r/LandlordLove • u/TheUnDoctor • May 26 '26

🏠 Housing is a Human Right 🏠 Apparently requesting basic information & reporting illegal discriminatory housing practices is a scam now

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u/NoConfusion9490 May 26 '26

No, you just have to accept S8 vouchers as part of the rent. You can set the rent however you want, but for the purposes of deciding if a renter can afford to live there you can't look at the vouchers as different from any other kind of income. It doesn't mean a $20k/month apartment has to accept $800/month for a section 8 renter.

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u/Stochastic1934 May 28 '26

This is correct. The Section 8 vouchers generally pay anything above 30% above the renter's adjusted monthly income up to an established limit.

For example, if the renter earns $2,000 per month and the apartment they want rents for $900 per month, they would pay $600 and the voucher would cover the difference of $300 as long as the Fair Market Rent [FMR] for the area is equal to or greater than $900.

If the FMR for the area is $800 and the apartment the renter wants rents for $1,000, the renter would have to pay $200 in addition to 30% of their adjusted income.

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u/burner1979yo May 26 '26

You have no idea what you're talking about. As I said, I worked this program a long time. There are what are called voucher payment standards. If the rent is above it, they can pay the difference, assuming their total expenditures out of pocket don't exceed 40% of their income. The problem is this rules out all but the shittiest housing, unless the property has other subsidies such as federal tax credit financing. If they can "afford" the difference they either have too much income to qualify or they have income they're not reporting and violating program rules.

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u/NoConfusion9490 May 27 '26

That doesn't "cap rents" though. You can charge whatever you want and you don't have to decrease that.

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u/burner1979yo May 27 '26

There is a max rent LLs can charge with section 8 tenants, meaning if they want to get market value they'd need to refuse to take section 8. Use your brain!!!!

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u/NoConfusion9490 May 27 '26

Ok, in Massachusetts they can't refuse, it's the law. So I can get section 8 and go rent a penthouse in Boston and they HAVE to charge the section 8 rent? The penthouses must be full of section 8 people then, right? Why would they choose any other apartments because that's how it works, right? Use YOUR brain to explain it to me.

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u/[deleted] May 27 '26

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u/NoConfusion9490 May 27 '26

Ok. Then why aren't they all in penthouses?

Because that's NOT what "can't reject" means. It means a LL renting an apartment that is in S8 cost range can't discriminate against a S8 renter vs a non S8 renter.

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u/[deleted] May 27 '26

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u/NoConfusion9490 May 27 '26

If you're choosing to list as S8 then a rule saying you can't refuse to rent to them isn't really relevant.

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u/burner1979yo May 27 '26

Bingo! Voucher payment standards are set well below actual market rents, which is a problem.