Housing Authority of the County of Santa Clara

I called the main phone number to ask a simple yes or no question. The "customer service agent" who picked up the call did not reply with a straight answer. No matter how many times I asked and clarified the question, she kept repeating the same, unhelpful scripted reponse over and over again. All I needed was either a yes or no and she couldn't even give me that. It was like talking with an insentient robot. It was so bad that chatting with an AI would have been a better experience.

Seriously, if a "customer service agent" is not helpful, what are they even paying this agent for?

Have been told my family qualifies for emergency housing assistance but at this level our situation although unique is not of concern to them . All clients are treated as "equal urgency" and they tell you it can take YEARS

I had a great, productive phone conversation with a well informed service rep. named Maria Lopez today. How refreshing. She seems to know exactly what steps needed to address some challenges. I will keep you updated.

Guarenteed rent!
I own two rental properties and took over managing several of my elderly grandparent's rental properties back in June of 2016.

During the pandemic nine of the 14 properties were delinquent and only two were late once or twice in the beginning but really not impacted longterm by the closures.
Our tenants either completely stopped paying all together or were only able to make partial payments however the one disabled renter on Section 8, which renting to this subsidized program went against my family's wishes, however because they don't deal with any paperwork and this nice younger lady had excellent credit, as well as 20+ years of excellent renter's history I took a gamble- so I though!
Because according to my grandfather he never accepted any programs. He said he didn't have time to deal with all of that paperwork but to be honest I don't think he ever really looked into it. He was all about show me that cash! And I get it.
Sure, theres always paperwork now-a-days and yes I had to meet to conduct a safety inspection which literally took 5 minutes. The guy was professional and friendly.
As long af there's no broken windows, locks and window function currently, there's smoke detectors and a carbon monoxide detector in the rental you'll pass with flying colors.

They even offer direct deposit so for almost four years the payment goes into our back account like clockwork on the first of every month and she's the best quiet friendly tenant I've ever had. Anytime there a leak she lets me know. I couldn't have picked a better tenant.

The reason I wanted to share is because during the pandemic this Section 8 tenant was the only property that made consistent payment throughout the year and a half nightmare situation.

If you're on the fence, do your research it's a Federal Program so no matter what happens in our world they will still pay. They paid this tenant's rent on time. Now the other problems with the other tenants is another disaster still unfolding and forms and dealing with the city with the permit ms is another review and issue for another day which I am dreading and to be honest wish I had more section 8 units because my life would be so much easier and less stressful.

Good luck with anything here. You will get a revolving door of different people to deal with and it takes forever to get anything done. If you try to go talk to them face to face, you will get , "Oh they will call you". Nope they wont, guarantee. They do not answer calls or emails. They will give your landlord a huge runaround saying they need to fix things literally 6 times in a certain time frame, but yet not do their part, then to go on vacation and nothing else happens. Talking to their supervisors, same thing,, like talking to a brick wall... nothing gets accomplished. Every year you have to submit a ton of paperwork verifying any form of income you have. They do no take in account your bills, or if you spend $500 on gas for work and don't get paid for that by your work. They do not care. If you possibly can have a representative to help, go that way. Maybe they can light a fire under their butts.

I had an very unprofessional call today, with my paper works getting messed up at their office and I was to be blamed for their mistakes.

I was put under stress and anxiety with this call and threats that she will call Elizabeth "her supervisor" to let her know about the situation. Prior to that I have already spoken to my actual case worker and everything was solved, and than I get this call from Mrs. Borjorquez.

She kept telling me all these lies, repeatedly try to make me feel like I was guilty of something. I have told her I have proof for everything single document that was turned in that she is asking for. She literally harassed me and hung up. The last thing i need right now is to be unorganized with Housing Authority.
I've become very stress the past two years and I have anxiety so I couldn't keep a job longer than four months and so I reported every single income change and Mrs. Borjorquez had given such an negative conversation telling me I had change my information four time last year. Isn't that what I was suppose to do?

I don't know what her problem was but she is very unprofessional she even hung up on me. What a way to start my day, I hope all is well with, because you don't seem happy in the tone of your voice or either you are racist. I can't tell but it was not pleasant talking to you. I felt very harassed, And that is not ok.

