Focus is on landlords, not on housing tenants

Published 12:00 am Monday, September 29, 2008

Years ago I followed a federal housing inspector around as he counted toilets.

His job that day was to determine if some of the houses in Hamilton Heights subdivision, since torn down as flood hazards, could be eligible as what are called Section 8 properties.

My curiosity as a reporter was piqued when I learned that the homes, which no one would buy as a residence because they went under water from a nearby creek every time we got a hard rain, would nonetheless be desirable as rental properties with taxpayers paying 90 percent or so of the cost.

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The inspector was patient with me, explaining that inspection rules were of the “moment in time” variety. If the house wasn’t under water during his visit, it was eligible. Not only that, he pointed out, his Department of Housing and Urban Development form required only a toilet tally to match the square footage. Not a single handle was pushed.

“We just have to show they have toilets,” he said. “They’re not required to work.”

That incident came to mind when reading last week about the condemnation of the 12 apartments in the former Speed Street School, where taxpayers have been paying $52,000 per year or so in rent subsidies to a former owner.

People who pay their own rents or mortgages rarely think about those who don’t, except maybe with a bit of a grudge — though not so much of a grudge as to offer to swap places.

The public has been led to believe for a long time that there are all sorts of housing programs providing all sorts of assistance to folks some would call freeloaders. The truth is that the indigent do get at least a smidgen of shelter, but the big-picture purpose of the Mississippi Regional Housing Authority is to parse out money to the owners. How tenants actually live is of little to no concern.

If you read Danny Barrett Jr.’s story last Tuesday, you noted that the Jackson resident who had sold the Speed Street building was “not available for comment.” Why would he be? To explain that he’s been picking taxpayers’ pockets? To say it’s the tenants fault that the roof leaks, the windows are broken and sewage drips floor-to-floor and becomes inches deep?

There appears to be a network of such owners, each cashing the checks and dodging maintenance and repairs as long as possible, then letting someone else buy the property, do a limited amount of work — usually with grant money — and letting the cycle start again.

Not just in Vicksburg, but across America this is what many federal housing programs have become.  Insiders know how to play the system and make good money while providing as little as possible to shelter those the programs were created to serve.

People who pay their own rents or mortgages rarely think about those who don’t, except maybe with a bit of a grudge — though not so much of a grudge as to offer to swap places.

And when people do think about all the programs and boards and agencies associated with housing assistance programs, it is usually with the assumption that someone, somewhere is conscientiously working to assure taxpayers are getting a reasonable return on their investment.

But, as the Speed Street School facts illustrate, that’s just not so.

There are few, if any, incentives for owners to keep properties in decent shape. The incentives are to collect for a while, spend nothing on maintenance, then sell.

Don’t believe me? You wouldn’t buy a house without test-flushing the toilets. But federal rules say that’s too high a bar for landlords in assistance programs. They can collect — and do — whether toilets work or not.