It was the middle of the pandemic, and Pam Gothner was neck-deep in repairs to the Section 8 rental she owned in Essex County.

First, first she needed to replace a broken water line to the home, in Keene. Later in the year, to make things even worse, she learned she had to replace the septic tank.

But then she got a call, out of the blue, from an Adirondack Roots case manager who works with the housing choice voucher program: Are you working on any projects that may qualify for COVID-19 relief funds?

“It was semi-miraculous,” she says. “I was looking at a lot of expenses on a rental unit property that I’m renting under market value.”

Gothner explained that she had completed that septic project just a few months earlier. Regardless, it was still eligible. “It was easy,” Gothner says. “It did involve filling out a lot of forms, and providing substantiation that the project was complete.”

But within months, she says, she got a check for $8,000—almost all of the project’s $9,000 total cost. (So long as Gothner keeps the property in the voucher program for three years, she can keep that entire amount.)

As the owner of a rental unit that is part of the federal housing choice voucher program, Gothner receives the lion’s share of that property’s annual rent directly from the federal government. (Her tenant pays a smaller portion.) It’s an arrangement that has worked well for Gothner since she started participating in the program eight years ago.

Getting the COVID-19 reimbursement was an unexpected boon for Gothner, who lives in the home next door and has lived in the community full-time since 2002. (She’s owned the property for 34 years.) While that pandemic-era program has expired, other funding may be available to property owners looking to improve their rental properties; contact Adirondack Roots to learn more what may be available.

Programs like these could entice more property owners to participate in the voucher program, says Gothner. And at a time when the entire region is suffering from an acute shortage of affordable housing, that’s a win-win to landlords and renters.

“I’m going to tell people thinking of renovating properties for rental: Contact Adirondack Roots,” she says.

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