The amount of subsidized housing in Middletown and what to do about it has been a hot topic in the city during the past year, and the subject took center stage again earlier this week at a City Council candidates forum hosted by the Investment Property Owners Association of Middletown.

All four candidates vying for the two open seats on council — Vice Mayor Dan Picard, council members Josh Laubach and Ann Mort and candidate Dora Bronston — attended the 90-minute forum Wednesday at Java Johnny’s Midtown Cafe where a variety of topics were addressed. But it was the city’s most controversial issue — the reduction of Section 8 housing — that got the most attention.

City officials want to eliminate 1,008 of the 1,662 Housing Choice Vouchers, commonly known as Section 8, that exist in the city. Their plan calls for reducing that number over the next four to five years through attrition, meaning when people voluntarily leave or are kicked off the program.

Middletown has more Section 8 housing per capita than any city in the region or state, and that the sheer volume of low-income housing is taxing city services beyond what is sustainable long term and negatively impacting the ability to attract new jobs and businesses, city officials have said. The city’s proposal has met resistance from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as well as local Section 8 landlords and tenants.

Steve Bohannon, a member of the Investment Property Owners Association, said this is a big issue for his group since some of its members rent their properties to Section 8 voucher holders. He said for years the Section 8 program in Middletown was “under the radar” and the amount of subsidized housing wasn’t an issue when the city’s economy was stronger.

“But now that we lose all the jobs and all the paper mills and so forth, the Section 8 is standing out like a sore thumb,” Bohannon said.

Bohannon asked the council candidates how property owners like those involved with the IPOA could “feel a little better about what the city is trying to do to our investment” with all the proposed changes to Section 8.

Picard said “there’s no doubt” Middletown has more Section 8 housing than its neighbors, and that the city is “still grappling … because there’s just no easy resolution to that issue.”

“The city has been moving to reduce mainly because the city is overburdened,” Picard said. “You (property investors) spend a lot of money in this city as a result of Section 8 housing, a lot of money flows into the city as a result of Section 8 housing. I think the key for council is to determine what is the proper balance between the burden of Section 8 housing and the amount of money that’s coming into the city.”

Bronston called the 1,008 voucher reduction “pretty drastic,” adding the city also has “a problem with HUD.”

“Unless that authority tells us that we can, we can’t do it,” Bronston said of reducing vouchers. “People need somewhere to live. You can’t kick all the poor people out. What are you going to do with all the displaced citizens when they don’t have a home to live in?”

She said there will be a “domino effect” as the landlords for Section 8 is reduced “you have the people on Section 8 that were in those homes and they have to find homes somewhere else.”

Laubach said the subsidized housing in the long run “makes for bad business” for investors.

“I think it’s bad for people who own property because we’re artificially creating or building housing projects where subsidized tenants move into and keeps prices artificially low for people like you who are trying gain rents back from your investment,” he said. “I think we have to continue to focus, and I’m not talking over night, but let’s continue to focus moving away from that and bringing people here that pay out of pocket themselves and that will change the whole dynamic of our housing stock.”

Mort said the attrition practices help create balance as Middletown is “vastly out of balance compared to like cities.”

“I have no problem whatsoever by cutting it down through attrition. I don’t want to throw anybody out on the streets,” Mort said. “We’ve tightened up our landlords … and I think that’s a very good thing because we got rid of some landlords that were giving it a really bad name.

“We’re tightening up on the people that live there so that we have decent folk for the most part living in these units.”

Mort said it’s important to improve the city’s housing stock and bring in residents who pay market-rate rents