Marin Housing Official Threatens to Evict Disabled Woman

HUD funding cuts hurt the disabled and chronically ill, and some low-income tenants are pushed to the brink of homelessness.

by Lynda Carson

Christine McPherson faces eviction by the Marin Housing Authority. Lydia Gans photo

Landlords and Section 8 tenants in Marin County are being told that their existing contracts will no longer be honored by the Marin Housing Authority (MHA). Some tenants have received notice that they must relocate from their current residence, or face the loss of their Section 8 vouchers.

Christine McPherson, a disabled woman in a wheelchair, is one of the many disabled or chronically ill Section 8 tenants of Marin who felt double-crossed and shocked to receive notice that her existing Section 8 contract would no longer be honored by the MHA, and that she will have to move or lose her Section 8 voucher.

"It's so unfair," said McPherson. "The Marin Housing Authority puts so much pressure on us with time limits to find a home and landlord willing to accept a Section 8 voucher - especially one that is willing to accommodate the disabled."

"My landlord has been wonderful and has done a great job to modify the premises to accommodate my wheelchair," she said. "This is the nicest place I have ever resided in with a Section 8 contract, and now the MHA is claiming they will no longer honor our contract after my landlord did so much extra work to accommodate my needs."

McPherson suffered a serious auto accident in 2000 that left her with a broken back and forced her to be in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. "I'm scared," said McPherson. "With a broken back, I can't survive on the streets. I can't drive, I have no strength, and at 57 years old, I feel very weak. I couldn't pack up to move even if I tried. I feel all alone, and do not know where I can find enough money for a new security deposit, even if I could move."

A December 9, 2005, statement from Carolyn Russo of the Marin Housing Authority conveyed a stark warning to McPherson: "Marin Housing is terminating the contract with the owner as of February 28, 2006. Should you hold over the rental unit past that due date, you will be responsible for the full rent without any subsidy. Your voucher would be terminated and reissued to another household from our waiting list."

Outraged by the MHA's harsh policies, the medical staff and supporters of McPherson have jumped into the fray to declare their opposition to the inhumane treatment that's threatening to dump her onto the cold streets of Marin County.

Michael Witte MD., of the Point Reyes Medical Clinic, wrote on December 20, 2005, to the Marin Housing Authority: "Christine McPherson is a patient of ours who has become disabled due to a motor vehicle accident in 2000. She is unable to ambulate and spends time in bed or her wheelchair. She has chronic pain issues and it would be a hardship for her to be forced from her residence to another one. She is unable to manage daily activities much less locate a new apartment."

On January 31, 2006, Ray P. Seet MD., stated to Carolyn Russo of the MHA: "Ms. Christine McPherson is a patient of our clinic. She is being treated for unstable spinal fracture mid back with chronic intractable pain and is dependent on her wheelchair. She requires a 2 bdrm apartment so that she can have a live-in attendant, and has difficulty moving due to her orthopedic condition. Please allow her to remain in her house for medical reasons."

According to McPherson's landlord at SCI REALTY of Marin County, she has been an excellent tenant. "When Christine moved into her unit in December of 2002, the owner willingly installed handicapped access through her back yard including a new fence and gate for her use. This is truly a residential neighborhood, with all of the duplexes being on cul-de-sac streets, and it is a very quiet and safe neighborhood."

Roger Kachler, property manager for SCI REALTY, stated: "We are not terminating Christine McPherson's lease. Housing Authority has unilaterally lowered her rent to $1,400.00 per month, which is not acceptable to the owners because it is way below the rent reasonable standards for these units in this location."

Joan Winn is a Section 8 tenant, a friend and ex-neighbor of McPherson, who had to come up with $5,000.00 in moving expenses after she was recently told by the MHA to move, or lose her Section 8 voucher. She is also a cancer patient trying to survive, is married, and has lived in Marin County for many years.

"It's criminal the way they are treating my friend Christine McPherson," said Joan Winn. "I'm angry with the Housing Authority because they're not more supportive. I'm on chemo due to the cancer that I'm battling, and it's nearly impossible for the sick and disabled to keep up with the demands of the Housing Authority lately. We're up against the wall of high rents and timelines."

Winn explained that many people she knows are facing the trauma of losing their housing and the risk of homelessness due to the Marin Housing Authority's heartless orders to relocate.

"There were six families in our complex with Section 8 vouchers that have to move after the MHA decided they would no longer honor our contracts," Winn said. "It was Carolyn Russo of the MHA who told me that I needed to get a transfer voucher, or give up my Section 8 voucher to someone else. It cost my family $5,000 to relocate and the MHA almost made us homeless after they terminated our last rental contract. When landlords hear about the way the MHA fails to keep up with its contract obligations, it just makes it that much harder for us to find a landlord willing to take a chance with Section 8 tenants.

