City Manager Doug Adkins said the “need is there” for Section 8 housing in communities in Butler and Warren counties, and he expects Middletown to still have its “fair share” of vouchers.
Adkins has said the county housing authorities are “better suited” to manage the resource on behalf of Middletown residents in Butler and Warren counties, allowing the city to “focus on more city services.”
The agreement ended an 18-month dispute between Middletown and HUD over the city’s subsidized housing program. HUD officials had maintained Middletown was not complying with the agency’s regulations by not having at least 95 percent of its available vouchers filled. Middletown had a compliance rate of 82 percent, according to HUD.
City officials have been adamant about their desire to reduce the number of Section 8, or low-income housing, citing Middletown had more Section 8 housing per capita than any city in Ohio and almost double the rest of Butler County. Section 8 accounted for more than 14 percent of available housing in the city and nearly 50 percent of all subsidized housing, according to 2013 data.
Middletown pays out around $10 million a year in funds from HUD to hundreds of landlords who rent properties to voucher-holders, officials said. Middletown was one of two cities in Ohio that still managed its public housing authority.
Last month, the board of the Middletown Public Housing Agency, which is made up of all five City Council members, voted unanimously to accept a Voluntary Compliance Agreement and Memorandum of Understanding with HUD to shut down its city-run Section 8 housing program by Sept. 30. The agreement also called for the city to relinquish its housing choice vouchers to the metropolitan housing authorities in Butler and Warren counties.
Les Landen, the city’s law director, said the agreement has been signed and sent to HUD officials for their signatures. He was unsure when all the paperwork would be approved, but he expected it to happen “in the near future.” The deadline is Sept. 30.
A representative from the HUD’s Cleveland’s office, which oversees 77 housing authorities in Ohio and parts of Indiana, said she hadn’t received the documents from Middletown. The papers were expected “any day,” she said.
Once the agreement takes effect, Butler County will receive 1,312 of the city’s vouchers and Warren County will get the other 350. Landen has said no one on the program will lose their voucher, but they will have to go to Hamilton in Butler County and Lebanon in Warren County for services instead of the Middletown office on Elliott Drive.
When asked what impact reducing the number of vouchers will have in the city, Landen said: “It’s hard to predict the exact impact.”
Then he added that he felt it may reduce poverty in the city, and spread those who use the vouchers to other communities so they’re “not so focused” in Middletown.
Landlord Dan Tracy believes after the city’s additional 300 vouchers are distributed, the community will see “no change” in Section 8 housing. He said some people think since the city is getting out of the Section 8 business that means there will be no subsidized housing in Middletown. That’s just not the case, he said.
“The vouchers will stay here,” he said.
Lt. Scott Reeve of the Middletown Division of Police said some — he stressed the word “some” — of those residents on Section 8 have made “poor life decisions that led them down the wrong path.” And sometimes that path leads to the police department, the city jail and Middletown Municipal Court.
Reeve hopes that eventually — it may take years — after those on Section 8 have left the community, they will be replaced with “more responsible people.”
Butler Metro Housing Authority Executive Director Phyllis Hitte and Warren Metropolitan Housing Authority Executive Director Jacqueline Adkins are not commenting on ensuing transfer of vouchers until they receive an official notification from HUD.
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