I'm a new middle-class homeowner and I would like to share with all of
you my personal feelings about Section 8 housing in general.
I lived in an apartment complex in Phoenix, Arizona for seven years.
The first five years was fine, but for the entire final two years I
lived there, the complex participated in the Section 8 housing program.
A black person moved below me. I never had a black neighbor before
and never had problems with neighbors before. Yet, he was the first
neighbor to give me problems. One day, he came upstairs to knock on my
door to complain that his ceiling squeaked everytime I walked. He said
he complained about this to the apartment management but they told him
there was nothing they could do for him. I asked him what he wanted me
to do about it, he was never specific except to say that he goes to bed
at a certain time and I guess he wanted me to stop walking in my
apartment when it's time for him to go to bed. Yeah, right! I told
him that I'm sorry about his predicament, but that his squeaking
ceiling was beyond my control and that I had no problems with the
previous tenant who lived there for four years before he moved in.
Six months later, I came out of my apartment to go out. He was coming
home at the same time. When we crossed paths, he just verbally lashed
out at me and said tons of horrible things about me being inconsiderate
towards him with sarcastic comments like "I see you're leaving, does
this mean I'll have some quiet for at least an hour?" We ended up
shouting at each other for over ten minutes. The following morning, I
filed a written complaint against him with apartment management
charging bullying, harassment and intimidation. I made it clear to
them that I felt threatened by his irrational behavior. The following
day, I was told that they had a talk with him and that he would move to
another apartment and would not harass me with his problems again.
However, that was not the end of it.
Six months later, I found a nasty threatening note posted at my door
written in red ink telling me to cease "heavy walking, consider this
your warning". The note was written by a black leasing consultant. I
confronted her about this and it was like arguing with a blank wall.
This black leasing consultant took a complaint from this black Section
8 participant because blacks look after one another. The nasty
neighbor did not move out as promised. I complained to the manager and
she had a talk with her and the complaint was withdrawn.
Six months later, I found another nasty threatening note at my door,
this time from a leasing consultant who was just hired the day before.
I showed it to the manager and she confessed that this note was a
mistake and that the person who wrote it was new and she would have a
talk with her. She also told me that the nasty black Section 8
neighbor made wild allegations that I was "deliberately" making noise
to piss him off and that I was "peering" into his apartment window,
which was a lie.
Three months later, he finally moved out, however, I moved out a month
later and bought a house since I now realized that the apartment
complex was accepting Section 8 housing and that I could get another
nasty neighbor.
I hope that my new neighborhood never accepts Section 8 housing,
because if it does, I will fight against it. You Section 8
participants need to realize that people like myself don't want any of
you to be my neighbors and that you all need to restrict yourselves to
specific neighborhoods where you will be far away from the rest of us
who just want our property values to grow and our neighborhoods to be
safe and decent. If this means that you will have to stay in
high-crime neighborhoods, so be it. If you don't want that, then
you'll need to pick yourselves up and take responsibility for
yourselves and not live off our taxpayer dollars.
Finally, stop using past discrimination and slavery as an excuse for
your racism against white people.
Thank you for hearing me out.
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