{"id":153,"date":"2019-03-06T14:29:59","date_gmt":"2019-03-06T14:29:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/?p=153"},"modified":"2019-03-06T23:40:35","modified_gmt":"2019-03-06T23:40:35","slug":"new-bill-would-penalize-d-c-landlords-who-discriminate-against-housing-voucher-holders-dcist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/153\/","title":{"rendered":"New Bill Would Penalize D.C. Landlords Who Discriminate Against Housing Voucher Holders | DCist"},"content":{"rendered":"

dcist.com\/story\/19\/03\/05\/new-bill-would-penalize-d-c-landlords-who-discriminate-against-housing-voucher-holders\/<\/a>
\nNew Bill Would Penalize D.C. Landlords Who Discriminate Against Housing Voucher Holders At-Large Councilmember Elissa Silverman introduced a bill on Tuesday that would increase penalties for landlords who refuse to rent to people who use federal rental assistance vouchers (previously called Section 8 vouchers) to pay their rent.
\nIt\u2019s already technically illegal for landlords to discriminate against renters based on their \u201csource of income,\u201d according to the D.C. Human Rights Act. That includes people whose source of income is housing vouchers. But still, flagrant discrimination in housing ads is rampant in the District.
\nBecome a sponsor? A WUSA9 investigation found more than 100 Craigslist ads in the District with language like \u201cNo housing vouchers\u201d or \u201cVouchers not accepted\u201d written plainly in the description. In November, the D.C. Attorney General\u2019s office sued two affiliated real estate companies in the District for allegedly discriminating against recipients of housing vouchers in their rental process. The companies allegedly explicitly stated in their online advertisements that they did not accept housing vouchers, and did not schedule viewings for people who said in their rental applications that they planned to pay with a voucher.
\nSilverman\u2019s bill would increase penalties for any landlord who violates the D.C. Human Rights Act and \u201cadvertises their intent\u201d to discriminate against housing voucher holders, according to an informational memo from Silverman\u2019s office.The District already outlaws this kind of advertisement, the memo says, but \u201cthe problem is that not all voucher holders know it\u2019s illegal to discriminate against them, so they read these advertisements and do not apply for the housing.\u201d
\nThe legislation would require the payment of a fine to the Office of Human Rights\u2014$10,000 for the first violation, $15,000 for the second, and $20,000 for every subsequent violation, according to the text of the bill as introduced.
\n\u201cThis legislation gives the Office of Human Rights an additional tool to fight property owners who blatantly advertise their intention to violate District law and discriminate against our residents,\u201d Silverman writes in the memo.
\nAt-Large Councilmembers David Grosso and Anita Bonds, Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau, Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans, and Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen co-introduced the measure. Five more councilmembers co-sponsored the bill, including Ward 4\u2019s Brandon Todd, who chairs the Committee on Government Operations, where the bill was directed.
\nThe bill currently has the support of a majority of the D.C. Council.<\/p>\n

Mary Bolton 202-390-1208<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

dcist.com\/story\/19\/03\/05\/new-bill-would-penalize-d-c-landlords-who-discriminate-against-housing-voucher-holders\/ New Bill Would Penalize D.C. Landlords Who Discriminate Against Housing Voucher Holders At-Large Councilmember Elissa Silverman introduced a bill on Tuesday that would increase penalties for landlords who refuse to rent to people who use federal rental assistance vouchers (previously called Section 8 vouchers) to pay their rent. It\u2019s already technically illegal for landlords […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-housingarchive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}