Oregon to ban housing discrimination against Section 8 renters

[alp227]

Source: The Oregonian

Oregon landlords will no longer be able to broadly turn away prospective tenants because they receive federal rent assistance under a bill that passed the Oregon Senate on Monday.

The new law, which will go into effect July 1, 2014, makes it illegal to discriminate against renters who use the federal Section 8 voucher program. Landlords can still turn down tenants for financial or other reasons, but the law will prohibit blanket "No Section 8" policies that frequently accompany vacancy advertisements.

An investigation by The Oregonian last year found that Section 8 recipients had limited opportunities to live in neighborhoods with low poverty. Over the span of a decade, voucher-use surged in impoverished neighborhoods east of 82nd Avenue, particularly impacting communities of color.

"I do think it will make a difference," House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, said Monday. "It creates that door of opportunity" for voucher-holders to apply for housing close to work, kids' schools and in thriving neighborhoods.

Read more: http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2013/07/oregon_to_ban_housing_discrimi.html#incart_most-read

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Do you consider this happy news from a state legislature in the wake of backwards ALEC/Koch/Christian Right legislation rushing through states like Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, and Wisconsin?

[bitchkitty]

1. That is very good news.

Section 8 housing here is the pits. I know a couple in Section 8 housing - the husband answers the door with a gun. The wife just doesn't answer the door.

[railsback]

2. My mother in law has rented to two Section 8 families here in SF

The rental properties are constantly monitored (big bad gub'mint) to make sure the tenants are good tenants, and that the property meets all the city codes. Checks guaranteed every month. Oregon has nothing to worry about if they run like its run here.

[Bluenorthwest]

6. Oregon already has a Section 8 Program much like CA's. This law makes it illegal to advertise

'No Section 8' which last time I looked is still legal to do in CA, where some cities have waiting lists years long for the program.
If you support this law, you should and I mean you should be working to improve CA's Section 8 laws, rules and regulations, particularly expanding the stock.

[railsback]

13. I didn't know that

I'll have to look into that.

[Lee-Lee]

7. That varies wildly by state I think

I had a job for a while here in NC when I lived in the western part of the state with a property management company, and about 1/3 of our renters were on the program here.

When I took the job, I really thought that my coworkers were intolerant assholes because they always complained about the "Mountain Projects" (Mountain Projects is the organization that administered Section 8 there) people. In fact I got pretty nasty with one when I was training, figuring it would cost me the job right then and there. But she just said "wait 6 months, you will learn".

Sadly, I have to say she was right. I did see that the units being paid for by Mountain Projects were far more likely to be damaged, that the tenants were much more a pain, and that they were much more likely to abuse the system- if they were under 45.

I wish they had in monitored like you are talking about. It seemed like they never inspected what the tenants were doing, but if any complained that anything was broken they would immediately call Mountain Projects who would then call and threaten to withhold rent if it wasn't fixed right away.

Added to the mix were the ones who would out and out lie to me when I asked who lived there- the program was very clear on who could live there, but almost always a boyfriend or baby daddy would also be living there. But when asked they would always deny it.

It was very, very frustrating. I believed in all my heart that I needed to do my best to help these people. But some made it so hard because every time I would try to help they would abuse what we did or lie to us, putting us in a position where we were torn between representing our customer, the property owner, or helping them. Or being put in a position where I have to compromise my integrity and cover for them or turn a blind eye to obvious lies. And sadly I think when I was enforcing the rules is when I encountered the most racism I have ever dealt with in any time- it was astounding how quick I became "Nigger Bitch", mostly from young white women.

I actually found myself starting to dread any time I went to handle a Mountain Projects paid unit. It was sad, and I hated what I was becoming, even though I did my best to tell myself it wasn't these folks fault, they can't help the environment they were raised in, etc. I still started hating dealing with them.

I eventually was fired because I did put my butt on the line and didn't report that a tenant had her boyfriend, her sister and her sisters boyfriend all in the trailer that was supposed to be just her and her sons. I even told her I wasn't going to say anything even though I was supposed to (It violated the lease, the section 8 rules and occupancy laws in the fire code) but they needed to find new places soon. A month later the owner is working there and sees both boyfriends working on a car and spilling oil all over the ground, goes and tells them to stop and asks what trailer they live in, then the tenant tells him I said it was OK they all lived there.

