Local landlords raise concerns about source of income legislation
Toledo City Council is facing pushback from some landlords who do not want to see source of income added to the city’s anti-discrimination laws.
The amendment would mean landlords would no longer be able to refuse to lease property to tenants who would otherwise qualify but use state or federal-funded housing vouchers to pay their rent.
The proposal was introduced by Councilman Nick Komives two years ago and has resurfaced as council members consider other legislation regarding tenants’ rights, including eviction protections. City Council is hosting a committee of the whole meeting at 5 p.m. Thursday to discuss the issues.
Proponents of the legislation say the ability to deny someone housing simply because they’d use a voucher to pay for it perpetuates inequality and undermines federal fair housing laws that prohibit discrimination. But many landlords argue the voucher program is too cumbersome to participate in, and some believe the government is overstepping its bounds by telling them who they can and cannot rent to.
Don Newman, vice president of Toledo’s Property Investors Network, said he owns 37 rental properties in Toledo, a combination of single-family homes and duplexes. He said he currently has two tenants with housing choice vouchers, often referred to as Section 8, but the required annual inspections are problematic.
“I tend to turn them away now, not so much because of the tenants, but from the abuse that LMH gives,” he said. “They’ll do anything to get a tenant into a property, and then they’ll come back a year later with multiple things that need to be fixed or repaired, and nothing happened in that year time.”
Lucas Metropolitan Housing is the local authority that distributes housing choice vouchers from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to low-income families locally. It’s separate from LMH’s public housing program, which places low-income tenants in apartments owned by LMH.
LMH has 4,685 vouchers from HUD to distribute in Lucas County. Shanetta Moye, vice president of LMH’s housing choice voucher program, said the inspections are reasonable and are in place to protect both the tenant and landlord. Officials look to make sure the home is not a fire hazard, has hot and cold running water, has working heat, does not have peeling paint on interior walls, has working electrical, and does not have a leaky ceiling.
“Every housing choice voucher program throughout the country performs HUD required housing quality inspections,” Ms. Moye said. “There’s no gimmick to inspections.”
She added that the time it takes LMH to complete its initial inspection for new properties is two to four days, well below the 30 days landlords have expressed concerns about.
Ms. Moye said demand for affordable housing far outweighs supply not just in Toledo, but across the country. The housing choice voucher program is a way to help low-income families, and LMH needs participating landlords in order to make the system work.
“Without them, we wouldn’t be able to house our families in safe, decent, and sanitary housing,” she said. “It is extremely important that we recruit and retain landlords to participate in our voucher program.”
Discussion about housing vouchers comes during the same week The Blade published the first part of a series on how evictions affect those living in LMH.
Mr. Newman said his tenants that use vouchers are pretty typical renters; they’re not the reason he has moved away from accepting them.
“Some are good, some are bad. Some leave and clean the house, some leave with garbage under furniture that they left,” he said. “I really don’t even blame the tenants.”
For Jeff Savage, owner of Toledo Transformation, his issue with the voucher program is centered on the tenants. Toledo Transformation owns about 450 rental properties, Mr. Savage said, most of which are single-family homes. He has about 200 homes rented to voucher-holders.
“I really want the program to work. But right now it’s pretty broken, so I haven’t rented to a new Section 8 tenant in a while,” he said. “I hate to say it, but poor tenants in particular beat the houses up.”
Mr. Savage said his biggest issue with the program is not the inspection requirements, but the financial hit he takes to fix up his units when tenants move out. He contends renters with vouchers cause more damage to properties than those who use more traditional methods to pay, and it ends up costing him thousands of dollars.
If LMH would reimburse him for the repairs, he’d reconsider, he said.
Ms. Moye and Mr. Komives said Thursday’s committee meeting will be a chance to correct misinformation and dispel myths and stereotypes about the housing choice voucher system.
“It’s unfortunate that any discrimination exists,” Ms. Moye said. “The fact that we’re even discussing source of income as it relates to discrimination is extremely disheartening.”
Mr. Komives said the legislation would not prohibit landlords from running tenant background checks, nor would it dictate how much a property owner can charge in rent.
“I’m really hoping that people can have an open mind and come into this space willing to have a conversation,” Mr. Komives said. “We are not forcing anyone to do anything other than to consider an applicant if they have a housing choice voucher. We’re just saying you can’t deny them the chance.”
Source: Toledoblade.com
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