Boston landlords who rent to tenants through the federal Section 8 voucher program will only get 25% of their December payments from the Boston Housing Authority for the time being as the country continues to recover from the federal government shutdown.
A Tuesday letter from Kathlin McGonagle, chief of leased housing and admissions at the BHA, said that housing authorities across the country have not yet received approval of “shortfall funding,” which the BHA relies on from the government to cover the difference between rental inflation and budget allocations for the year.
“As a result of these federal approval and processing delays at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, due in part to the federal government shutdown, our ability to release payments to our Section 8/Housing Choice Voucher Program landlords on the regular schedule has been negatively affected,” the letter said.
Section 8 is a federal program that helps with rental payments for low-income households, seniors and those with disabilities.
The letter also said that the BHA anticipates that full payments may not be given out until around the middle of the month. In the meantime, they’re giving out a quarter of the monthly payment to those who receive direct deposits. That percentage reflects the portion of funds the BHA currently has.
The agency says it will distribute the remaining balance as soon as it gets the rest of the federal dollars. They’re hopeful that shortfall funds will be available next week, though they have not gotten a formal confirmation.
“We deeply value our partnership with our Section 8 landlords, who provide housing to many thousands of low-income families across the region,” BHA administrator Kenzie Bok said in a statement. “We felt it was important to distribute the $10 million that we received so far, as we await the remaining $30 million, and we’re committed to providing them with updated information on this evolving situation.”
But in the meantime, landlords will not receive their full rental payments. This is worrying to Doug Quattrochi, executive director of MassLandlords.
“It’s a mistake to think that landlords operate with large margins. Most don’t and two-thirds of the housing provided in Massachusetts is small, independent operators,” he said. “So, I’ve got to figure that’s roughly the same percentage of BHA customers. There’s a whole lot of small people who are gonna be impacted by this.”
He said Section 8 is a good program and everyone should want it to continue, regardless of ideology. Although he said that landlords can’t refuse to rent to someone simply because they use Section 8 in Massachusetts, it’s still hard to place renters using the program. And he worries that this kind of payment delay could make that even harder.
“In the back of my mind I might be thinking this program’s not a lock anymore,” he said. “And then I can easily go and say, 'Well, all right, you know your credit’s not good enough, you have an eviction history, you don’t get a reference from your prior landlord, so I’m gonna pass on your application.’ So if you, like MassLandlords, want there to be more equal housing [opportunities] for renters, this is a program disaster.”
Michael Kane, director of the Mass Alliance of HUD Tenants, also believes this could discourage landlords from renting to Section 8 participants. And he’s worried about even bigger repercussions.
“If the delay in payment goes on more than a month I think the BHA will be forced to start figuring out where to cut tenants,” he said. “They’re not cutting tenants now, they’re cutting payments to landlords with the expectation that the money will come from Washington in time.”
