Landlords renting property in unincorporated Marin will be prohibited from discriminating against people using “Section 8” housing vouchers and other third-party housing subsidies if a proposed ordinance discussed by county supervisors Tuesday becomes law.
The Marin County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to adopt the ordinance on its first reading; a second and final vote is scheduled for Nov. 8.
“More recently in our country we’ve come to realize that many of the ways we’ve organized our governments have been structurally biased against certain classes,” said Supervisor Steve Kinsey. “This is a great example of something we can address tonight — get started on — that is consistent with that realization.”
More than 60 people turned out for the public hearing, which was scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. to facilitate attendance.
The board prioritized the creation of a “fair housing” ordinance during a February workshop it held on policy options for responding to Marin’s affordable housing crisis.
Current state law prohibits housing discrimination based on a person’s source of income; but the law defines source of income as “income paid directly to a tenant or paid to a representative of a tenant.” Since third-party subsidies such as Section 8 vouchers are paid to the landlord, not the tenant, the law does not apply to them.
Community Development Agency staff surveyed rental advertisements on Craigslist during the first two weeks of September and found 26 ads that specified they wouldn’t rent to Section 8 voucher holders.
Herb Taylor of San Rafael, one of more than a dozen people who spoke at Tuesday’s hearing, said he experienced discrimination when he tried to find a Marin landlord who would take his elderly, disabled mother’s Section 8 voucher.
“Management companies told me Section 8 holders were undesirables, and they wouldn’t accept voucher holders,” Taylor said.
Taylor, who moved to Marin from Texas, said that surprised him.
“Using the voucher in Texas was never an issue,” Taylor said. “Not once did I encounter a problem finding her housing — not the case in Marin.”
‘No place to go’
Under the proposed ordinance, a landlord could still choose not to rent to a specific individual receiving a third-party subsidy; but the landlord would have to fairly consider that individual’s application and not reject him automatically just because he was using a voucher.
Between Jan. 1, 2014, and Aug. 31, 2016, Marin Housing Authority issued 2,194 Section 8 vouchers. Nearly half of the recipients, 1,063, were unable to find a landlord that would rent to them and lost their vouchers. And 239 of the recipients transferred their voucher, and the attendant federal funding, out of Marin.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Lucille Bailey, who is 80 and disabled, said her Terra Linda rental unit changed ownership, and she is being evicted in the next 30 days.
“I can’t find anybody who will take my voucher,” Bailey said. “I’m pretty desperate because they said the sheriff is going to come and lock me out of my apartment. I have no place else to go.”
Fair housing
If Marin County adopts a fair housing ordinance extending source of income protections to Section 8 voucher holders and other recipients of third party housing subsidies — such as Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing and Housing for People with AIDS — it won’t be the first jurisdiction to do so. Since 1998, similar ordinances have been approved in San Francisco, East Palo Alto, Santa Monica and Corte Madera.
A national survey done by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) found that the success rate of Section 8 voucher holders was 12 percent higher in parts of the country where source of income protection is in effect.
Legal Aid of Marin and Fair Housing of Marin, a nonprofit working to ensure equal housing opportunity in the county, believes that the county of Marin is virtually obligated under federal law to adopt a fair housing ordinance.
In a letter to the board, Caroline Peattie, executive director of Fair Housing of Marin, told supervisors that, “Studies have shown that refusal of Section 8, given the demographics of Section 8 voucher holders, is often a pretext for race, familial status, or disability discrimination.”
Peattie further cautioned that “HUD’s Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Department as well as advocates around the Bay Area are watching very closely to see what steps the county will take to create and preserve affordable housing and promote integration throughout the county.”
Under scrutiny
In a separate letter, David Snyder, executive director of Legal Aid of Marin, told the board, “There can be no question that the demographics of the housing voucher participant pool differ significantly from those of most Marin County residents, and any blanket rejection of these applicants raises important fair housing issues that will be addressed by the proposed ordinance.”
Supervisor Judy Arnold said Tuesday that Marin has been under increased scrutiny by HUD for its fair housing practices.
“HUD requires local governments to go beyond addressing illegal discrimination and to take local action to change past patterns of inequality and promote inclusion and diversity,” Arnold said.
Adoption of the fair housing ordinance is opposed, however, by some Marin landlords as well as the California Apartment Association (CAA).
At Tuesday’s hearing Roland Lee, a Fairfax landlord, said, “I oppose this ordinance saying you must accept Section 8 housing vouchers; that’s ramming something down someone’s throat.”
Lee said he has rented to Section 8 voucher holders in the past but won’t in the future, “because my personal experience is they do not take care of the property.”
Legal challenge
Mallori Spilker, CAA’s vice president of public affairs, said Santa Monica’s fair housing ordinance is being challenged in court by the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles. She urged supervisors to wait until the resolution of that litigation before moving forward.
Spilker also said the board should allow more time for the county’s new landlord partnership program to bear fruit.
Marin supervisors allocated $450,000 to a new program in July that aims to make landlord participation in the Section 8 program more attractive.
The bulk of the money allocated for the landlord incentive program, about $400,000, will be used to create a loss mitigation fund to compensate landlords if their property is damaged by low-income tenants.
Supervisor Kate Sears said prior to the Nov. 8 second reading the county needs to get the word out to landlords that the ordinance won’t require them to rent to all Section 8 voucher holders. But she expressed her full support for the ordinance.
“Shame on us that there is more tolerance for Section 8 housing in Texas than in Marin County,” Sears said. “This may change my entire perception of the state of Texas.”
