Section 8 housing is in nearly every neighborhood in America. Beverly Hills and adjacent has plenty of them being rented by all sort mostly by immigrants. If a homeowner had shitty tenants who were not paying rents and gave too much grief, it may be a better deal to join the program for solid payment monthly. Tenants can pay from 0%-90% of the market rate rents on the program so it is not always for extremely low income as many work and have fairly decent pay in jobs. High living costs may make them program recipients.
One of my properties is now a Section 8 house. I wanted to rent to a veteran which is why I joined the program. Had a bad experience with one and I am still trying to get aasssitance from the county but still wanted to help. I joined the city program, have a tenant who seems to be working out so far. If he causes problems I will go back to renting to the public and making a bit more money.

If I understand you correctly anybody can live in a home beyond thier means and the cost is subsidized by the state?

If indeed that’s the case, at best this discourages savings and home ownership. Much worse, this contributes to the growing wealth gap. After all, why save for your own home and build wealth if you can live in a nice place and not have pay “the real cost”.

I suspect you are confusing the cause and effect. I don't have the time or desire search the internet to prove the point. Even if I found evidence you wouldn't believe it, but my suspicion is section 8 came (at least in larger numbers) into the neighborhood after it began deteriorating.

Glad it worked out for you. All it did was destroy affordable middle class neighborhoods in northeast Philly. No one wants to live next to criminals that openly sell drugs and throw their trash all over the place. So the good people leave while their property values haven’t tanked yet. And more trash fills the void. Soon his city will have to tax the air we breathe to stay afloat, they already tax “sugary drinks” which means everything but water and the sales tax is 2% higher than outside the city. I can’t wait to get the hell out of here.
I have a retired friend that lives in one of these neighborhoods and is dealing with the section 8 scumbags. He has bars on his windows now and canÂ’t leave his car outside. He canÂ’t afford to leave either.

IÂ’ve been watching really nice affordable neighborhoods go to complete shit the last 20 years because of Section 8.

Maybe it was implemented poorly in the neighborhoods you're talking about. The idea of having huge blocks of "projects" died decades ago. Now, at least in my area, Section 8 is intermixed as a relatively low % of units in regular housing. I don't think you'd be able to identify the condo/apartment complexes that contain some Section 8 units as any different than any other. And landlords have broad discretion over renting (as you can read by the one in this thread who tried out several).

I told them to fuck off.

“Fuck off” were my exact words.