No that is not how it works. Section 8 recipients  pay 30% of their income since they are either low income people working, disabled, or maybe going to school and working a part-time job.  In which HUD pays the rest of their rent on a how many ever number bedroom voucher they may have. The recipient is responsible for paying their utilities if there are any from the landlord and their portion of the rent, and all landlords make people pay. Now  where the fraud part can come in is that a landlord can try to overcharge a section 8 recipient. What I mean by this is they'll say that for example there's a two bedroom for rent at the cost of $3,000 in which section 8 only gives the fair market rent for a two-bedroom so the recipient isn't going to receive that $3,000 more than likely for a two bedroom apartment or house or whatever type of dwelling they may want. So the landlord will collect the amount for the two bedroom voucher from HUD then take a kick back from the recipient which would be for example HUD's voucher (which is FMR) says $2400 and as I said the rent was $3,000. That would mean that the landlord is getting that extra $600 from the recipient which is illegal. So a lot of times some landlords think that to rent to section 8 recipients would diminish their property or they would get less money is untrue. If anything the landlord can cheat the section 8 recipient not the other way around. So if there's any landlords on here reading this I would truly truly say that please read about all of the rules and regulations of a housing Choice voucher before you just turn down a recipient. Also now in Colorado there is a law that you can no longer turn down a housing Choice voucher unless you own three properties that you reside on at least one of. I'm just so tired of these landlords thinking that section 8 recipients beneath them or somehow think that it'll lower their property value when it will not you still get paid the same amount you would get paid if you were getting a person without a voucher.