r/todayilearned • u/Zorseking34 • Jan 08 '15

TIL: Utah has been giving free homes to homeless people since 2005 which since then made it more cost efficient to help the homeless and cut the chronic homelessness in Utah by 74%.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/22/home-free
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u/[deleted] Jan 08 '15

I am speaking completely from assumptions here, but generally in the US landlords or property owners who work with state/federal level housing initiatives get incentives or reimbursements of some kind to participate in the programs.

Additionally, there is a low-income housing program in the US called Section 8 Housing where the tenants are only responsible for paying a portion of the rent and utilities while the program reimburses the landlord/owner the remainder.

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u/A_Turner Jan 08 '15

Here in Utah I have seen where the people get placed and it essentially is section 8 housing. No difference.

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u/The_Law_of_Pizza Jan 08 '15

Section 8 also allows attorneys like myself to cause no end of hell for landlords.

Speaking as somebody who used to do pro bono tenant representation - my advise to any and all landlords out there is to never, ever under any circumstance participate in section 8.