By: Lauren Roland
With market rate rents rising in every major city, the lower and middle class are finding it harder than ever to find affordable housing. Affordable housing lotteries, while good in theory, receive thousands of applications for a small fraction of available units. Hundreds of rent stabilized units become deregulated every year thanks to high rent vacancy, high income deregulation and other policies in place that protect the landlord rather than the tenant.
One housing option that should be saving tenants are Housing Choice vouchers, better known as Section 8 vouchers. Started in 1978, Section 8 vouchers provide assistance to low and moderate income families to rent housing in the private market. Eligibility to receive these vouchers is based on a family’s annual gross income and size. The vouchers act a subsidy towards the family’s rent, allowing them to pay no more than 40 percent of their monthly income. The NYC Housing Authority pays the balance to the building owner on the tenant’s behalf (NYC Housing Authority 2019).
You would think having a guaranteed rent payment every month would entice landlords and brokers to take on these prospective tenants. However, having housing vouchers actually has the opposite effect. Many renters report reaching out to a landlord or broker about an apartment and when the topic of housing vouchers come up, the landlord or broker becomes unresponsive . Some landlords will even set up apartment showings and then not show up when they find out the renter has housing vouchers.
Under New York City’s Human Rights Law, discriminating against renters with Section 8 vouchers is illegal. New York State’s Human Rights Law also prohibits discrmination against renters for their source of income. By ‘ghosting’ these prospective renters, landlords skirt housing vouchers without getting penalized legally.
Rejecting tenants with housing vouchers can also be a landlord’s way of indirectly discriminating against those based on race, age and disability. The stereotypes that landlords hold against those with housing vouchers harm the city’s most vulnerable citizens in need of housing. In the last year, the City Commission on Human Rights received almost 500 complaints about source of income discrmination. This is an uptick from prior years, although more renters may be encouraged to reach out now that more of these stories are coming to light.
Landlords allege they hesitate in accepting housing vouchers out of fear of the housing program terminating payment or their property not passing inspections to receive federal subsidies. These fears are overblown, and at the end of the day, landlords not complying with the law could face heavy fines for rejecting renters with housing vouchers.
Vulnerable renters dependent on housing vouchers deserve safe, affordable housing. Despite having laws in place to prevent this discrmination, landlords are getting around the requirements and harming families in the process. As affordable housing stock shrinks in major cities and demand escalates, it is time to hold landlords accountable for their predatory and discriminatory practices when dealing with housing vouchers. There is no reason to have low-income families homeless or moving from shelter to shelter, when there are plenty of apartments available on the private market, coupled with guaranteed financial assistance to help these families.
Sources:
Chen, Michelle (2018, September 27) Our Housing Voucher Program is Broken
Retrieved from:
https://www.thenation.com/article/our-housing-voucher-program-is-broken/
NYC Housing Authority (2019, November 24) About Section 8
Retrieved from:
https://www1.nyc.gov/site/nycha/section-8/about-section-8.page
NY Assembly (2019, June 14) Assembly Passes Historic Affordable Housing Protections to Bring Stability to Tenants Across New York State
Retrieved from: https://nyassembly.gov/Press/files/20190614a.php
Olumhense, Ese (2019, November 19) Landlords Ghost Apartment Hunters When Housing Vouchers Come Up
Retrieved from:
https://thecity.nyc/2019/11/landlords-ghost-apartment-hunters-over-housing-vouchers.html