On April 25, Representatives Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Scott Peters (D-CA) and Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) reintroduced the Fair Housing Improvement Act of 2023 to protect veterans and low income households from housing discrimination when using HUD Housing Choice Vouchers. LeadingAge supports the bill. More than 32% of the nation’s voucher households are older adult households.

More than 2.3 million veterans and low-income households use vouchers to help pay rent, but there are no federal protections to prevent individuals from being denied renting an apartment because they have a voucher. This kind of discrimination is called “source of income” discrimination because the landlord is making a housing access decision based on how the household will pay for their housing.  

Many voucher holders have difficulty using vouchers, in part because landlords refuse to take the voucher in states and cities where there are no source of income protections. When this bill was first introduced by Senate Kaine in 2018, landlords in Virginia and California could deny housing based on how individuals pay rent. Virginia and California have since enacted legislation to prohibit discrimination based on source of income, and Senator Kaine and Representative Peters and Schiff say they want to expand that progress nationwide. 

The Fair Housing Improvement Act of 2022 would expand protections by adding source of income and veteran status to the list of protected classes under the Fair Housing Act of 1968, giving more individuals and families access to affordable housing. The bill would prohibit landlords from denying housing to individuals who use Housing Choice Vouchers (Section 8), HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) vouchers, benefits received through Social Security, income received by a court order, payment from a trust or guardian, or any other lawful source of income.

Read the bill here.