The purpose of the proposed guidance document is to provide technical assistance to housing providers around actions constituting “source of funds” discrimination under the Virginia Fair Housing Law with the rightful intention of protecting prospective renters and buyers from discrimination because of how they pay their rent. Housing Opportunities Made Equal writes in support of this guidance, which we believe will ensure greater access to housing opportunity for all Virginians.
Since 2014, HOME has served nearly 1,400 families with Housing Choice Vouchers (HCV) through our "Move to Opportunity" program that works to deconcentrate poverty by finding locations in low-poverty neighborhoods for families to utilize their vouchers. We found in our 2019 report “Choices Constrained" that the biggest barrier for these families to leverage their voucher to move to neighborhoods of opportunity was the lack of voucher acceptance. The Commonwealth has an important interest to make sure that vouchers offer households that need assistance the greatest possible opportunities.
This guidance is important in recognizing that different sources of funds may have varying eligibility criteria. Some legal sources of funds, such as the HCV program, are administered by third-party entities who directly pay a portion of the tenant’s rent to the housing provider.
These third-party payments are guaranteed and present less risk to a housing provider than other sources of income, such as employment income, which are not guaranteed. Furthermore, because these sources of income are guaranteed, the relevant factor for a housing provider’s risk assessment is the tenant’s portion of the rent, and not the total rent.
HOME’s clients with HCVs are actively facing barriers to housing access, frustrating HOME’s mission and programs. Housing providers are enacting facially neutral policies resulting in the automatic disqualification of our Mobility clients. These facially neutral policies typically take the form of an income qualification, as noted in the various examples across the guidance document….
It is also vital to view this guidance within the context of Virginia’s current housing landscape:
Virginia’s cities have some of the highest eviction rates in the country.
Public housing authorities are redeveloping their traditional public housing communities with plans to issue more HCVs in lieu of replacing subsidized housing units.
46.1% of Virginia renter households are rent-cost-burdened.
Disparities in the Virginia’s housing market continue to widen along racial lines. 73% of the 41,933 voucher households in Virginia are Black. Denials on the basis of HCV, whether facially neutral or not, may also violate provisions against race discrimination.
HOME applauds the efforts by the Real Estate and Fair Housing Boards to clarify the Virginia Fair Housing Law for housing providers. This guidance is important and represents the legislative intent of the General Assembly. This will ensure ALL Virginians have greater access to the housing opportunities necessary for them to thrive in the Commonwealth.