Abstract
Amending the federal Fair Housing Act (“FHA”) to ban “source-of-income” discrimination has been discussed for over twenty years. During this time, a growing number of states and localities (including many of the nation’s largest cities) have taken this step by amending their fair housing laws to prohibit discrimination against Section 8 voucher holders and others based on their source of income. Meanwhile, bills proposing such an amendment to the FHA have regularly been introduced, including four in the current Congress.
Proponents of such an amendment say it would help fulfill the voucher program’s goal of providing low-income families with a wider choice of housing and eliminate a form of discrimination that has frustrated the FHA’s goals of ending racial discrimination and segregation. The refusal of many landlords to rent to people who rely on vouchers or other government assistance programs has undercut the ability of these programs to extend opportunities outside areas of minority concentration. Further, much of today’s racial segregation reflects economic segregation, and a crucial part of FHA litigation has always involved disputes over locating affordable housing projects in affluent white areas.
What if the FHA were amended to ban source-of-income discrimination? The most obvious result, as experience shows in states and localities that have taken this step, would be a substantial rise in litigation against landlords who continue to engage in such discrimination. Another likely area of increased litigation would be challenges to exclusionary zoning and other municipal practices that block affordable housing. A variety of other practices might also be challenged under an amended FHA.
This Article reviews the experience of states and localities that have banned source-of-income discrimination in housing and then contemplates how the FHA, if amended to add this protected class, would work. Part I provides the legal background by describing the FHA, the Section 8 program, and the state and local laws that now ban source-of-income discrimination. Part II explores cases that have challenged source-of-income discrimination, first under these local laws and then under the FHA’s disparate-impact and other theories of liability. After Part III’s review of the arguments for and against a source-of-income amendment to the FHA, Part IV examines the various types of claims that might arise if such an amendment were enacted. The Article concludes that a source-of-income amendment, though not a panacea, would be an important step forward in helping the FHA achieve its core missions of reducing segregation and ending arbitrary limits on housing choice.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2020
8-13-2020
Repository Citation
Schwemm, Robert G., "Source-of-Income Discrimination and the Fair Housing Act" (2020). Law Faculty Scholarly Articles. 643.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/law_facpub/643
Notes/Citation Information
Published in Case Western Reserve, Vol. 70, no. 3, pp. 573-658 (2020).