Quote:
Originally Posted by Major
Merrimac must have a different demographic than Laconia. I've had experience with Section 8 housing and it's clientele since 1979. For every "nice" family, there are many, many more "not so nice" families. One thing they have in common is that they are allergic to working. Very few, if any, have full time jobs. Almost without exception, when a tenant moves out, the entire unit needs to be remodeled, sometimes down to the studs. Several years ago, one of my sons assisted my dad in cleaning out an unoccupied unit. He could not believe what he saw.
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I could not agree more. I have had rental property since 1978 and during those years have probably had about 30 section 8 tenants. 2 or 3 may have needed help, and I was glad to see them get it. The rest were in for the free ride, most worked cash jobs so their income did not show, and some even dealt drugs. I reported some tenants to the administrators of the program but they did nothing. More people on welfare is job security for them.
Without fail, none of them had any respect for the property. Annual section 8 inspections required that anything the tenant broke had to be fixed for the apartment to remain qualified, of course repairs were at the landlords expense. One tenant lost her keys so she walked around the house, poked two holes in every screen to access the latch and remove the screen, to see if the windows were unlocked. None were.
The courts are no help. Laconia District Court under a previous head judge was the worst. I have about 20 judgments against former tenants for as much as $8,000. No money will ever be collected.
I turned the last 8 unit building into condos and sold it off. The shortage of low income rental housing is directly related to the laws that favor tenants but in the long run hurt them even more. The politicians will never get it.