Chair Hudson shares landlord anecdote about failed voucher process
Hudson shares a constituent landlord story in which a brownstone owner exited the CityFHEPS program because inspections and administrative issues were too difficult, yet rented to the tenant outside the program. She says better systems could help more people secure safe housing.
I do want to just share one quick anecdote and I'd have to get the specific details to you offline, but we had
a landlord who owned a brownstone in the district and was trying to rent to someone with a voucher.
And it was just an impossible process for him.
They couldn't get somebody out to do the inspection, to verify certain things.
She was having some issues.
And ultimately, and I wish we had more folks like this, he just rented it to her at the rate that he would have been, that she would have, whatever the total amount would have been
outside of the program because she was just so desperate.
And he wanted to be able to provide the unit to somebody in need.
And so he, you know, went without the, he formally exited the program and just said, this is just been too difficult.
It's too much, you know, but I want to keep her as a tenant or have her as a tenant.
And so, you know, obviously that's.
An anomaly and we don't usually see people like that.
But just to share that, you know, there are probably so many more people who would be in safe and secure housing if some of these systems actually worked better, you know, for them.
And if only we could have every landlord like this gentleman who was willing to take on this tenant no matter what, you know, unfortunately we don't.
And so, you know, I think the...
A lot of, and I know you all share the end goals and a lot of these concerns, and I know we're all working towards the same thing, but these are the types of things I think, you know, what Councilmember Brewer was saying.
We get the folks, whether they're tenants or landlords who've just had, you know, impossible experiences trying to do the right thing and just trying to get housed or provide housing
that we as government have just made it so incredibly difficult for them to do so.
So just wanted to.
To share that.