Amid housing crisis, Sacramento landlords are breaking California’s new law on vouchers
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When Leslie Johnson got a housing voucher last year, she thought she would be able to quickly find an apartment for her and her three children.
“I thought, ‘Well this will be easy, I have a voucher, that’s guaranteed rent,” Johnson, 38, recalled.
The single mother has since been searching for 10 months for a new apartment. In the meantime, she’s been bouncing back and forth between her brother and sister’s houses, sleeping on an air mattress.
At any given time, there are roughly 1,000 people in Sacramento County with housing vouchers who are looking for landlords to accept them, according to the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency. Still widely known by the old name – Section 8 – Housing Choice Vouchers are highly sought-after and a critical lifeline for thousands in a city where rents continue to soar.
Some are homeless, like Loretta Evans, who sleeps in a tent on X Street waiting for a city shelter to open there this spring. Others, like Johnson, are couch surfing, afraid if they don’t find a place, they could become homeless.
A state law that took effect this year is aimed to remove the barriers voucher holders encounter in finding housing. It prohibits landlords from turning away tenants solely because they are using a voucher to pay a portion of their rent. Proving that you’ve been turned down because of the voucher is difficult because landlords can still deny applicants based on poor credit or rental history checks.
Nevertheless, landlords in Sacramento have been breaking one important section of the law. They now are prohibited from posting the common phrase “no Section 8” in their online advertisements for housing, but The Sacramento Bee identified more than 60 online ads for apartments in the area earlier this month that still listed that phrase. As of Wednesday, just under 20 remained.
While some landlords removed their ads after being contacted by The Bee, the widespread belief that a tenant can be denied simply for using a housing voucher appears to have permeated the rental market in the area.
In Sacramento County – where the typical apartment rent soared 45 percent, adjusting for inflation, in the last seven years – a voucher is one of the few tools local government officials have to make housing more affordable. The voucher covers a portion of the monthly rent and utilities, and the tenant kicks in about 30 to 40 percent of their monthly adjusted income to pay the rest.
Countywide, about 13,200 people have vouchers, according to SHRA. Last time the waiting list opened two years ago, 43,000 people applied, and 7,000 were placed on the waiting list.
The main lobbying group for California landlords said they are working to fix the problem of rogue advertisements listing “no Section 8.” The California Apartment Association reached out to Craigslist, Zillow and other websites that post housing ads to inform them of the new law, and ask for a disclaimer on the websites, said the association’s Debra Carlton.
The association has also been calling landlords with “no Section 8” postings around the state, Carlton said. Most landlords are saying they did not know about the law or know their ad was still up, and swiftly removed the postings, Carlton said.
“It’s only a month in, so it’s going to take some time,” said Anne Di Grazia, spokeswoman for Sen. Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, who sponsored the bill.
People who find landlords who are violating the law can file a complaint with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. In order to submit a complaint, people would follow the same process as if they were alleging any other type of discrimination, based on factors like age, sex, or race, an agency spokesperson said. Then, the agency would conduct interviews and make a determination.
The agency has not yet received any complaints of voucher discrimination. That may be because voucher holders searching for housing often feel they do not have time to file a formal complaint. They’re more focused on finding housing as quickly as possible.
About a year ago, SHRA removed requirements for people to find housing in a certain amount of time before the vouchers expire, said Angela Jones, SHRA spokeswoman. But voucher holders still feel a sense of urgency to get housing.
“From the second I get up until I go to bed, I’m looking for places, doing the calculations, making sure it’s approvable,” Johnson said.
Will landlords still discriminate?
Even after word gets out and landlords take down their “no Section 8” ads, voucher holders worry they will still not rent to them.
After January 1, landlords stopped telling Johnson they did not accept Section 8, but instead told her to apply. Since one of her children is 18, application fees range from $70 to $100 per apartment, she said. The applications typically ask the source of income, and so she uploads a copy of her voucher.
When she’s denied, she suspects that could still be the reason.
“Even though they can’t say it now, I still think they’re just going to say, ‘We’re going to go with the better tenant,’ ” Johnson said. “And I’m assuming that’s a tenant with cash in hand.”