[railsback]

12. Certainly the mentality of the states has a lot to do with it

I spent 3 years in NC at Ft. Bragg and hated every minute of it, coming from California.

Its sad that people abuse systems that are there to help, but that's always going to happen. It happens from top to bottom. A small percentage always seems to be the focus for ridicule, and used as an excuse to defund entire social programs.

I couldn't imagine being in your situation, though. It must have been very difficult, and far different than our experiences. Sounds like the world could use more people like you

[MFM008]

3. I rented for 23 years

from one complex, a 2 bedroom I raised my kid in it, my dad put up my pictures.( he died in Sept 2000, my aunt, my ex and 2 of my best friends all passed while I lived there).
In Sept 0f 2011 they informed me I had to move because they were getting rid of all section 8 people (only sec 8). I lost my 2 bedroom,, my peace and quiet, my memories, it was like the place burned down.
I always paid rent on time, never any trouble.
They don't care . My only consolation is since I moved in May 2012, they cant keep a tenant longer than 6 months in that apartment....
i neglected to mention....it was haunted.

[kelliekat44]

4. This will be happening more and more as non-minority families facing joblessness will need help.

The face and color of poverty is changing and lawmakers will soon find out that their draconian efforts to keep from sharing the wealth of the nation with the 98% will force more and more families to seek some kind of help from their state and local governments since they don't want the Federal government to spend more money on so-called "welfare" programs. Head Start has been cut many working poor are suffering and that includes many more children of non-minority families. " Oh, what a tangled web we weave..."

[Gormy Cuss]

11. Historically white households have comprised the majority of participants in Federal rental programs

and if anything changes in that regard it will be a trend towards more nonwhite households in the future because of the changing demographics of the country.

[Bluenorthwest]

8. Republican States with Blue Dog Sauce do backward legislation, Oregon usually does not.

I'd hope that those in Red States would look to CA, OR, WA, VT and other more progressive States and notice that life is better here because of our policies.

[Igel]

9. Mixed bag.

I've lived in apt complexes with Section 8 or other assisted renters where couldn't tell who was who. Some were annoying, others as nice as could be, but that was true of renters in general. Perhaps the only clue was that the Section 8 renters tended to skew older and those paying full rent were younger.

I've also lived in apt. complexes with Section 8 or other assisted renters where you wanted them out by the end of the first week. You simply got tired of the trash, broken glass, arguments, intoxication, and loud noise after midnight when you had work at 8 a.m. the next morning. Yeah, the cheap, broken furniture abandoned on the sidewalk might be a nuisance, but it usually meant that the post-midnight noise level would drop that night because somebody was finally evicted or just left and it would be a while before somebody else could move in given the necessary repairs.

I suspect that it'll be judged "happy" news differently depending whether you might benefit, might be inconvenienced, or are unaffected personally.

[eallen]

10. Doesn't an apartment have to be inspected to qualify for section 8?

From a landlord's perspective, there are advantages and disadvantages to qualifying their properties for section 8 rental. I don't see how these laws affect that decision. Telling a landlord whose properties aren't section 8 qualified that they cannot advertise that just means that a lot of prospective renters will have to call to find that out.

Or am I misunderstanding something about how things work in these states?

[Queyuan]

14. How can they enforce this law

Landlord can always require 3xmonthly rent income to be qualified for the unit. If your unit rent for $1000/month and section 8 can pay 100% of that, they are not going to pay another $2000 for the living expense of tenant. If tenant do not have additional $2000/month, they are still not qualified for that unit.

This type of law is just a political show case and will not have any impact or real help on these people.

The real issue here is the housing authority need to understand why landlord do not accept section 8? Before tenant move in, they impose extra burden on landlord and try not pass the unit for various nonsense reason (not exist in HUD housing quality standard at all). HUD only require the unit to be safe,sanitary and suitable for living but they go way more beyond that to show their authority. After tenant move in, even if tenant trash the unit and make the place completely unsafe and insanitary, they will still pass it during their annual inspection. If they can make strict rule that if the tenant mess up the place, they will be terminated from th program, then tenant will be careful to take care of your unit.