Metro Housing Boston makes every Section 8 tenant who wants to move sign a lease termination form for his or her current apartment before MHB will accept any paperwork from the landlord for the apartment where the tenant wants to move.
The process is:
-Lease termination at the current apartment
-Inspection of the prospective apartment
-Approval or rejection by MHB of the prospective apartment
Here's my new voucher, which expires in November 2020 if it hasn't been applied to another apartment by then:
Here's a list of websites for my "housing search":
Nowhere in the packet does it mention that I applied for another apartment for which I paid a security deposit at the end of the first week in July. Nowhere in the packet does it mention that applicants to the building where I applied are usually given a couple of days to make a final decision and that the landlord for my prospective apartment has held the apartment for me for weeks. There is nothing at all that is specific to my situation in the packet.
Just think, Metro Housing Boston is helping people in all of these places:
Is this how Section 8 is administered everywhere in the United States?
This is an email that the landlord for my current building sent on July 23rd:
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Because of Covid, everything is moving even more slowly than it usually does for Section 8. The rest of the paperwork that MHB needs from my prospective landlord can't be sent to MHB until Friday, August 14th. After MHB has received and processed that paperwork, then MHB can schedule the inspection for the prospective apartment. After MHB has inspected the prospective apartment, then MHB can tell me whether or not I can move there.
Fortunately, I am not a high school drop-out. English is not my 2nd language. There are a lot of barriers to navigating this process that I don't have. Why does anyone expect the majority of people who do have those barriers to be successful, Section 8 tenants, if all of the above is an example of how Section 8 is administered?
Don't think for one second that Metro Housing Boston, as policy, gives the benefit of a doubt to Section 8 tenants for whom navigating complicated, stupid, defeating administrative processes is difficult. Here's another page from the packet:
These stereotypes are also the predominant stereotypes that landlords operate from.
