Expansion of housing discrimination protections proposed
A measure that would prohibit housing discrimination based on lawful sources of income was considered by the Judiciary Committee Jan. 30.
LB223, introduced by Omaha Sen. Dunixi Guereca, would designate a source of income as a protected category under the Nebraska Fair Housing Act. Under the bill, a lawful source of income could include income derived from Social Security, child support, foster care subsidies, alimony, veteran benefits or any other form of federal, state or local public general assistance or housing assistance.
Guereca said one of the most common sources of income discrimination relates to housing choice vouchers. Commonly known as Section 8, the federal voucher program assists low-income families, the elderly and individuals with disabilities in securing housing in the private market, he said.
Applicants approved for a voucher are placed on a waitlist, which in Omaha can range from six months to a year, Guereca said. Once a voucher is received, participants have 60 days to find a landlord who accepts Section 8, he said, and a local public housing agency then uses federal funds to directly pay landlords the portion of the rent covered by the voucher.
“We’re not forcing [landlords] to accept the tenant if they hold the voucher,” Guereca said. “We’re merely opening up housing possibilities for families that do hold the voucher and preventing them from being disqualified solely on the fact that they have Section 8 income to cover part of their rent.”
Sarah O’Neill supported the bill on behalf of Legal Aid of Nebraska’s Housing Justice Project. O’Neill said she has seen firsthand the challenges tenants face in finding landlords who will accept their housing assistance.
“Federal Section 8 housing choice vouchers provide some relief to cost-burdened tenants renting from private landlords,” O’Neill said. “However, [that relief] is frustrated by the burdens tenants face trying to find and secure housing that will accept this lawful source of income.”
Kasey Ogle also supported the measure on behalf of Collective Impact Lincoln. U.S. residents typically wait an average of 1.5 years to receive a housing voucher, she said, and 20% of individuals who obtain assistance cannot use it because of a shortage of available housing options or because landlords are unwilling to accept Section 8.
“Studies show that housing voucher recipients are 12% more likely to use their voucher in a jurisdiction with a law like LB223 than in a jurisdiction without such a law, which cuts the voucher failure rate in half,” Ogle said.
Testifying on behalf of the Apartment Association of Nebraska, Ryan Norman opposed the bill. A similar New York law recently was overturned because it violated landlord’s rights, he said.
“By requiring landlords to accept Section 8 vouchers, source of income discrimination statutes compel landlords to consent to warrantless searches of their properties and records, in violation of the Fourth Amendment,” Norman said.
Omaha landlord Dave Ulferts also opposed LB223, saying it won’t help solve the city’s housing issues. The problem isn’t that landlords are unwilling to accept Section 8 tenants, he said, but rather the difficulty of dealing with local housing authorities.
Ulferts said he has reduced his rental units by half in recent years due to the challenges of working with the Omaha Housing Authority, and is prepared to sell his remaining properties to avoid working with OHA should LB223 pass.
“It’s bureaucratic, you can’t get ahold of anybody, no one has an answer and they’re not helpful,” he said.
The committee took no immediate action on the proposal.
