Section 8 in lakewood

[Jean Smith]

It seems to be that in the City of Lakewood there has been a huge increase in Section 8 Rentals. I am a home owner of a double in Lakewood and I take pride in the upkeep of my home. It seems to me that most landlords do not live in their homes and rent out their homes instead for a lucrative income.

Section 8 pays a much higher per diem for each house than the average home renter would receive. Clearly this is an incentive for a landlord to rent out to section 8. A close friend of ours recently rented out her single home as a section 8 rental when her husband got transferred out of state. She thought it be a great income for her family as they couldn't occupy the home. After six months being rented as a section 8 home, she returned to Lakewood to find that her section 8 tenants had decimated her entire home. There was over 25, 000 worth of damage to the interior of her home and her yard was a total disaster. Nothing had been keep up.She had received $800 from CMHA and $400 from the leasee every month. Far more than a traditional rent for a single 3-bedroom home. Was it worth it in the long run?

Another thought is it that Section 8 housing brings a different class of people into Lakewood. Certainly without Section 8 vouchers these people could never afford to live in Lakewood. I pay my mortgage, I have a job, I keep my home up. What do Section 8 housing people do? Do they work, keep a job? Take care of the home? Do their landlords supervise their tenants or do they simply collect their over-priced rent and look the other way?

I have to ask , "What kind of people does Section 8 bring in?" And at the same time, when the class of people begins to become low-income, those with the means to leave Lakewood because of an increase in Public Housing and an increase in poverty level families coming here to live, well they will simply leave Lakewood which will lead to more Section 8 and more lower income families coming. Eventually Lakewood will become an outer ring of Cleveland and the class distinction will be lower income instead of middle class. Just look at all the homes for Sale in Lakewood right now.

Right now Lakewood is the most densely populated city between New York and Chicago. We have the second highest property tax in Cuahoga County, the second highest number of Child Preditors in the county,
the second highest number of section 8 housing in the suburbs, the second highest concentration of Gay/Lesbians in the country, We are inundated with bars as well as churches. What statistics these are!

I have to ask myself again, what does Section 8 Housing do for our city,
but put money into the pockets of landlords at the same time the income level goes down, most people on Section 8 cannot keep up with paying the full cost of the rent and are getting subsidized by the government, while I work full time to pay my mortgage, nobody gives me a free handout. And I have to ask the obvious question, with section 8 comes a lower class, poverty families and those who are at arms length from the law. I personally have seen an increase in crime in the city.

We have had 3 murders her in the last two months. A rash of robberies where I work in Bird-town. I work at a childcare center and in the last two months a staff person had her cell phone and purse stolen from the childcare, the church above us has been broken into, the childcare where I work has been vandalized and two weeks ago, police officers were chasing suspects in a house theft through the grounds of the church/childcare with guns ready to be drawn. I say, where is all this coming from and where is it leading us? Do you think for a minute that I want to continue to live in Lakewood with these things going on?

Jean Smith