Some tenants welcome review of Middletown’s subsidized housing

One Middletown woman who receives subsidized housing vouchers — commonly known as Section 8 — said while she can’t “put my finger on it,” something is “not right” with the program in the city.

She said she has heard that some people have been discriminated against and she welcomes the review of the Middletown Public Housing Agency and the city’s Section 8 Housing Voucher Program. Representatives from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development are in town this week for a three-day review of the program.

The city wants to cut the number of Section 8 housing vouchers by 60 percent, or roughly 1,008, over the next five years. Some have argued the influx of subsidized housing over the past decade plus is partly responsible for the city’s high poverty rate of 23.2 percent, double what it was in 1999.

City officials have said the oversaturation of Section 8 housing is putting a strain on the city’s services and image. But some who utilize the program say the city’s actions send the wrong message to people struggling to make ends meet.

Tammy Mason, a nurse with Acclaim Home Health, said she’s also concerned that the cost of her rent continues to rise and is strangling her budget. By the time she pays for her rent, there isn’t enough money left to pay for her utilities and other bills.

“You can’t afford it like you used to,” said Mason, a mother of three — ages 20, 19 and 12.

She has been in the Section 8 program for about five years, she said.

Another 40-year-old woman, who lives in the Robin Spring apartment complex, said she left the Middletown program and joined one in Warren County after she felt “like trash” in the city.

“I’m just trying to better myself,” said the woman who wanted to remain anonymous. She recently was laid off from Miami University and said she’s still looking for another job.

She said the program should be used as “a stepping stone,” and people shouldn’t stay on it forever. She said the finances of the tenants should be reviewed every couple of years to make sure they’re not “abusing the situation.”

She said people commonly get “sucked in” to the program. She believes landlords sometimes “jack up” the rent when they’re dealing with those on Section 8.

Her rent for a three-bedroom is $800 a month and she pays $80. She has been in the program for about eight years, she said.

Faith Heflin, 24, and her fiance, Greg Motto, 24, moved into the apartment complex last month, and expect to get out of the program once he graduates from Wright State University’s School of Medicine. She’s a music teacher at Mariemont Elementary School near Cincinnati, so they looked for an apartment in the voucher program midway between her workplace and Fairborn.

In their situation, she said, the voucher program is “very temporary.”

When asked about the program, she said they’ve been treated “very fairly.”

HUD recently identified five “substantive” deficiencies in the MPHA’s five-year and annual plan, which outlined the city’s desire to reduce its 1,662 housing choice vouchers by 1,008 through attrition. HUD has given the city until mid-August to address the deficiencies, which includes a requirement to hold a public hearing on the plan and document any comments or testimony given by attendees.

Councilman Josh Laubach agrees with city administration assessments that “we have an oversaturation of public housing in the city.” Statistics show that Middletown has more subsidized housing per capita than any city in Ohio. All subsidized housing accounts for 49.8 percent of Middletown’s total housing stock and Section 8 makes up 14.3 percent.

City officials say the cuts to Section 8 they are proposing would bring that number to a more manageable 10 percent.

But in the June 13 letter to the city rejecting its reduction plan, HUD officials maintained the city had not done enough to justify the voucher cuts or consider their impact on low-income families with children, minorities and persons with disabilities. In short, HUD’s letter seemed to be pointing out that the city had an obligation to take care of the poor people who were already calling the city home.

HUD spokeswoman Donna White said since the review is an investigation she couldn’t comment on specifics.