When we had rentals, we rented to Section 8. My God, the paperwork the landlord has to complete, with signatures on practically every page that had to be notarized! Depending on income, the tenants had to pay a portion of the rent. Yeah, the county check comes every month, but the renters can be slow to pay their portion.
We found too many tenants felt so entitled! Maybe the original rental agreement would be for two people. After everything is approved, the extended family shows up. People took lawnchairs to the rooftop on summer evenings, and the little kids boosted themselves up to the crawl space where they ran around like cockroaches until they fell through the living room ceiling.
After a couple of insurance claims for tenant damage, you get a nasty-gram from the company: “Here is the check for your claim. By the way, we are no longer your insurance provider.” That puts you on an insurance-wide shit list, and NOBODY will insure you. We had to get fire insurance only from the State self-insured “Fair Share Plan.”
In these project rentals in my small village people are on months- years long waiting lists.
They finally get an apartment. Their rent might be $23. They might pay that a few months. If their electricity is cut off they’d go on the eviction list. They can hang out 3 mos til that paperwork goes thru. Meanwhile they have no electricity. After they tear the place up they move on in the dim hours, leaving 90% of their belongings. 3 mos. to get repairs, painting, cleaning done they move somewhere else in. Rinse and repeat.
Still there are those that deserve help. And should get it. The deadbeats ruin it for alot of folks.
My Daddy had rental houses. They weren’t fancy or in good neighborhoods.
He was a fierce landlord. But kindly in his core. If you half acted like you’d try he’d give you every chance.
He had his share of nightmare renters. He got really good at judging his clients. He was bound by laws to take everyone’s application. But he wasn’t bound to rent to just anyone.
His favorite renters were migrant farm workers. All he needed to do was check their immigration status and know who they were employed by. And in they’d move. He never had trouble from them. 7 or 8 men could live in a two bedroom house. And they paid their rent. That’s really all he wanted.
I was working back when and only had enough for a motel 2 weeks of the month, my friends 2 weeks. That doesn’t leave enough money to rent a regular apt.
It took me over a year to get my Hud apt.
Its a third of ones rent or 25 if you’re not working.
She was homeless, but not unemployed. A Planet Fitness gym membership is $10/month and gives you access to showers in the locker room. Just a thought. I’m sure there are other options as well, particularly for someone with some income and decent looking clothing.
I’ve had homeless co-workers living out of their cars - as MC_Lovecraft mentions, they would rent a hotel room every so many days to really clean up.
Several other media articles have stated she does have a job. They don’t specify what or how much income she has so I’m going to assume not enough income to pay rent in the area.
It’s been distressingly common for years, actually.
Around here they call that Section 8.
The waiting list is ten years long in my area.
During the Great Recession when I had concerns about keeping a roof over our heads I looked into it. In fact, while they did have a waiting list with an estimated wait time of 10 years for new names, they have frozen that list… and there was a waiting list to get on the waiting list.
Government housing assistance is useless if there isn’t enough housing to go around.
I have actually looked at many large hidden areas in store facades for just this purpose. Not that I plan to move in but just to figure out how to gain access. Many drugstores around me have a second story turret on the corner over the entrance. I’m not sure how to get in, though.
But I have my place picked out. It is an upscale community that has a small building at the entrance of the road going in. It has electricity so I could put a space heater in there.It has large windows but they have sheer curtains already so a rod halfway up with another curtain would prevent anyone from just walking up and look down to see me sleeping there. Here it is:
That may be Section 8 that charges rent, albeit at a reduced rate. I’m not sure how exactly that works. Is it possible to work and still be unable to pay the rent?
In the town I live in rental units are practically non existent. In neighboring less affluent towns rents were $1100 to $1400 for a 1BR-2BR ten years ago. Now they are more like $2600 to $4200.
The minimum wage here is among the highest in the country, $15, but even working full time your rent in a one bedroom would be 100% of your gross pay.
Now these are nice new apartments. But guess what? They demolished the old ones that might have been cheaper.
And these are areas that are described euphemistically as “car dependent”. Zero public transportation options. Nearest commuter rail stations are 5+ miles away.
You can find apartments in places that have bus or rail, but the closes you get to a train station the higher the rents.
You still have to work to get Section 8 and food stamps. But this is what I know about a 50 year old single woman with no dependents who works at a drugstore.
Again: if you can get Section 8; and if you can find a place to rent that will take it.
It’s been pointed out before in this thread that in many areas the waiting list for Section 8 is multiple years long. And in many areas landlords don’t have to take it, and often most of them won’t; so even after waiting years to get the voucher, people may then have to wait years to find an available apartment/house for rent by someone who will take it – jumping through the hoops of the certification process repeatedly, because the vouchers aren’t good forever.
Yes, it is… but good luck getting on Section 8 in my county. 10 year waiting list, minimum. Where are you supposed to live in the meanwhile?
People seem to think getting Section 8 is automatic - it isn’t. You have to apply. You have get on a waiting list. You may have to re-certify multiple times.
Obviously it varies with the sign, but from the looks of it, and comparing to various things I’ve seen on YouTube, there are apartments in Japan and New York City that are even smaller than the interior of that sign.
If you’re talking about bare-bones living you can get by with remarkably little square footage.