Another Rent-Paying Section 8 Tenant Caught Up In Foreclosure Eviction May Be Failing To Exercise Special Rights Under Federal Law

In Pittsburg, California, the Contra Costa Times reports:

• Pittsburg resident Casandra Jackson-Gordon is moving — again. For the second time in less than two years, Jackson-Gordon says she has lost her subsidized rental home to foreclosure. The first time, she also lost her $1,500 security deposit — but the bank offered her $3,500 to move out fast so it could sell the property. That money helped her get into another house. She's hoping the lender that holds the mortgage on her current residence will be equally generous.

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• The city of Fairfield[, California], which also has been hard hit by foreclosures, set up a program late last year to help low-income residents whose landlords went into foreclosure by giving them grants of up to $3,000 to cover the security deposit on a new place in the city. Recipients must be documented U.S. citizens without criminal records.

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• Like Jackson-Gordon, other residents who receive Section 8 housing assistance also have been forced to move when their landlords lost their houses.(1)

For more, see Renters, too, feeling effects of foreclosure crisis.

(1) It may be important to note that, in the case of a tenant who receives a Section 8 federal rent subsidy (ie. a "Section 8" tenant), it has been reported that federal law prohibits a new owner, including foreclosure purchasers and foreclosing lenders, from evicting Section 8 tenants unless they first go to court and prove they’re being economically harmed by having a tenant remain in a building, or show other good cause. However, many Section 8 tenants panic and don’t fight eviction notices, not realizing they have these special rights granted by Federal law. For more on this point, see Foreclosures hit tenants (Activists: New owners trample on renters’ rights).

For the specific federal regulation on this point, see 24 CFR 982.310(d)(1). Go here for the regulations (24 CFR 982) regulating the Section 8 rent subsidy program. SkimmingKappaRent