DEPARTMENT: Neighborhood & Housing Services Department
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Ver?nica R. Soto, FAICP, Neighborhood and Housing Services Department Director
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: Citywide
SUBJECT: A briefing on potential actions related to preventing Source of Income Discrimination.
SUMMARY: Briefing discussing potential actions protecting renters from being denied access to housing based on their Source of Income.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Source of income discrimination (SOID) is the refusal to rent or sell a housing unit to an applicant, or ending a tenancy, based on the applicant's lawful form of income. Lawful sources of income include government or non-profit administered income such as Social Security, and Social Security Insurance; non-government funded sources of income include spousal maintenance and child support; and income from various programs including Housing Choice Vouchers (Section 8) Housing Opportunities for Persons with HIV/AIDS (HOPWA), and Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) vouchers.
At the federal level, source of income is not a protected status or class under the Fair Housing Act. However, some federal programs, such as the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, HOME, and CDBG require properties to accept some forms of income such as Housing Choice Vouchers.
The Texas legislature prevented cities from adopting ordinances prohibiting landlords from refusing to lease to a person whose source of income includes federal housing assistance, except for veterans. A city can prohibit SOID in properties that receive municipal incentives or other City support, as well as adopt policies requiring set-aside units for voucher households.
The City of Dallas is currently the only city in Texas that has an active SOID ordinance. Their ordinance requires any development benefiting from a local subsidy or financial award to accept housing vouchers and other legal sources of income. Additiona...
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