Why Should Delaware Care?
Delaware does not have enough affordable housing, according to housing experts. Section 8 vouchers, a type of government rental assistance, can help fill the gap, but Delaware landlords used to be able to refuse all tenants with Section 8 vouchers.
A new law now requires landlords in Delaware to consider rental applications from people who pay rent using Section 8 vouchers, a government rental assistance for those with low incomes.
The law, which took effect Jan. 1, amends the Fair Housing Act to prohibit discrimination based on source of income, which includes Section 8 vouchers.
“I remember in my younger days in the classified apartment listings seeing, ‘No Section 8.’ You can’t say that now. That’s a form of housing discrimination,” said State Sen. Elizabeth “Tizzy” Lockman (D-Wilmington), who wrote the law.
The law does not require landlords to accept potential tenants with vouchers, but they must have a reason for denying their application that is unrelated to the Section 8 qualification.
Section 8 is a federally funded, but locally administered, housing program in which a recipient pays 30% of their income toward rent and the government covers the rest. Last month, Delaware State Housing Authority Director Matthew Heckles told Spotlight Delaware that there were more than 26,000 people on the state’s Section 8 wait list.
Lockman acknowledged that the new law may only have “marginal” success in how many people with Section 8 vouchers are successfully accepted into new apartments.
People with these vouchers are more likely to have a lower credit score and a history of evictions, and landlords can still deny them based on those factors, she said.
But Lockman said her bill will “greatly broaden the pool” of apartments people with Section 8 vouchers can apply to. Previously, apartments that accepted them tended to be concentrated in the same geographic area, she said.
“I think that goes against the spirit of what we would like the Fair Housing Act to do — allowing people to live freely, whether they receive assistance or not,” Lockman said.
Opposition to the law
The law took three years to pass, primarily because of opposition from landlords, Lockman said.
The Delaware Apartment Association, which represents landlords across the state, was one of the groups that opposed the bill. Former president of the association Debra Burgos said she is not opposed to the government subsidizing rent, calling the intent behind the Section 8 vouchers “exactly what we need.”
But she said there are too many regulations delaying the approval process for the apartment and applicant, which can hurt smaller landlords.
“When you are smaller, you don’t have the economy of scale, and every day of losing rent is huge,” Burgos said.
Burgos is also the chief operating officer for the Evergreen Apartment Group, which owns complexes like Brandywine Hills, Riverfront Heights and Christiana Reserve, and she said when her company started accepting Section 8 vouchers, it was a challenge even for them as a larger business.
“That program comes with so many stipulations and regulations and requirements that it’s essentially almost a separate business model,” Burgos said.
Some landlords prefer to accept Section 8 vouchers because the rent, deposited via the housing authority, is guaranteed, and therefore they don’t have to worry about renters skipping payments. But to be eligible for those payments, their units must pass a HUD-approved inspection for safety, sanitation, and in good repair and maintain that standard — a regulatory step that some find too onerous.
Lockman said she worried some of the landlords’ concerns may have been “exaggerated.” But she added a stipulation to her bill that the Delaware State Housing Authority and the local housing authorities had to streamline the requirements for accepting Section 8 tenants.
Burgos said while the housing authorities did improve the process, there are many federal regulations that could still be burdensome for landlords.