Stacey-Ann's Blog

My first floor duty last October brought in a rental client.  Thus began a long relationship with the Housing Opportunities Commission (used to be called Section 8).  The renter reported that she had a voucher that paid a certain amount of her rent but she had problematic credit.  Who would care, I thought, the rent is guaranteed!  By luck she had her first application accepted.  She was so happy she referred me to everyone.  I'm now on my 15^th HOC renter this year.  However, it's getting much harder.  People are requiring perfect credit more and more.  I'm not sure I understand why a landlord would turn down a renter with bad credit when 100% of the rent is coming directly from the government. 

This makes me wonder, what's happening to the many homeowners who are experiencing foreclosures?  Where are they going to live now?  I had one couple (with 2 young kids) who had been foreclosed on last Summer, they are currently living in a shelter and receive a rental voucher for $720.  This means that the government would pay $720 directly to the owner and the couple would pay the rest (about $500 for a 2 bedroom unit).  We were turned down repeatedly because the foreclosure meant that they neither had good credit nor a good rental/mortgage payment history.  Before they came to me, they had been turned down by several apartment complexes.  Where will they end up?

Each of the renters that I've worked with has had their own story, their own problems that led them to where they are.  However, one thing they have all had in common they have all been incredibly grateful for the chance they are given when someone finally approves their application.  For many of them, it's their chance to finally right the wrong turns that they've taken, it's their chance to been seen as more than just a low credit score!