Landlords, Help the County's Homeless Population Find Housing

The Prince William County Department of Social Services, or DSS, is looking to area landlords to help the county’s homeless population find housing through the Prince William Area Landlord Network program.

While landlords might be cautious about renting to people experiencing homelessness, DSS has funding from local, state and federal sources that can mitigate risk, ease landlords’ trepidation and take care of any issues that arise from renting to the homeless.

Working with area nonprofits, the county has a hotline that landlords can call in case of disputes. Once a landlord calls the hotline, intermediaries will intervene with the renters. “If there’s any issue, unpaid rent, neighbor issues or property damage, the landlord can call our staff or the nonprofit staff and they’ll come out and do a home visit with the client,” said DSS Housing Developer Luke Taylor. “It’s on the nonprofit or county staff to go in and try to solve the issue. Our staff will get involved if they don’t pay their rent.”

Many homeless can pay the rent with help from DSS. “Almost all clients have some income, either social security or employment,” Taylor said. “In addition, rent is supplemented by local, state and federal funding that goes as direct payments to landlords.”

Renting to people experiencing homelessness is not necessarily a considerable risk for landlords. “If you take a regular market tenant, you’re going to make money. If you rent to one of DSS’s clients, you’re matching that profit and getting the full rent. We’re not asking for rent reduction,” Taylor said.

In all, Taylor said, landlords can benefit from renting to the homeless. “We create all these things to differentiate our clients from market tenants in that DSS provides support, and the landlord is helping to solve the homelessness issue. While a market tenant will pay the rent, our clients can offer the rent, plus staff support and additional funding. Anyone can get behind on their rent. Anyone can do damage. At least with us, you’ll have that additional support and funding.”

Other benefits of working with the Landlord Network include:

• Instant access to several hundred tenants looking for housing on our platform.
• Eligibility for a first-time landlord signing bonus.
• Potential promotion of the county’s website for landlords that have helped to end homelessness.

Visit pwcva.gov/landlord-network to learn more.