I know this is a little off topic, but I wanted to suggest that OL do an investigative piece on Section 8 abuses. As a landlord, I've been shocked at the number of Section 8 recipients contacting me to rent my 2bd/1ba apartments. Not just once or twice, but every time I place an ad on Craigslist I get multiple calls. These apartments rent for +$2,200, which in my mind is a terrible waste of the City's budget AND provides no incentive for Section 8 recipients to pay their own way.

One of my neighbors has been living in a 4bd/2ba Section 8 apartment for 10 years. She and her husband don't need a 2,000 SF apartment to themselves, but why not when she is only paying $400/mo for it. This situation seems a terrible waste of OUR tax dollars.

Hell, if I could get a freakin' gorgeous, huge apartment at the City's expense, I'd keep my income as low as possible.

Maybe if the standards were revised and periodic audits conducted, we wouldn't HAVE a lottery because those needing help would be easily aided. In addition, the budget for OHA would reflect the community's needs, not landlord and/or individuals' greed.

{I'm not saying public assistance isn't needed at certain points in one's life. I've certainly needed help along the way and am grateful for the services provided by our State.}

GREAT idea, thank you.

A few clarifications.  Much of this information is publicly available at the Oakland Housing Authority website, OAKHA.org or at the HUD.gov website.

The Section8 Housing Choice Voucher program is not a local program funded by the City of Oakland. It is a Federal Program funded through HUD.  In Oakland this program is administered by the Oakland Housing Authority, a non-profit organization. 

OHA, as an organization and for each separate program they administer, is subject to regular audits.  Both internal audits conducted by OHA management and audits conducted by the local HUD office are mandated. 

Each family receiving S8 HCV subsidy has their family and income eligibility re-evaluated on an annual basis.  OHA is vigilant about fraud and does due diligence in uncovering and prosecuting fraud using every tool at its disposal.

While many S8 HCV holders might have inquired about your apartments, your rents are too high to qualify.  OHA's Payment Standard (the upper limit of the contract rent for the unit plus a conservative utility allowance) for a 2 bed apt is $1,367.  OHA is bound by this standard and also uses a rent reasonableness tool (comparing comparable rents in the immediate area of the prospective unit), to ensure that market rents are not being exceeded by landlords receiving subsidy payments.

In order to pay their own way in renting one of your apartments, a single income family would have to be netting $26,400 annually just to pay the rent with nothing left over for utilities, food, clothing, transportation, etc.  That would require working 40 hrs a week, 52 weeks a year at about $12.70/hr.  California minimum wage is currently $8/hr.  Most rents in Oakland are simply not affordable for those on the lower end of the pay scale (who, in a sense, subsidize the lifestyle enjoyed by those on the upper end by providing low cost services) or those on fixed income like SSI, Social Security or unemployment.

Finally, if your neighbor is living in subsidized housing and they appear to be over-housed, it's not likely that they're renting under S8 HCV.  It's possible they are living in a unit under the Public Housing program (separate from S8 but still administered by the local Housing Authority).  Not all public housing consists of large projects.  OHA, for example, has a number of "scattered site" Public Housing units (single homes, duplexes, triplexes, etc) and the distinction between those and Section 8 subsidized units can blur at times.  Its possible that an appropriately sized unit was not available at the time and this qualifying household might have been housed in a unit larger than what they would otherwise have qualified for.  If the family was originally appropriately housed then, over time, family members moved out of the household but there were no smaller units available, the family might have been allowed to remain in the unit.  It's getting harder to find large families for the larger units despite the rhetoric one hears.

Hope this helps clear a few things up.

Thank you, James. OHA asked us to he,p get the word out on this and you have added alot to the context of their request.

Hi James,

All I can say is "interesting..."

I have had SUCH consistent experience as a landlord recieving phonecalls for TWO people to live in my expensive units that I wonder what is really going on. A brief cruise of CL postings for +2bd units puts the max allowance at approximately the AVERAGE of all listings for Oakland (including those with greater than 2bdrms). Knowing they also must contribute to rent and utilities means their housing *could equate to better than average.

There is, therefore, no incentive to increase one's (documentable) income.

Regardless of governmental influence in standards, local information is always necessary to prevent situations like this from arising and in proofing the theories creating those standards in the first place. This is why I suggested the SYSTEM is at fault. It needs to be overhauled to encourage the behavior our community needs (self reliance) and to minimize greed (of both landlords and tenants). Public assistance should be a temporary aid, not a lifestyle.

Unfortunately it is a lifestyle for many in our community. I understand the whys, having experienced incentives to remain on aid. The problem is our government programs do not incentivise behaviors progressively and they encourage abuse, sloth, and fraud nearly every step of the way.

I stand by my suggestion for OL to investigate the program. Maybe they should post some Sec 8 friendly ads on CL and interview those respondants.

Regarding my neighbor, they asked if they could rent one of my units which is why I KNOW they are on Sec 8. (No I will not be contacting OHA, I like them too much and don't believe hurting them will help the fix the systemic problems.)

"Public assistance should be a temporary aid, not a lifestyle."

That's easy to say if you're not someone who is permanently disabled or has a family member that is and requires you to be at home caring for them. I'm fortunate that I'm not in that situation, but every family I know that receives Section 8 assistance has either a primary renter or a family member (child with major physical and mental delays or elderly parent who needs full-time assistance) that keeps them from being able to either get or keep a job.

My former elderly neighbors were both 80+ and physically couldn't work, had no children to help them provide for living expenses, and had worked in the Ukraine for most of their lives and had no real pension to pull from here. They were able to rent a nice unit because they were eligible for Section 8 and Social Security Disability. They had high medical bills, so truly couldn't afford more than what they had, but combining the two assistance programs allowed them to live in decent conditions in a safe neighborhood.

Also, if you go to HUD's website, you'll find that they have an apartment search function that pulls up all listings that they consider "affordable" even though it doesn't give actual rates or available units. http://www.hud.gov/apps/section8/step2.cfm?state=CA%2CCalifornia

Perhaps your units are among the listings there and should be removed, if you don't take Section 8.

And frankly, when I rented out a unit previously, I still got a ton of emails with people with dogs, Section 8, cars that needed parking, and other things that were explicitly spelled out in my CL add as not included/allowed. People don't always read before they spam anyone with an interesting or nice looking unit with requests. It doesn't mean it's massive, system fraud, as your post implies.

Sorry, but in my neighborhood, it is a "massive system of fraud". And by "lifestyle" I mean those who have a choice, not those that you've mentioned who don't.