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Tuesday, January 22, 2019

Shutdown triggers rent hikes for low-income renters; landlords struggle to cover costs without subsidies

The partial federal shutdown, now a month old, is beginning to impact some low-income renters, many rural, who receive rental assistance through a U.S. Department of Agriculture program.

Property management company Tri-State Management sent letters this week to tenants in four states warning that, because of the shutdown, the government is no longer subsidizing their rent and that all tenants will be responsible for full-price rent as of Feb. 1. The letters went out to renters in 29 buildings with 758 units in Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri and Mississippi, Arthur Delaney reports Huffington Post.

"If the shutdown continues into February, rent hikes and eviction threats will probably spread as more landlords get antsy. The letter follows a similar note that a different Arkansas landlord sent to 50 properties last week," Delaney reports. "Landlords have told HuffPost they will struggle to pay for staff and maintenance without the government’s portion of their rental income."

The federal government's biggest housing-subsidy programs, administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, help more than 3 million households and are funded through February. The USDA program supports 282,000 U.S. households, mostly elderly, and is funded through the end of January. HUD programs protect renters from rent hikes during a federal shutdown, but the USDA program offers no such protections, Delaney reports.

"But housing subsidy recipients do not have ironclad protection, according to a legal analysis the National Housing Law Project released Friday," Delaney reports. "While HUD’s regulation for landlords with Section 8 vouchers does not allow rent hikes or evictions if the government stops paying its share, it does allow them to evict tenants for 'business or economic reasons,' such as wanting to lease an apartment for higher rent."

Thousands of HUD renters also face eviction during the shutdown because of unrenewed contracts between landlords at the government.

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