Transition program is working either.
So, I gave them a 30 day notice earlier this week, and I’m going back to regular or SECTION-8 tenants.
That’s the only good thing about Families-In-Transition. SECTION-8 tenants have a 90-day protection, FIT and CHAMP tenants get the regular 30 days during their first year.