Housing Choice Section 8 Vouchers Could be Mandated

• Author: Jacob Greene
• Posted: 2023-11-07

There is so much going on in America on the surface that people rarely get to hear about what's brewing underneath. Russia invading Ukraine, for instance, is the huge surface issue, while the fact that Americans are trying to seize nickel from Russia for lithium ion batteries used in electric vehicles is a deeper issue the media and politicians don't speak about. The same goes for housing. You might hear an occasional tidbit about how rent is rising or there's a property shortage, but no one is really talking about the fact that the government might mandate Section 8 housing vouchers and force landlords to accept tenants.

This isn't set in stone, but there are talks about this being one of President Biden's ultimate goals.

Should Landlords' Wishes Matter?

The common rallying cry of the politicians, the mass media, and a lot of housing activists is "Forget the landlords," with some more colorful language added in. The gist here is that landlords are considered the enemy, the people who are profiteering off of housing, which should be given to people as a basic need. Landlords claim that by being forced to accept Section 8 housing vouchers, this means that they will never get to raise their rent prices to mirror inflation, or to coincide with accurate property values; instead, they claim it will cause them to lose money because the government will pay them what the government wants, and the landlords won't be able to set their own prices at all.

For many Americans, this is of no concern. There's a belief that every single person who owns a property is part of that evil 1% and that they're keeping everyone else down with their usury. The reality is that the average landlord can be your neighbor who owns a small apartment complex in town. He or she paid a lot of money to renovate the apartments, and now renting them out to qualified people is the only way they will recoup their investment and earn money for themselves to live.

So, it really is a polarizing issue. Most landlords are real people in the middle class, but there's also the fact that millions require housing and cannot afford it. The government, as is usually the case, will likely side with the money. Unfortunately for small landlords, corporate landlords would much prefer forced housing vouchers because that guarantees them government money on time every single month, whereas tenants can always be late on their rent. So just keep in mind that this move would hurt small landlords.

Another 2 Million to Come

Most economic experts project that Section 8 will grow by a minimum of two million people over the next two years. Why would this be the case? A housing shortage, inflation, and well over a million immigrants pouring into America in 2021 alone, leaves the nation on the brink of a huge housing disaster. If the federal government has shown anything at all to the people since 2020, it's that they will spend untold trillions of dollars without any regard to the consequences. Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal, the modus operandi for America's federal government is to spend and throw money on a problem, and it's been that way since Bush the Younger took office back in 2000. To be clear, the partisan bickering that's sensationalized on the mass media morning shows does not at all stop every politician from voting to spend trillions a year, only billions of which make it to the people. So that Section 8 will be expanded is an inevitability. Whether or not the housing choice vouchers will become mandated is something we will have to wait to see.

Likely is the case that the federal government will start by leaving this in the hands of the states individually, while still backing the program federally. Why would they do this? Because states like California, Oregon, Washington, New York and Illinois will all gladly mandate Section 8 housing choice vouchers and force landlords to accept them. They will then likely cherry-pick any good supportive data from these mandates and, along with the media's help, push for a Congressional bill mandating it nationwide. This is a very likely scenario.

A lot of landlords in America are greedy, selfish, and treat their tenants horribly. Though most of the landlords in America only own a couple of properties and make their living by people paying their rent. If these people are lumped in with the corporations, millionaires and slumlords, it can potentially create a much bigger disaster than what America is dealing with now in terms of housing.