Section 8 is one of the most corrupt governmental housing programs ever. From my own experience, I applied for Section 8 in 1979 when my children were 8 and 10-years old. The next time I heard from this agency was in 1984 asking me to update my information, which I did. In 2008, there was an on-line application to sign up for Section 8 if you did not have it, and a deadline was set for June 1, 2008. I applied for myself and several other disabled persons who did not own a computer.
Each one of the other disabled persons were denied. When my letter came, I did not open it because I knew that it was a rejection letter. After two or three weeks, I finally opened it and read “Congratulations – you have been selected to participate in our Section 8 program . . . blah blah blah. Unbelievable! My children are now 38 and 40 years old! At the time of this writing I am still waiting to be called which is supposedly a 3-year wait.
The real downside of Section 8 is that if you have a Section 8 voucher, it can be sold to someone who needs a “reduced rent rate” apartment or house and the voucher holder needs extra cash. Further, the crime rate has gone up in neighborhoods where there never was crime ever before due to Section 8 renters.
During the time the “projects”, i.e., Stateway Gardens, Cabrini Green, Robert Taylor Homes, were around, everyone from the police down to the average neighborhood citizen knew you could buy drugs, guns, prostitution, and other items of the criminal nature in these habitats. The “projects” even had their own security system. Once these places were torn down or downsized, the residents received a Section 8 Voucher for “scattered site housing” and you now have crime where there has never been crime before. Whoever heard of a criminal assault in HIghland Park – near Michael Jordan’s home? Decent neighborhoods are suffering due to somebody’s idea to “mix” the Section 8 people with people with dreams, futures, and education, in the hopes that maybe the Section 8 underprivileged will learn to live like humans by example – Its not happening.
The criminal element is prevalent and will prevail causing distress in the most decent of neighborhoods in Chicago which is a travesty. Some neighborhoods, i.e., Highland Park, have managed to ban together to purchase enough vacant property to keep Section 8 out.