The argument is that because the majority of Section 8 recipients are minorities, the refusal of Section 8 certificates is discriminatory.  They presuppose that the same tenants would not be accepted without the certificates. 

(First published in 1996)

It's supposed to be voluntary.  When the Section 8 program began, the folks sponsoring it thought it would be so attractive to landlords that they just wouldn't be able to wait to sign up to take low-income tenants.

Boy, were they wrong.  Landlords have found the Section 8 program unwieldy, at best.  Complaints I hear say that Housing Authorities are uncooperative with and unresponsive to landlord concerns.  Further, Section 8 inspectors are unreasonable in the repairs they require.

Moves are constantly underfoot across the country to make acceptance of Section 8 tenants mandatory.  Recently in Chicago charges of discrimination were hurled at a property owner who refused to accept tenants who wished to use Section 8 certificates.  The allegations charged that refusing to participate in the program had the effect of discriminating on the basis of race or national origin.

The argument is that because the majority of Section 8 recipients are minorities, the refusal of Section 8 certificates is discriminatory.  They presuppose that the same tenants would not be accepted without the certificates.

All other things being equal, those tenants might not be accepted, simply because their income would not be sufficient to pay the rent.  Is the next claim to be that refusal to rent on the basis of amount of income constitutes discrimination on the basis of race or national origin?  That would certainly follow logically from the Section 8 precedent.

Making Section 8 mandatory is coming, however.  The current administration likes to make things mandatory.  But there are ways to avoid having to accept Section 8 tenants, even if the law requires you to say you will rent to them.

How to keep them out

First, Section 8 requires certain property standards, often at the whim of the Section 8 inspector.  If the property does not meet those standards, you are not required to fix it so that it does.  Then the property will be rejected for Section 8 and you can rent to a non-Section 8 tenant.

Eventually there might be moves afoot to post the property for a code violation, should the required repairs fail to meet city code, but that is considerably farther off than simply making Section 8 mandatory.  Besides, it would require coordination between to bureaucracies.

Second, keep the rent above what Section 8 will pay, and you won't have any Section 8 applicants.

Third, require a move-in date earlier than the local Housing Authority can get the paperwork together and get a check to you.  It often requires several weeks for local Housing Authorities to arrange the inspection, issue the orders, type the paperwork, return your phone calls, etc.  If you have specified in your printed requirements (the ones you hand each applicant) that they must be able to move in on the first of the month and that you be paid the entire amount due for rent and deposits then, that will go a long way toward eliminating Section 8 applicants.  They can't move in, because they don't have the first and last months' rent plus the deposit.

Fourth, check rental applications carefully.  If the applications don't meet your high standards, turn them down.

Look for Section 8 to be used as the solution to the nation's housing problems.  As a result also look for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to look for more and more ways to require landlords to accept Section 8 tenants.  The first step was the changes made by HUD in Section 8 rules on October 2, 1995.  They will reason that since the program is so much better now, there is no reason that any landlord could object to renting through Section 8, "so let's make it mandatory."