Saturday, March 8, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
Mary Anderson is a single mother who has lived with her four children in an apartment for 1 1/2 years.
In July, she has to get out.
Anderson, 36, isn't being evicted by her landlord for not paying the rent, being too loud or some other deviant behavior. She has simply fallen victim to the nightmare that many U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Section 8 recipients face in Southern Nevada's robust apartment market.
Landlords can make more money on a conventional lease than by accepting Section 8 tenants, whose federally subsidized rent allotment can't match fair-market price demands. The complex where Anderson lives will no longer take Section 8 tenants after July 1.
How lucrative is the Southern Nevada market?
According to a report by UNLV's Center for Business and Economic Research, the average monthly rental rate in the Las Vegas area was $636.77 in the third quarter of 1996, while vacancies fell below 3 percent.
Apartment construction permits rose to 8,912 units in the third quarter, up from 6,817 and 7,817 respectively in the first two quarters of 1996.
"Nowhere is the influx of increased numbers of newcomers more apparent than the apartment market," Keith Schwer, director of the center, wrote. "An increase in the demand for apartments relative to supply pushes rental rates upward."
The Section 8 program, which began under the Nixon administration, helps qualified individuals and families acquire housing at more than 20,000 properties nationally. It does it in two ways:
* Under the certificate program, the government pays a set amount of rent toward an apartment or home and a tenant may pay up to, but no more than 30 percent of the total family income to make up the difference.
* With the voucher program, the housing authority pays a set amount of rent for a particular apartment or home, and the tenant can go a little over 30 percent of the total family income.
"How much has rent gone up since Section 8 regulations came out?" Anderson asked. "Fair-market values have gone up. Section 8 has to revisit this issue.
"I've been looking for four months for a house, and have only one prospect. Four-bedroom apartments are hard to find. I could move to a less desirable area, but then I have to worry about my children."
Deborah Stout, president of Stout Management Co. and a grievance officer with the Clark County Housing Authority, said her company has 12 apartment complexes accepting Section 8 residents. However, she said the federal government puts restrictions on her that make it difficult to renew the annual rental contracts.
Unappealing rules
Under Section 8, a resident is required to sign a yearly lease. In comparison, a typical lease is signed for six months, which makes it easier to raise rents if the market is bullish.
"And if we want to raise a (normal) tenant's rent, we only have to give a 45-day notice," Stout said. "Under Section 8, we must give a 90-day notice, and if we don't do that, the contract is automatically renewed for another year.
"In a good marketplace like Las Vegas, we can raise the rent every six months."
Bill Cottrell, executive director of the Clark County Housing Authority, says the problem is the federal government isn't issuing enough vouchers.
"There are between 40,000 and 80,000 vouchers normally issued nationwide each year," Cottrell said. "This year, for the first time, there are no additional Section 8 vouchers."
Cottrell said the county stopped adding names to its waiting lists of new tenants in June. And if a landlord doesn't renew his contract, he can't by law reissue a certificate or voucher for 90 days to someone else.
Problems common
The other two housing authorities in Southern Nevada reflect the same situations with people waiting. Georgia Butler, director of the Las Vegas Housing Authority, said 16,000 people and 1,200 landlords are involved in city Section 8 housing.
But in contrast to Clark County, she said not many landlords are exiting the city program. Still, the waiting list has been closed since 1993.
"The demand is greater than the supply," said Bob Sullivan, director of the North Las Vegas Housing Authority. "North Las Vegas hasn't built many apartment houses over the last few years. Homes in older neighborhoods are where our Section 8 people are."
Some state help
Low-income housing got a boost in 1995 for new construction and renovations of existing buildings when the state began earmarking a portion of the real estate transfer tax.
The real estate transfer tax is 65 cents on every $500 of property value. Ten cents of that goes to low-income housing. The rest goes to local governments for general expenses.
Statewide, $3 million was awarded in 1995 for low-income housing projects, $1.3 million in 1996, $2.4 million in 1997 and $3.7 million in 1998.
Out of these funds, Clark County received $1.6 million in 1995, $665,699 in 1996, $1.3 million in 1997 and $1.7 million for 1998.
However, these funds hardly make a dent in Southern Nevada's growing demand for affordable housing. New construction costs considerably more than what's being parceled out.
"I think the state could do a lot more to provide affordable housing," said Assemblywoman Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, who is backing four bills and resolutions before the Legislature for low-income families. "I wish more landlords would get involved, too."
"It's not a situation where you will be able to build thousands and thousands of new units," said Douglas Bell, manager of community resources for Clark County. "But every little bit helps."
Nationally, Congress has yet to renew Section 8 programs for 1998. Some Republicans want to make deep cuts.
If this happens, Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo predicts that hundreds of thousands of elderly, children and disabled Americans would be forced into homelessness.
"If the federal government provides funds, the private sector will always respond," Bell said. "The problem is you have welfare reform working one way, and housing is a big element.
"The private sector is the long-term solution. The beauty of the Section 8 program is that it makes people undistinguishable in society."
Image undeserved
Anderson said many people have a misperception of Section 8 recipients. She said she and other people she knows receiving benefits are not lazy, have just as much respect for their apartments as regular tenants, and are looking to better theirs and their children's lives.
The $765 a month that Section 8 pays for her rent allows Anderson to have a job and work toward a degree at UNLV without worrying about becoming homeless.
"I'm looking at landlords to look at tenants and not judge them because they are on Section 8," Anderson said. "A landlord is going to have problems whether a person is on Section 8 or not. You have to screen everyone."
Sullivan said the decision on more Section 8 funding rests with the taxpayer.
"How much taxes do you want to pay?" Sullivan asked. "If you are narrowly focused, then we aren't meeting our need. But we are not meeting our education need, either."
"The problems of poverty are solved by increasing wealth," Bell said in what he felt was a simplistic solution but the only one. "If you don't have money, you don't have choices."
If Congress doesn't renew the Section 8 budget and opts to make cuts, Cuomo has said that local governments will have to abandon the program or raise taxes to keep it going. Cottrell isn't too optimistic about that happening in Nevada.
"In this state, particularly, there are only two chances of that happening," he said. "Very slim and none."
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