Lakeland Housing Authority (LHA) will convert its 257 public housing apartments to Project-based Section 8 housing, if approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Under this program, a federal subsidy would attach to each unit, as opposed to tenant-based Section 8, where a family receives a housing choice voucher and looks for a private landlord willing to accept it.
Project-based Section 8 pays more money per unit without increasing the portion renters pay or burdening residents with a reapplication process, according to Ben Stevenson, president of LHA.
What would change for tenants?
Stevenson said very little would change immediately for people who already live in the affected apartments. Their rights are protected under HUD regulations, and they would not have to reapply simply because their apartments convert.
“When you convert units to Section 8, the tenant portion of the rent stays the same,” Stevenson said. “They never pay more than 30% of their income towards the rent, so there’s no change in the rent burden for the tenants.”…