Heatherwood Apartments operates under a very unique “tax-credit” umbrella, and a lot of prospective tenants misunderstand the requirements of this program. On the surface it sounds plain enough; they have to rent to a specific number of low-income tenants, and as long as they do so, they get a substantial tax credit. It’s enough to more than make up for the discount afforded, but you’re missing the critical element here… you have to be poor, but they DO NOT have to give you a good deal.
Remember, the only criteria here is that they rent to a certain number of low-income tenants.
There is no requirement that they give you a good deal, just that you take whatever deal they give you, and that you stay.
So what they do is take a 4-bedroom, 2-bath apartment and cut it down to $1,005 a month. If you’re looking at the apartment, you obviously are in the lower class, and you qualify for Heatherwood to receive their Tax Credit.
You’re in and they’re done. Everybody wins, right?
Well it isn’t that easy, because Heatherwood’s owners and managers would never let such low dollars slide, even though the property was built with sub-par materials and barely kept up on its best days.
So you saw the low rent rate, you were seduced, and you moved in. Mind you, you’re going to pay another $50/month for water, another $35 for your washer/dryer, another $40 for your cable, and another $100 for your garage… all sorts of things you might expect to see included in other apartments rental rates, or at least severely discounted.
Your $1,005 apartment now costs you $1,230… that’s not such a good deal after all, is it? Don’t worry, it’s about to change.
We were told in very plain terms we had a 12-month lease before we came in to sign (and dragged my ex-brother-in-law in to sign as well.) Turns out we only had a six-month lease, after which time we were afforded the luxury of our rent increasing to $1,345… not total, that’s the amount before all the add-ons. That’s $1,570 in total, and just six-months later. That’s an increase of over 30% in 6-months, which in financial terms means an annualized increase of over 70%.
What are you going to do about it, move? You know what moving costs, not to mention the hassle. You’re not going to do that. No way.
See, they don’t have to give good rates to earn their Low Income Tax Credit, they just have to find poor people who are stupid enough to pay their rates, which are far beyond what the market would bear.
There will be a whole post soon about the “Fair Market Rate Rent” myth they so passionately adhere to, but to wrap it up in a fraction of a conclusion, nobody in their right mind would pay those rates to live in Mill Creek’s very arm pit unless they were painted into a corner with no choice but to be bitter about their living situation and wonder how they made the mistake of trusting these people… and Heatherwood wonders why there’s so much vandalism… silly, really.
Tags: charito domingo, deception, fraud, lies, low income, managemnt, rent increases, section 8, tax credit