"My husband and I were very fortunate to come up with the $5,000 needed to relocate and we found a nice place in Novato after four months of searching. It was a real battle to get into the new place because the MHA tried to keep us from moving in. They're trying to make it impossible to remain in the Section 8 program. But we didn't give up and finally moved in. Novato is a safe quiet place, but the city ignores the disabled community and there is no disabled parking to be found anywhere in this town."

Christine McPherson and Joan Winn are only two examples out of countless low-income tenants in the San Francisco, Marin and Alameda County areas who are facing the loss of their housing because the Bush administration reduced the value of their Section 8 vouchers by as much as 13 percent or more since FY 2003 ended.

A bureaucratic nightmare

McPherson and many others across the nation have been unknowingly caught up in a bureaucratic nightmare ever since August of 2004, when HUD announced that it was rolling back the existing Fair Market Rents in parts of the country. Suddenly, low-income people across the nation discovered that the local housing authorities were not going to honor their existing rental contracts, because the value of their Section 8 vouchers were reduced. For some, the policy went into effect the moment they tried to relocate. For others, it took a year or more for the policy to catch up with them when they tried to renew their existing contracts.

Fair Market Rents (FMRs) are used to calculate how much a Section 8 voucher is worth in various parts of the country. When the feds in the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) rolled back the FMRs in the San Francisco/Oakland/Marin areas, many tenants and landlords were later to find that the existing rental contracts -- contracts everyone had agreed to and signed -- were no longer going to be honored by the local housing authorities.

Housing authorities are now demanding that landlords must lower their rents to match the HUD-reduced FMRs, or that the tenants must pay more for their share of rent, or that the contracts will not be honored at all and the tenant has to move, or lose their Section 8 voucher.

In McPherson's case, the MHA had agreed to allow SCI REALTY to charge as much as $1,680.00 per month for McPherson's two-bedroom unit. This also affects Gary Armijo, McPherson's live-in caregiver, and he also faces homelessness now as a result of these policy changes.

Things were fine for McPherson and Armijo until HUD double-crossed the MHA, and then the MHA turned around and double-crossed McPherson by refusing to honor the existing rental contract and making demands that McPherson and SCI REALTY found to be unreasonable.

According to HUD's latest figures for Fair Market Rents in Marin County, which goes into effect on March 1, 2006, the FMR for a two-bedroom unit is $1,536 per month. That's $144 less per month than what was agreed upon in McPherson's existing contract with SCI REALTY.

Making matters worse for McPherson and others, the Marin Housing Authority has declared their own FMRs, or what they call "rent reasonableness standards," which greatly differ from HUD's FMRs, or the tenants' existing rental contracts.

HUD says the FMR for a two-bedroom unit in Marin County is set at $1,536 as of March 1. The MHA says in a written statement that the FMR in McPherson's area of Marin County has been reduced to $1,400 per month, and her existing rental contract is set at $1,680 per month.

But, if you go to the Marin Housing Authority website, it shows a whole different set of figures for FMRs in Marin County. At the bottom of their web page known as Participant Services, it shows that the FMR for a two-bedroom unit in Marin County is set at $1,605 per month.
That makes a grand total of four different FMRs for Marin County, according to HUD and the MHA -- more than enough to confuse anyone who is counting. With all these different FMRs floating around, one can only wonder how accurate the calculations are when trying to figure out the amount of each rental contract.

In an effort to save McPherson's housing, a statement from SCI REALTY on February 7 reveals that they are willing to lower McPherson's rent to $1,600 a month, which is five dollars less than what the Marin Housing Authority claims a two-bedroom unit (FMR) is worth, according to their own website.

That's not good enough, said the MHA in a December 9 statement to McPherson. Instead, the MHA demands that the rent in her residence must be reduced to $1,400 per month. What a mess!

The MHA did not respond to my calls or requests seeking an explanation for McPherson's dreadful housing situation.

The more reasons that HUD finds to reduce the FMRs across the nation, the harder it is for tenants to access the housing assistance programs, because fewer landlords will participate. The result is that Washington will spend far less to assist the poor in their housing needs, which has been their strategy all along.

According to a September 16, 2004, statement from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: "Under the proposed 2005 FMRs, more than three-fifths of counties (across the nation) face an FMR increase or decrease of 20 percent or more for at least one bedroom size. In some cases, the proposed changes in 2005 are quite extreme. In parts of the Boston metropolitan area, for example, the proposed 2005 FMRs for some bedroom sizes are less than half of the 2004 level."

Many housing advocates across the nation have been organizing to oppose HUD's housing assistance cutbacks in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Ohio, Massachusetts, Montana, Rhode Island, Texas, Wisconsin, as well as other states.

Lynda Carson may be reached at tenantsrule@yahoo.com

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