News Flash: Berkeley's Section 8 Tenants To Subsidize Landlords

News Flash: For Immediate Release

Contact # 510/763-1085 tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com

February 28, 2007


Berkeley's Section 8 Tenants To Subsidize Landlords


Berkeley, CA -- In what shall be known as a bizarre twist of fate for the poor, around "2 hundred" Section 8 tenants will be forced to subsidize Berkeley's wealthy landlords to the tune of $35 to $45 per month, out of their meagre income.

On February 27, during a late starting Berkeley Housing Authority (BHA) Board Meeting, a majority of BHA Board Members voted to change the voucher payment standards for Berkeley's Section 8 families, affecting many poor people in a negative way.

Several Section 8 tenants took turns at the podium before the BHA Board Members, including a middle aged woman in a wheel chair, to make impassioned pleas against the scheme that would harm them, only to fall on deaf ears determined to have Berkeley's poor subsidize the landlords in the Section 8 program.

The change in payment standards will have a horrible effect on around 200 tenants/families in studio and 1 bedroom apartments, who will be forced to cover existing HUD funding shortfalls in the Section 8 program in Berkeley.

City Councilmember/BHA Board Member Kris Worthington, may have been the only council member to vote against the scheme to have Berkeley's poor subsidize the landlord's housing properties in Berkeley.

This all came about, because Housing and Urban Development (HUD) came to the conclusion that Berkeley's landlords in the Section 8 program were being overpayed, and HUD reduced the Fair Market Rents (FMR voucher payment standards) as a result.

The Fair Market Rents determine the value of a Section 8 voucher, and in this case the value of the housing vouchers have been reduced. As a result, the affected tenants will be forced to cover the subsidy shortfall that will no longer cover the full expense of the existing rental contracts, and this will be a severe hardship for many.

No one has asked the landlords to pay back any overpayments that may have been made by the BHA to the wealthy property owners in the Section 8 program, and Berkeley's landlords did not appear at the February 27 meeting to object to the scheme that will make Berkeley's poor subsidize their properties.

As a result of Berkeley officials failure to have a community meeting with the landlords to demand that the rental contracts should be reduced to match the HUD funding shortfalls (FMR reductions), many tenants and families wonder how they are going to cover the funding shortfall, and be able to come up with the money to subsidize the wealthy landlord's properties.

In what were several rounds of votes that took place on the evening of February 27, to address the funding shortfalls in Berkeley's Section 8 program, the result of the votes are that Section 8 tenants will have to pay a larger share out of pocket to pay off their monthly utility bills, and around 200 Section 8 tenants will be forced to subsidize Berkeley's landlords, on a monthly basis.

As a result of the continuing funding shortfalls occuring in the Section 8 program, BHA may be forced to make further adjustments to voucher payment standards that will also crush many more of Berkeley's poor, if other revenue streams fail to address the ever increasing funding shortfalls taking place in Berkeley's Section 8 program.

Lynda Carson may be reached at; 510/763-1085 or tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com