New Yorkers tend to have a tough time finding a place where they can afford to live. Housing in New York State is expensive; it’s among the costliest in the nation, according to a report by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.
To reach the income level needed to pay for a rental, many people use vouchers.
But vouchers are only priced at a certain level, notes Westchester Residential Opportunities (WRO) Deputy Executive Director Andrew Smith, “So you’re already limited in what you are looking for. Then, on top of that, people have to deal with bias, prejudice against vouchers and against programs by landlords, or even realtors.”
In 2019, the New York State Human Rights Law was passed. It included protections against housing discrimination by recognizing Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and other lawful public assistance plans as protected sources of income. The law is particularly important for renters in Westchester County, the area just north of New York City, where discrimination and a failure to promote integrated housing led to decades of segregated housing.
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In the coming weeks, the Fair Housing Committee of the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors (HGAR) will be conducting a two-part Fair Housing in Action series. This virtual series is free for anyone to join and aims to help landlords, real estate professionals, and community advocates understand issues related to housing vouchers and how they are affected by Fair Housing laws.
HGAR’s initial event will be a virtual panel discussion on April 24, from 10:30 a.m. to noon, and the second event will occur virtually on May 9, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
The WRO’s Smith will lead the panel discussions, featuring panelists from various parts of the state. Brent Meltzer from the State Attorney General’s office; State Senator Rachel May’s Chief of Staff Zach Zeliff; Carole McCann from Hudson Heritage Realty; Felicia Ramos and Lorna McFarlane of CVR New York; and EXIT Realty Premium’s Emran Bhuiyan will discuss changes in source of income laws and ways to avoid discrimination in housing transactions with potential renters.
“The whole idea,” Carole McCann, owner of Hudson Heritage Realty, told the AmNews, “is that we’re bringing together experts on this subject of source of income discrimination. We’ll be providing the tools that people need to know –– not only realtors, but landlords and community members as well –– so that the people that are receiving assistance will have what they need to know to be able to go forward and not be discriminated against.”
McCann says she still receives calls from potential renters who ask if she works with landlords who accept vouchers. “The information is not out there for all of the people who are receiving assistance, because they think that they still have to ask that,” she said. “I was talking about educating the landlords because they don’t understand what the law is now, but neither do some of the tenants. It’s an opportunity for me to be able to inform tenants that ‘Hey, you don’t have to ask that. A landlord can’t deny you just because you’re receiving assistance.’”
Among landlords, there are still fears about how hard it is to work with a voucher program or how stringent the requirements and administrative burdens can be. HGAR’s virtual panels will be an attempt to demystify that. “We want people to hear what it’s really like to work with these agencies,” explains WRO’s Smith. “We have landlords who have had great experiences working with these programs, and they get bonuses to hold units available. They get compensated for the additional time it might take to get someone moved in. And then we also have people who say they have had a horrible experience. We want to kind of ground that experience in reality, by talking with realtors who’ve done this, who’ve worked with programs, and with the folks who actually run the programs.” “I think the two panel discussions kind of go hand in hand because they address the law and what New York State, the Attorney General’s office, and folks like WRO, who run these fair housing programs, focus on when we’re trying to help enforce the law.”