Why Is There Section 8 Housing In A Good Area? (Houston: low income, apartments)

[Texas User]

This does not make any sense. Defeats the whole purpose to living there sometimes. Don't you think?

[predatorprey]

Politics....

[crbcrbrgv]

There is no zoning in Houston. That's why. Same reason there are massage parlors next to taco stands next to strip mall churches next to Church's chicken next to a corner with four gas stations.

[robertjohnson]

In the Natomas area of Sacramento planners ordered low income housing built along with the new.
It hasn't worked out so well. There seems to be a disproportionate number of riff raff among the poor.
Bad areas are called bad for a reason. Bring a hunk of one to a civilized area and duh, guess what.

[westres1]

It was planned that way to help the poor get out of the "ghetto" and be in better areas with more opportunities. This all came about after the Allen Pkwy Village "public housing" was demolished and plans for rebuilding it were in a legal battle for years.


you cant "zone" the poor.

[rigas]

you sorta on this topic, i went to bid a job on a remodel last week over off bunker hill and taylorcrest in the bunker hill village/hedwig village area. the area is full of very nice expensive homes. there is new construction going on right across the street from this remodel, so i looked around to see who was building (always looking for new slabs to do) and the BIG sign out front said HABITAT FOR HUMANITY!

now i have donated some labor and things to habitat before but i have never seen them build in a million dollar neighborhood.

[westres1]

I have seen this sign also...if you look closely, Habitat for Humanity was given permission to deconstruct the property and remove the building materials to be used on other homes. They are not building there just taking the materials for use elsewhere.

[imalert]

It seems that in a lot of counties / districts in the US, there is a law that requires a certain percentage of a multi-family housing development to be leased to section 8 / low income families.

For example, when I resided in a community in Montgomery County, MD, our property manager told us that according to the state government, 10 percent of our available apartments had to be leased to section 8 voucher holders.

This new law came into effect in the late 1990's after a lawsuit was filed by HUD against a large Property Management firm.

[Be Happy 2]

I guess you are assuming that ALL people on Section 8 are bad people and that is not the case.

I use to be a caseworker for Section 8 and yes there are some crappy tenants but not all of them.

I have seen many people take the time they have assistance to buy their own home, go to school and better themselves. Just because people aren't at a high point in their lives doesn't mean they don't "deserve" to live in nice areas.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

A lot of developers are forced to do this no matter what City. A friend of mine bought a multi-million dollar house in a gated community near Del Mar and after about a year a Condo Complex got built right smack in the middle of it. The graffiti, theft and thugs at the park soon followed. What good is a gated community if you are inviting it in?

He checked out the master plan and sure enough the developer was forced to include that low cost housing as part of the deal.