The Good and Bad of Section 8 Housing

In a nutshell, Section 8 housing is a law that was passed back in 1937, with the intention of the federal government paying part of or all off the cost of a property for poor Americans. This can include single Americans or entire families. Over the years, Section 8 has grown exponentially, with an estimated 5.2 million Americans on the program. However, this is just Section 8 proper. Adjacent programs offered by HUD and racial-specific programs and vouchers included, there are over 20 million Americans who have part of or all of their rent paid by the federal government. With a current housing shortage in America, this also means a current shortage of Section 8 homes, which has thrust this topic into the mainstream consciousness.

Like all government programs, there's a good side and a bad side to Section 8. It's far from a perfect program, to be sure, and it has perhaps even more critics than proponents. What's so polarizing about this assistance program?
 

The Good: It Promotes Low-Income Housing

The good thing about Section 8 is that it gives people a roof over their heads. Proponents of this program claim that it's the single-most responsible factor for there not being 10 million more homeless people lining the streets of America. The average rent paid by Section 8 recipients in 2021 was $50/month. That number seems a bit arbitrary to many, but some government officials claim that this is just to remind the Section 8 tenants that they are the ones responsible for keeping their home in order. It's supposedly to remind people that housing, on principle, isn't supposed to be "free" and that they must chip in to do their part.

By and large, this has helped millions of people save responsibly and ultimately get out of Section 8 and into homes they actually own.
 

The Bad: It's a Forced Measure That Promotes Blight

All sorts of scientists from sociologists to cultural anthropologists have worked on the issue of urban blight for decades, and the only answer they can find (or at least admit to finding) falls perfectly in line with the political talking points of the day that claim America is just more racist now than it was during slavery and Jim Crow. The problem people have been trying to crack is a correlation so strong between Section 8 housing and blight that most people see it as a causal factor. The issue is race-sensitive, to be sure, but the idea of "blight" is far from a racial issue.

One of the reasons people are so standoffish with the answers and with the topic in general is that when someone claims that Section 8 housing runs down property values, promotes crime, and ends up causing blight, the line is that this is a racist statement, just privileged white people insulting poor black people. The real issue here, however, is that this isn't a racial thing. There are tens of thousands of white people on Section 8, typically in trailer parks and skid row communities, and these areas also suffer from more crime and lower property values, rats and street trash, drugs, etc. It would seem as if people are afraid to address these issues, either because they fear being called racist for doing so, or because they know that it's causation and not correlation and they cannot be seen as speaking out against programs intended for the poorest Americans.

Though this does not change the "bad" here with Section 8. In every single American town or city that has a high proportion of Section 8 housing, these locations also have higher crime and lower overall property values. They go together hand in hand.

Some suggest that the real issue here is that there's no stake in home ownership or even renting for people who don't have to invest capital themselves. What makes this even worse is that landlords are very standoffish in handling any of these issues. Government comes in and forces landlords and sellers to accept Section 8, and most jump at the opportunity because it means guaranteed money from the government. The issue comes in years down the road when these property owners take this money for granted and no longer require any standards, nor do they keep up with proper maintenance.

For many Americans, the Section 8 program is why they have a roof over their heads. In that respect, it's a good thing that helps to address issues of poverty and inequality. Though the American mainstream also has a blind spot for just how bad these areas end up becoming over the years. There's no reason the negative aspects shouldn't be addressed to improve the good Section 8 can do in the country.