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landlords still turn away Section 8 tenants

CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) Elizabeth Prevish knew it could be tough to find a house to rent in Corvallis, but she had no idea just how hard it would be when she decided to relocate from Redmond in May.

A single mom, Prevish has two sons, ages 3 and 13. The older boy struggles with a serious emotional disorder, and Prevish was thrilled when she got him placed in the Children s Farm Home for inpatient treatment in January.

After months opatagonia guide hoodyf making the three hour drive across the mountains to visit her son, she got approval to transfer her federal housing benefits from Deschutes County to the mid valley but ran into a brick wall when she tried to use them in Corvallis.

So far, she says, half a dozen local landlords have refused to accept her Section 8 voucher even though such discrimination is illegal under Oregon fair housing laws.

One of them listened very intently. He thought it was interesting, but he said he wanted to wait a few days and gather more applicants, Prevish said. If I tell them up front, they re very quick to say it s not going to work out.

Shepatagonia black hole 120 review s had some short term rentals in Lebanon and Albany, but both were too far from the Farm Home, and she had to leave the last one after getting into a dispute with her landlord over maintenance issues. Since then, she s had no permanent address. After spending a week in a homeless shelter, Prevish and her younger son are now staying in a donated camp trailer in a church parking lot while she continues to look for a house in Corvallis.

If Prevish can t secure housing by Nov. 7, she could lose her Section 8 voucher.

And there s an even more pressing consideration: Until she can establish a stable housing situation, the Children s Farm Home wants to keep her teenage boy in residential treatment. For now, he s only allowed off the grounds for brief visitation periods.

I need to provide a home for my son to be discharged to, Prevish said. Housing Act of 1937. Administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, it provides federally funded assistance to poor families, the elderly and the disabled to help them afford safe, decent and sanitary housing. Most recipients earn less than 30 percent.

Unlike so called project based assistance, which is tied to individual buildings or housing projects, Section 8 vouchers are intended to be used on the private rental market. A voucher can t be used if rent and utility costs for a unit exceed the voucher s level of assistance, and property owpatagonia quilt again vest reviewners are not required to lower their rents to accommodate Section 8 recipients.

Fair housing laws in Oregon have long prohibited landlords from discriminating against tenants on the basis of race, religion, nationality, family or marital status, gender, sexual orientation or disability.

Source of income is also a protected category, but Oregon law used to provide an exemption for federal housing subsidies such as Section 8 vouchers.

That changed July 1, when House Bill 2639, also known as the Housing Choice Act, closed that loophole. Specifically, it says landlords can t reject a prospective tenant solely for wanting to use a Section 8 voucher to pay rent.

Clearly, some landlords haven t gotten the message.

Bob Loewen, a rental housing specialist with the city of Corvallis, patagonia better sweater full-zip hoody jacket - women'ssaid at least a dozen property owners in Linn and Benton counties still have a blanket policy against accepting the vouchers.

What I have seen is in Craigslist ads that still say no HUD, no housing assistance, in some cases no Section 8,patagonia discount code aeropostale Loewen said.

So far, all the landlords in violation that he s contacted have been small operators who say they were unaware of the new law. Loewen said all the large rental management firms he works with appear to be in compliance, but he also knows there are some property owners who just don t want to work with the program.

There are people who think anyone who s getting government assistance isn tpatagonia black hole 120 review1 working hard, needs to go get a job and pull themselves up by their bootstraps, that sort of thing, he said.

That attitude is not limited to the mid valley.

Pegge McGuire, executive director of the Fair Housing Council of Oregon, said her agency gets about a dozen calls a week from around the state, ranging from property owners with questions about the law to Section 8 recipients whose vouchers have been turned down. And while she has no firm numbers on how many people have been improperly denied housing, her experience tells her the steady trickle of complaints indicates a much larger problem.

In general . only one in 10 people who experience ipatagonia everlong review 65llegal discrimination try to do anything about it, she said.

As Loewen indicpatagonia black hole 120 review2ated, McGuire said big property managemenpatagonia fleece sale giftt firms seem to be on board with the new law, with most of the refusals seemingly associated with mom and pop rental property owners. And, for the most part, the Section 8 rejections appear to stem from ignorance rather than malice but not always.

In some cases, we re getting a little pushback from people who say, We don t have to take those. Well, yes, you do, McGuire said.

We re still finding Craigslist ads and othepatagonia guide jacket 3tr ads where landlords are blatantly discriminating against Section 8.

The law includes a number of protections for property owners.

First of all, it doesn t force landlords to rent to someone just because they re on Section 8 it merely requires them to consider patagonia black hole 120 review0all rental applicants equally, whether they have a voucher or not. And while apatagonia black hole 120 review3 property must pass a basic safety inspectpatagonia guide pants 28ion to qualify for Section 8 payments, owners can t be forced to make expensive repairs just because they re requested by a HUD inspector.

In addition, the Housing Choice Act set up a state supported fund to reimburse landlords whopatagonia kamala skirt unlimited have trouble collecting on court judgments against irresponsible tenants, up to $5,000.

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