I have had several dealings as a landlord with Santa Clara Housing however this last time I received 4-5 different quotes for what they will pay for rent leading up to the day the tenant was moving in. The tenant signed my lease & Housing then dropped the rent that they initially indicated they would pay by $800. Eek!!! Not going to work for me (the landlord). The tenant moved her items out of my rental property and we waited 5 days until they finally decided on the 5th and final rent amount ($500 less than initially stated). Be very very careful landlords that you work with an experienced caseworker and keep your listings going until Housing signs the RAFTA forms. Otherwise, they do not care how much you lose each day in rent waiting for them to correct their mistakes.

This organization is amazing. Landlords, do not even bother going this route. If you do end up with a good tenant then you are definitely very lucky. A family friend got lucky with their tenant, but once you get screwed over, you get really screwed over. We were fortunate that the police placed pressure on the tenants during the eviction process and that they helped flag severe concerns. When we reported the issues to HA, the HA responded saying it was the landlord and tenants' problem. = 1 star rating

Last we've heard, the ex-tenants are still in the program. If this is true, HA should remove anyone with poor rental histories. For HA to not remove these individuals from the program is basically a slap in the face for the landlord.

Think you can rent to section 8 and get paid reliably? Hell no! I manages multiple properties, each renter with section 8 is a renter from hell.


#1: moves into a newly remodeled house, put holes in the walls everywhere. Put a steel pole in the brand new patio. Constantly pay rent late. After being kicked out, try to take door with them, claim it's theirs. Brand new LED lights missing from rooms, ripped fridge water line from the wall. Damaged new double pane windows. Claims the house was a dump when they moved in and they did all the fixup. Really amazing, never seen anything like it. Neighbors complain gangster like people coming and going. Found heat lamp in garage and cameras around house, doing some gardening???


#2: really smart, moves in and never connected water service, just helped themselves with water. Eventually, water got shut down and locked by San Jose Water in a way that they can't help themselves anymore. Owner had to call and pay the past due 6 months of water bill. Oh, they never paid rent on time also.

#3: completely ruined brand new carpet in a newly remodeled house. Broke and killed a tree that cost hundreds of $. Removes smoke detector, change battery is just too time consuming. Damaged garage roller door, they just fixed it themselves by putting in a large screw through the door that's actually made more damage. Removed window locks. Why???!!! And damages through out the house.

Now the fun part, HA itself. #3 tenant was in a transition and needs a new contract/application. The HA lady helping the #3 tenant left for vacation next day without telling anyone what's going on. #3 thinking everything was ok, but found out later, the time expired, and she no longer gets help from HA. I don't see how anyone claims to help others, would do something like this. Real nice HA.

Last but not the least. HA owes 5 months back rent for house #3.

You can do better than HA, run far away from HA. The cost of repair would amount to tens of thousands $. It's really not worth it. Not to mention devalue the neighborhood and your house!

I will never ever rent to section 8 again.

So my wife applied for a job here and got it. She was scheduled to start work on a Monday. The Thursday before that Monday, she receives all her information on her start date and new hire orientation. My wife is elated to start her new job. No more than 3 hours after her receiving all this information she receives a call and the hiring manager rescinds the job offer for whatever reason. This crushed my wife as she turned down a couple job offers thinking she had this one. Imagine being on top of the world one second then having that stripped from you the next. Not only was this move unprofessional but a first for us. I work in a highly professional atmosphere with highly educated people and not once had any of my colleagues ever heard of this happening to anyone ever. They found it extremely odd that they would offer her the job without finishing all background research and knowing the process wasn't complete just take back their offer. Not a good look they said!

My wife did infact state that the lady who made the call to rescind the offer seemed genuine in feeling bad and was good to her throughout the process, we'll never know but I just hope that they don't treat the people who are housing like they do potential employees because at the end of the day they are adversely affecting peoples livelihoods. Fortunately I can carry us and when it's all said and done, my wife will land where she needs to!

---1/19/2017 UPDATE-
So I was extremely bitter when I wrote my last review and it was well warranted! This review is actually more of a thank you for what you did! If it wasn't for your last minute "pull of the rug" so to speak, my wife wouldn't be finishing off her probationary period today at a company she's been trying to get into for years. So with I would like to thank you because had you stuck to hiring her she would've had no need to keep looking for employment and now she's in a place 110% better than what I think you could've offered her! Thanks again as we both appreciate it!!!!