This would make it easier for good owners to remain in place and would protect against property disinvestment as the Section 8 program unwinds. A large wave of Section 8 contracts expires over the next five years, beginning with contracts on 140,000 units in FY 1996. Section 8 renewals will have swallowed the entire Department. Longstanding operational and structural flaws in the Section 8 project based assistance program have reached critical proportions. Our analysis reveals that HUD is providing subsidies above market levels to as many as 3,000 Section 8 properties.
Some apartments rent for twice as much as non-subsidized units down the street.
This not only drains scarce federal housing resources, it also seriously undermines public support for assisted housing programs across the board. But over-subsidization is not the only problem. Another large group of Section 8 properties is undersubsidized and in distressed condition. No matter how badly these buildings deteriorate, however, most tenants can't move because they would lose their rental assistance. Structurally, we have build an elaborate housing delivery system that is not sufficiently responsive to tenants.