The Section 8 Tenant-Based Housing Choice Voucher Rental Assistance Program is authorized by Section 8 of the U. S. Housing Act of 1937 and the Quality Work and Housing Responsibility Act of 1998. The funds for this program are provided by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The purpose of the program is to provide rental assistance to low income households to allow them to rent safe, decent, and sanitary housing. The Section 8 Tenant-Based Housing Choice Voucher Program is available throughout the United States and is operated by public Housing Authorities. This program is also operated by the Pottsville Housing Authority, Pottsville, Pennsylvania.
To be eligible, applicants must be:
1. A household containing:
(a) head or spouse with a long-term disability; or
(b) head or spouse who is at least 62 years of age; or
(c) family consisting of one or more related or unrelated adults who have established a stable relationship.
(d) any other single adult.
2. Be receiving a total gross income within the limits established by HUD.
Annual Income is the gross amount of income anticipated to be received by all of the family
members during the next twelve months after the date of application.
The Section 8 Program provides assistance for low-income families in the private rental market through the Housing Assistance Payment Program. The purpose of the program is to make safe, decent, sanitary housing affordable to low income households.
RENTAL VOUCHER HOLDERS select a unit from the private rental market. Rental assistance makes market rate housing affordable. Program participants normally pay no more than 30% of their monthly-adjusted income towards the rent and utilities. The Housing Assistance Payment subsidizes the balance of the rent to the property owner.
It is vital for the Section 8 Program to be successful and that a good working relationship is developed between the Pottsville Housing Authority (“PHA”) and property owners and managers who contract with the PHA to provide housing for participants. Our goal is to provide landlords with all the information they will need in order to be successful not only to renting to a Section 8 participant, but a successful landlord in general.
The unit must meet HUD Housing Quality Standards (HQS) and the rent must be approvable within HUD Fair Market Rents (FMR) and market rate comparable (copy of HQS available).
Reasonable Rent or Rent Reasonableness is certified by the PHA for each household that is subsidized. What this means is that the rent cannot be more for a subsidized unit than it would be for an unsubsidized unit, comparable in size, amenities and geographical location.
There must also be a valid lease between the tenant and landlord and a Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) Contract executed between the landlord and PHA.
The program determines the payment standard which is used to calculate the household’s subsidy in the Rental Voucher Program. The Fair Market Rent (FMR) Payment Standard is set by HUD and is based on the Area that the unit is in. Payment Standards are adjusted to address the cost of housing in each county or locality.
You may call the PHA office at (570) 628-2702 to have the unit listed on our list of available units. You may also advertise in the newspaper with the phrase “Will accept Section 8.” Our families look for those listings.
LANDLORD SCREENS TENANTS
YOU must screen the prospective tenant carefully to insure that YOU are making a good selection. Although the PHA runs a criminal background check on all applicants prior to eligibility ruling, we cannot provide a reference as to their expected behavior as tenants. You may use any or all of the following screening procedures:
We encourage all of the above screening methods as long as you do not discriminate. Discrimination includes any tenant selection based on race, color, religion, ancestry, sex, country of birth, handicap or familial status. The prohibition against discrimination based on familial status makes it illegal, in most circumstances, to refuse to allow children to live in a residential unit.
When you have selected a tenant, he/she will have a “Request for Tenancy Approval” form for you to complete. The RFTA will contain all the information about the rental unit that the PHA will require to determine whether or not a subsidy can be provided for that particular unit. The tenant and landlord must sign and date this form before being submitted to PHA. When the tenant submits the form to our office, a housing representative will contact you to schedule an inspection.
The unit will be inspected to insure that it meets HUD’s Housing Quality Standards (HQS). If there are any violations discovered during the inspection, you will be notified in writing of what the violations are and be given a deadline to complete the repairs. The subsidy will not begin until the unit meets all HQS requirements. No retro-active payments may be made for the time period before the unit passed inspection.
After the unit passes inspection and the rent has been approved, the landlord and tenant enter into a lease for an initial term of one year. At this time, the landlord must also provide written documentation that verifies that the landlord legally owns the property or the landlord has the legal right to rent it out. The Housing Authority and the landlord also sign a Housing Assistance Payments Contract through which the rent is assisted on behalf of the tenant.
After one year, the lease is renewed for a specified time period (ex. month-to-month, six months, etc.). The tenant may vacate with a notice after the initial term of the lease expires. If the tenant remains in the unit, the tenant is recertified for eligibility and the unit is inspected for Housing Quality Standards annually, at which time the landlord may request an annual adjustment rent increase which must be approved by the Housing Authority. This request must be submitted in writing to the Housing Authority and tenant thirty (30) days prior to renewal.
The first thing a landlord has to understand when they encounter a problem serious enough to start thinking about evicting a tenant is that he/she is the one who has to take action to remedy the situation. PHA, while providing the subsidy on behalf of the tenant, is not responsible for the behavior of the tenant. They did not choose the tenant or put them in the unit and PHA has no legal authority to take any action on behalf of the landlord regarding the termination of the lease and ultimately the removal of the tenant. PHA will work with the landlord to persuade the tenant to live up to the terms of the lease they signed. However, the Section 8 Program has no authority or ability to remove the tenant. After all other options have been exhausted, and you feel that you need to remove the tenant, the last resort is eviction. An eviction is the only legal remedy you have to remove a tenant that has failed to live up to the terms of the lease and who refused to leave voluntarily.
Self-Help evictions or an eviction where you forcefully and physically remove a tenant from your property is illegal and may lead to the tenant taking legal action against you. The only legal way to evict someone is through a COURT ORDERED eviction.
Landlords should also send copies of all notices and summons to the PHA so that they are aware of the situation. This is also important because PHA is paying a portion of the tenant rent and there have been cases where the eviction was “thrown out” of court because the Housing Authority was not notified. This happens mostly if the tenant has retained an attorney. If this were to happen, the landlord would have to refile the eviction, costing them more time and money. Therefore, it is important that PHA is supplied with copies of any correspondence between tenant and landlord.
Entering into a HAP Contract does not prohibit the landlord from selling the property at anytime. However, the landlord has a responsibility to PHA to notify them of the sale ahead of time so that a new contract can be made with the new owner. As with most things, the earlier, the better. When the sale of the property is certain, the owner must contact the PHA. Be prepared to give the name, address, phone number, and if possible, the tax identification number of the proposed buyer. The new owner should also contact PHA to arrange for a Section 8 landlord briefing.
The PHA will prepare a New Lease Addendum and give it to the current owner to have it executed at the settlement of the sale. Once that form, a signed W-9 tax form and verification of the property transfer is returned to the PHA, the information will be forwarded to the PHA accounting department to make the necessary changes for sending payments.
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