Katie Hill, who’s been searching for three months, has had a similar experience. Since January 1, six different landlords have told Hill she can’t rent an apartment because she has a voucher, Hill said. In addition, with Sacraments rents rapidly rising, it’s hard to find a place with low enough rent for Section 8 to be approved, Hill said.
“(The new law) is not helping because you’re assuming you can go anywhere now because that’s how they put it out there. But when you get to them and they find out you have a voucher, they will tell you no,” Hill said.
In order to stay in her north Sacramento zip code, Hill would have to find a studio that costs less than $719 a month in order to use her voucher. She lives off a Social Security check of about $800 per month.
“You can look in the slummiest places, every studio is at least $1,000,” Hill said. One studio property manager even told her a deposit for a studio would be $3,000, she said.
Carreen Huizar spent about eight months looking for a landlord to accept her voucher last year. She eventually found an apartment in south Sacramento at a complex called Providence Place to accept the voucher. She suspects it would have been easier to find housing if the law had been in place.
“I called a lot of different places and the people would tell me they couldn’t accept Section 8 and there was no way around it,” said Huizar, 50, who spent 30 years on the streets, off and on. “It’s almost hopeless.”
What could local officials do?
Some landlords are hesitant to accept vouchers because they sometimes have to wait up to two months for the first check to come through, Carlton said. Landlords also need to go through training before they can start accepting them, and must wait for the local housing authority to conduct inspections before the voucher holder can move in.
“Unfortunately you’re in such a tight rental market that you have folks lining up with deposits in hand,” said Mallori Spilker of the California Apartment Association. “It’s hard to compete with that.”
To address that, several California cities started offering incentives to sweeten the deal for landlords to accept housing vouchers. They offered a fund to fix damages, should they occur, pay for security deposits, and cash to cover the period while a unit sits empty waiting for it to be inspected and for a voucher holder to move in.
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“If there’s a way to make an attractive model for (landlords) to take part in, we need to,” Spilker said. “We have some sticks. We need some carrots.”
Marin County, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Los Angeles, and other California cities have found success with similar programs, Spilker said. To start a similar program in Sacramento, it would cost an estimated $500,000 to $600,000 countywide, Spilker said.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg is interested in seeing if a similar program can start here. In a statement, he said Housing Choice Vouchers don’t do any good if landlords won’t take them.
“It’s crucial that we develop incentives, such as help with upfront costs, that will convince landlords to rent to these voucher holders,” he said. “With our extreme shortage of affordable housing, it’s unacceptable that vouchers should sit unused while people sleep out in the cold.”
What can voucher holders do?
While waiting for a local program, there are a number of things voucher holders can do to improve their chances of finding housing. For one, tenants should no longer call landlords and ask if they accept Section 8, Carlton said.
“Frankly, as a tenant, they don’t have to say anything upfront about the Section 8 certificate,” Carlton said. “They can just say, ‘I’d like to fill out an application.’ They are just like anybody else when they apply, they should be considered.”
People should also ask the landlord if there are other applicants who have applied to rent the unit, Carlton said.
“If you’re the only applicant, absolutely you should be considered because you have the money,” Carlton said. “That money is coming to you.”
People who feel they are being discriminated against by landlords can call Project Sentinel at 888-324-7468, or the renter’s helpline at 916-389-7877, according to SHRA.
Eduardo Torres, of nonprofit Tenants Together, which fights for renters’ rights, encourages tenants to keep a record of “no Section 8” ads, as well as emails and calls with landlords who say they do not accept Section 8. Torres said people should send that information to his organization or a local one, like the Sacramento Tenants Union.
Torres said he doubts all landlords will start following the law until there is legal action. Tenants Together is considering such a lawsuit on behalf of the tenants, who often do not have the resources to sue on their own, Torres said.
“I think it’s really going to take some litigation,” Torres said. “It’s going to take some people to get sued to understand this is against the law now.”
This story was originally published January 23, 2020 at 4:13 AM.
