Urgent-Section 8 about to be required as source of income

[Lois S.]

Received this today from East Bay Rental Housing Assn.

Red Alert: Oppose SB 1053 Now!

SB 1053 (Leno) forces residential rental property owners to participate involuntarily in the federal and local government's voluntary Section 8 voucher program. By requiring owners to accept Section 8 housing vouchers, government is compelling owners to accept all government-mandated lease terms and regulations (the regulation manual is approximately 400 pages long).

Call Your Senator Now

If you live, work, own or manage property in Alameda or Country Costa County, call your Senator (contact info below) and ask him or her to VOTE NO on SB 1053 (Leno) when it is taken up on the Senate floor.

Here are the simple steps:

• Call the Senator's office listed below
• When the call is answered, identify yourself and state that you are a member of the East Bay Rental Housing Association
• State that you live, work, own OR manage residential rental property in the City of _______
• State you are calling to ask the Legislator to VOTE NO SB 1053 (Leno)
• Please call on or before Friday, April 15, 2016
• Thank the Senator's staff for taking your call. That's it!

Click here to read a letter explaining the issue in detail and how it will adversely affect the industry.
Please call the following Senators:

Senator Steve Glazer (District map): 
Senator Lonnie Hancock (District map): 
Senator Bob Wieckowski (District map): 

Thanks to all EBRHA members to take the time to call their senators to oppose this legislation.

[Kyle J.]

SB 1053 doesn't force rental property owners to participate involuntarily in the Section 8 program. 

It's already illegal in California (and some other states as @Russell Brazil pointed out) to discriminate based on source of income.  SB 1053 just clarifies that the Housing Choice Voucher Program is included in the protected sources of income. 

It doesn't mean you must accept an applicant that has a voucher though.  You just need to screen them like you would any other applicant, and not outright deny them based solely on the fact that they receive government assistance.