Living On Social Security & Disability Checks, Elderly Tenants In 54-Unit Rent Subsidized Complex Fear Possible Boot After Receiving Management's Notice Of Its Rejection Of 5-Year Renewal Of Current Section 8 Contract w/ HUD; Outfit Says No Changes Planned, Landlord Just Wants To Do Year-To-Year Renewals Instead

In Gainesville, Georgia, the Gainseville Times reports:

• Residents of Church Street Manor in Gainesville have received the notice before. By now, it serves mostly as a reminder that they may one day have to move.
  
  And that's a daunting prospect for many living there given the shortage of affordable housing across Hall County.
  
  The 54-unit subsidized apartment complex houses elderly residents living on fixed incomes covered by Social Security and disability checks.
  
  The notice arrived again recently with these words bolded: “This letter is to notify you that we do not intend to renew the current Section 8 contract when it expires.”
  
  The complex across Jesse Jewell Parkway from the Northeast Georgia Medical Center could be redeveloped at some point in the coming years, though nothing is immediate.
  
  “Nothing has changed,” said Frank Norton Jr., president and CEO of The Norton Agency real estate firm who manages the property. “It is simply a technicality.”
  
  Norton said the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development prefers that a five-year Section 8 renewal agreement be signed to ensure long-term subsidized housing at the complex. But the property owners want to go year-to-year instead, which prompted them to send the required notice.
  
  Owners have 120 days prior to the next expiration date of May 2017 to either renew the Section 8 contract for another year or opt out.

For more, see Residents wonder about future of Church Street Manor (No plans to redevelop Gainesville apartments at this time).