I am hoping that the city council and the mayor have a solid plan on having the affordable apts that are coming at a price where it will not attract the (Word removed by Pleasanton Weekly Online staff) people to Pleasanton. Pleasanton do not need a "ghetto" area! Let's keep the city peaceful and clean!

Vineyard is already a ghetto. Section 8 housing always does that. When people live in a home that they do not pay for, do not maintain and have no pride in, they turn everything into a ghetto.
A landlord is a fool to consider section 8 for renters.If it is required as part of the low income housing quota then anyone else who rents there needs to understand that they will be living in a ghetto, no matter how nice the units are in the beginning. There is no pride of ownership when people do nothing to get it handed to them.

This is really unfortunate, but we're all having to pay more for everything these days. It's the 'value-added' from endless regulations and constant tax increases to make things 'fair'.
I feel sorry for these folks if they did not vote democrat recently--if they did you reap what you sow.

All those against affordable/ Section 8 housing - I hope that you never grow old and alone, end up disabled on limited income, that none of your investments go bankrupt, that none of your children lose everything in a natural disaster or end up in a divorce as a single parent. Section 8 does NOT guarantee "ghetto" style. What makes it a "ghetto" is the attitudes of the people in the complex and whether they feel like part of the community. Get to know the people who live there. Seniors aren't "ghetto" and how do you know how a woman became a single mother?? Maybe her husband died of cancer and they had spent all their money on medical bills. I have seen rich people act more like "ghetto" people than those who need help to live in our society - and act more like they are "entitled" to something from society because they are rich.

This is all Obama's fault. And high pensions for overpriced public school teachers who will move into Pleasanton and further bring down the quality of life. Every time I think it can't get worse it does. I moved to Pleasanton to get away from public school teachers and other rift raft. Now we're all being forced to pay. I came into this world alone and will leave it alone. My cross to bear is to have to live near all the you know who's who will blight our fare city.

I guess someone should have asked, "Affordable for whom?"

Mike

I, for one, applaud the brave job-creators who are kicking out these takers. Ayn Rand forever!

I live in a neighborhood of some of the lower priced homes in Pleasanton. We have a mix of those of us that own our homes and those that are renters. It's a great place to live and I love a majority of my neighbors regardless of if they own or rent. We all watch out for each other and we all keep eyes on each other's children. This is precisely what brought us to Pleasanton to begin with my my sons were toddlers.

About three years ago a family moved in down the street and immediately we knew this was different. This family didn't care for their own children and the neighbors ended up having (which we all did lovingly) to feed the kids and give them rides places. We also noticed the kids were out of the house days and nights with no one seemingly keeping an eye on them other than we neighbors. The lone parent never left the house and after a few years, only a few of us had ever met her. We did notice tons of traffic coming and going especially late in the evening. And the visitors never seemed to be the same.

Ultimately the house was put under surveillance by the Feds and the woman was arrested in various serious charges. It was then that we learned she moved in on a section eight voucher and was running an illegal business on the side netting her tens if thousands in cash. It was such a tragic situation because the kids are the ones that suffered and were moved away and into schools not on the level of ours. I have always felt that by defrauding the section eight program that she stoke from her own kids. Had she just been willing to play by the rules and work like the rest of us, she could have received the help from the govt and kept her kid's in an area and in schools that the kids could have benefited from.

If this is what section eight brings to neighborhoods then no thank you. It brought crime and disgusting characters into a normally peaceful and family friendly neighborhood with neighbors (renters and owners alike) that cared for our homes and each other and the program brought garbage to it. I often think about her poor children and wonder where they are and if they are okay. I think we all care and cared about them more than she ever did. Do so tragic that the system is failing kids by giving criminals money and not properly overseeing it to be sure the children are seeing the benefits of it.

I feel sorry for those people. I lived there as a child under section 8 and now I have my own house here in beautiful Pleasanton. I really appreciate the help my parents got back then.

Landlords love section 8, government always has the rent check there on time...no excuses.
Rarely older people. Usually, young Mom with kids....quite a slick working model, just pump out the babes, you get free college and nice house in good neighborhood.....relieves parents of nasty ol 'responsibility' for irresponsible breeding.

Oh Brenda, you hit the nail square on the head. We had two families just like you describe living just down the block from us. And around the corner there were three more. I suspect the vast majority of title 8 recips are using it as a front for illicit activities. If it isn't drugs or prostitution its burritos or home baked goods. The mothers get a free ride in college, major in business, and then swindle the whole neighborhood through undercover bake sales. Welfare is bad. Really bad. I'm not kidding.

Landlords HATE section 8 -- slumlords love it. Any landlord with a nice property in a good neighborhood would never rent to a section 8 renter. Sure the money comes in from the government, just try to get the part that the renter owes. And thinking the renter will take care of what they have been given for nothing is a joke, they trash everything.
There are plenty of legal contracts to get timely payment from real tenants without landlords having to resort to the section 8 crap shoot. If the owners buy trash properties in trash neighborhoods then they will get what they deserve by renting to people who have no skin in the game.

What about the homes across from the new Safeway on Bernal? A portion of those are section 8 as well. I had applied for those years ago to find out there was a 2 year waiting list and my income (even though a single parent of 2 and not a large income)was still too much and I was not eligible. So now I see those living there are squeezing several families in one home to say they have 8 people living there while only claiming one income. Its just another way they have figured out how to abuse the system.

Those apartments across from the new Safeway are not section 8. They are subsidized units but regulated by the City. The landlord can only charge a certain rent and people have to qualify to get the units. Those are luxury units (i.e., the same units that those paying the full price get). The landlord is responsible for ensuring that those who have the subsidized units quality each year. If they no longer qualify, they do not have to leave but they do have to pay the full market rate. Since those who qualify get a luxury unit at below market rates (while others have to pay the full rent), it is like winning the lottery to get in there at the below market rate. Because of the annual re-qualification, there is a disincentive to improve your lifestyle because your rent goes up significantly. It is programs like this that reward those who make low-income and do not try to increase their income.

@local There ya go! Good thinkin'!!! Get these freeloaders off of dependence on socialist state subsidized housing. How else will we get them working? Especially in this economy, with the current unemployment rate, there's no reason everyone isn't working at least 3 jobs.

You know why they aren't? Because Obama wants them dependent on him. This will make it easier for the tyrant to steamroll over us when he raises our taxes and comes to take our guns away.

Best antidote for people who can't find a job or who can't make enough to afford rent? Just kick them off the curb. Let them take their kids and live under a freeway overpass for a season or two. It'll teach them to better appreciate capitalism. And most important, it will keep them off of those party buses. Let liberty and justice prevail!

Brenda,

I think I may be living in your neighborhood, because that story sounds really familiar. If this is the same one, the lady was running an identity theft scam with some associates working for Comcast. She had no idea where her kids were, and would find her five year old wandering around 1/2 a mile from her house.

As bad is this situation was, it isn't reasonable to condemn the whole section 8 program based on this one experience. The evidence is anecdotal. On the other hand, people who have studied section 8 housing using sound statistical methods have found a correlation with crime. This is a complex issue.

Web Link

Web Link

John says "The evidence is anecdotal." I don't think there's anything funny about it at all. You liberals can joke about it and come up with anecdotes all you want to, but the fact is that Obama is using Section 8ters to spearhead his takeover of American cities. In the meantime, the media is tearing apart Freedomworks and other patriotic organizations.

Thank you for sharing Dick Armie...tee hee hee