Housing vouchers rebuffed

The state of the rental market is not in a good place in Spokane. I have been helping someone with a housing voucher that expires soon to find a place to live. We have been greeted day-to-day by unreachable property companies (full mailboxes, no returned phone calls after multiple messages left, no response from repeated emails). How can they even know that a person has a housing voucher or not? (We have been greeted, when we have managed to reach an actual human being, with open hostility against vouchers.) It is as if they do not want to do business with anyone, housing voucher or not.

A friend of mine, who is not on a housing voucher, told me when he and his fiancee were interested in a rental house in Cheney. They were told by the property manager that it was too far for her to drive to show the property and she suggested that they go to the property and look through the windows. What a way to do business! Customers demand much more service, and yes, respect - not to be left feeling that they do not matter and are not worthy. I am left disappointed and disillusioned.

Jennifer Bates

Spokane