Luxury apartments rent with Supervouchers

This is a sequel to the Post, "Shameful!" that describes the outrageous costs involved in public housing. Public Housing is housing built (or purchased) and owned by a geographic area's Housing Authority for income-qualified tenants.  Section-8 Housing Vouchers are a separate but complementary program that allows low income persons to find their own housing using vouchers to help pay the rent. Subsidies are on a sliding scale based on actual income.

In "Shameful!", I pointed out that the new Stephens Creek Crossing cost $442,000 per unit ($53.9 million for 122 units).  The article below quotes Section 8 vouchers used for rents between $2,350 and $3,000 per month for luxury apartments in Chicago.  Using these obviously exorbitant rent figures, how much more or less expensive is Stephens Creek Crossing?

At $2,600 per month for rent for a luxury apartment, rental expense for one year would be $31,200.  If money for Stephens Creek was used to pay this rent, 122 families could rent luxury housing for 14.2 years.  (Probably longer if many of the units were studio or single bedroom units.)  If maintenance and capital expenses are added (not including administration expense, soft costs, and tax losses and rent subsidies for tenants), another 2.5 years can be added.

This means that the Housing Authority of Portland (HAP), renamed Home Forward, could house 122 families for 16.7 years in high-end Pearl District apartments for what it will cost to build and maintain public housing at Stephens Creek Crossing.  Why bother to build - rent don't buy!   Add all costs, and the number goes up dramatically.

Does this make sense?  Or is Public Housing simply senseless?  

How many families could be housed and for how long if they received vouchers for $875 average rent for the cost of public housing?

Poor families use 'supervouchers' to rent in city's priciest buildings

Crain's Chicago Business, July 28, 2014, By Alby Galun

One lucky voucher holder lives in Aqua Tower, 225 N. Columbus Drive, at a rent of $2,566 a month.

The high-rise at 500 N. Lake Shore Drive is the second-most expensive in the city, with rents for a one-bedroom apartment approaching $3,000 a month, well beyond the reach of most Chicago residents.

But that's not too much for the Chicago Housing Authority, which has used federal tax dollars to pick up most of the tab for four lucky residents in the year-old building, with its sweeping views of Lake Michigan, a concierge and a dog-grooming center.

The tenants moved in over the past two years as part of a push by the CHA to expand its housing voucher program so that more low-income residents can leave the city's roughest neighborhoods and start a new life in places with low poverty and crime and close to good schools and jobs.

Yet some landlords say it's a mistake to use scarce tax dollars to pay ultra-high rents for a fortunate few when more than 15,000 people sit on the CHA's voucher waiting list.

“This is nuts,” says landlord Tony Rossi, president of Chicago-based RMK Management Corp., who describes himself as a liberal Democrat. “In a situation where you're dealing with a low-income person, do they really need a 25th-floor apartment with a lake view? It just doesn't make sense to me.”