I've been on Section 8 since 2007,
and when I was homeless with my two younger sons,
we were living with different
relatives, we were living on the couches,
we were living in our car and when Section 8
said ok, you can come get your voucher I
was like okay it's-it's like a god-sent
within a week I was able to secure the
job and then after that I was able to
secure a residence also.
Even though I have a job it's still hard
for me to pay up the full market rent by
myself.
The rental housing authority provides
affordable housing for folks that need it.
We have public housing units
available as well as the Housing Choice
vouchers otherwise known as the Section 8 program.
A Housing Choice voucher is a
housing voucher for someone who's low
income and what it does,
based on their income, it pays a portion
of their rent. So we have people who are
paying zero for rent and we have some
people almost paying the full rent.
Right now we have 1,800-1,750 people on the
waitlist. We're only pulling off about
20 per year, the waitlist may outlive
some folks.
It was a note on my door and
I read it and I kinda got scared, very
terrified. I was given 60 days to vacate.
I did call the office and I asked him,
"What was this about?"
"there's something I done or whatever?",
and they were like, "no,  it's just cause you're
on Section 8", and there was no other
explanations. I've been here in this
community and I love being in this
community and to sit there and have
that note placed on my door.
It was just devastating, I had to discuss
this with my son and let him know that
we would have to move again and he would
have to switch schools and that was hard
on him. I was up day and night, trying-
I couldn't get sleep. It almost became an
addiction trying to find something
available.
Nothing was coming
in Renton, nothing. My daughter just
began to come home crying. I started
thinking about homelessness.
What happened in Renton with these two
properties, is that we have a new ownership involved.
The landlord's were opting out
of accepting Housing Choice vouchers.
Folks who...receive housing assistance
vouchers, in this case of Section 8
voucher. They're competing more and more
with folks who are able to pay market rates,
because of all the people that are
moving here for high-paying jobs. The
action taken by the property management
company involved was within the law, it
was perfectly legal.
We learn about the stories of all those
folks and kind of the challenges that
they had had and it also became really
clear to us that a lot of those tenants
were really ready to fight back.
You know, I wanted to know who else was affected
by this and who it would happen to and
that's how we begin to learn it, you know.
We weren't alone.
When we started investigating, we came into it with
understanding that Section 8 is a
voluntary program, meaning landlords
could - all things being equal - refuse to
rent to people who's Section 8.
However, federal housing law prohibits
landlords from taking actions or having
policies that have, what we call a
discriminatory effect, meaning a landlord
could have policy that says, "we don't take
Section 8", but if the people that are
harmed by that are disproportionately
minorities, women, people with
disabilities,
that can still be illegal. The vast majority
of renters affected by this were
African-American women with children, up
to ninety-percent in some of the
buildings, and given the population of
the city of Renton and King county, that
was a pretty clear discriminatory effect
that this policy was disproportionately
harming black women with children.
I'm not sure if this was as much a race
issue as it was a business decision
issue. It's a hot rental market and they
want to raise rents as fast and quickly
as they can,
while the markets hot.
They don't understand how, you know, one minute you-you
have a home and in the next minute
they're telling you have to leave,
not because you don't have enough money,
not because you're being a nuisance, not
because you're tearing up the property,
it's because you have Section 8 and that's wrong.
Next is audience comments,
we have a lot-a number of people signed up
to address the council, particularly on the
Section 8 topic.
Someone mentioned something about
discrimination and you gotta prove this,
you can't prove something that you've
experienced everyday. Everyday living.
Everyday when you get discriminated
against.
We are asking you to stand with some of
your most vulnerable community members
and to pass protections for them today.
This action would have effects that
would spread throughout the entire
region.
I am a single mom. Two...
Fight for us.
Section 8 has been a very good thing for me.
This program is needed for a lot of
people.
I feel it's discriminatory,
I feel that they're discriminating against
people that have low income or get help
from Section 8. This ordinance needs to
be passed and it needs to be passed now.
Well, even though I, uh, I have the option to stay.
I'm choosing to leave. I lost part of
my dignity and though it was given back. We're
single mothers and we're trying out the
best we can to raise our children.
InClose on KCTS 9 is made possible in part
by BECU.
