DOVER – Low-wage earners, vulnerable seniors, veterans and people with disabilities will have greater access to stable and affordable housing in Delaware under legislation the Senate sent to Governor John Carney on Sunday.
Sponsored by Senate Majority Whip Elizabeth “Tizzy” Lockman and Rep. Sherae’a “Rae” Moore in May, Senate Bill 293 (S) would prohibit landlords from discriminating against tenants based on whether they receive housing assistance.
An amendment added by the House on Sunday would make that change contingent on the ability of Delaware’s five public housing authorities to standardize and streamline their approval processes, a reform landlords say is necessary to help them comply with the rules and requirements of various federal and state voucher programs.
“By passing this legislation today, the Delaware General Assembly took a huge step forward in making our housing assistance programs work for vulnerable Delawareans the way they were always intended,” said Sen. Lockman, chair of the Senate Housing & Land Use Committee.
“Thank you to the Delaware Apartment Association and the Delaware State Housing Authority for working collaboratively with Rep. Moore and I over the course of several years to get us to a place where our landlords and our municipal housing authorities are on the same page and moving towards the same goal,” she said. “As a result of their diligence and hard work, Delaware’s public housing agencies will soon be stronger and better aligned, while hundreds of Delawareans will have greater access to the stable and affordable housing that they desperately need.”
Roughly 6,500 people in Delaware currently receive rental assistance through either the federally funded Housing Choice Voucher Program or the state-funded State Rental Assistance Program, due to their income, a disability, previous military service or involvement with the foster care system.
Although those housing subsidy programs guarantee monthly payments directly to landlords, many Delaware landlords turn away tenants who participate in those programs, often citing complicated administrative burdens they say are associated with voucher programs – a form of housing discrimination legally permissible under current state law.
While both the Delaware Fair Housing Act and Delaware’s Residential Landlord-Tenant Code technically prohibit discrimination based on source of income, each of those laws also state that a landlord’s refusal to accept government-sponsored rental assistance cannot be used to justify administrative or judicial proceedings.
As a result, families who hold vouchers often struggle to find housing in Delaware, which only has an estimated 38 available units for every 100 extremely low-income renters. Due to the lack of available housing, the average family spends close to 3 years on a waiting list for a voucher. Once a voucher is issued, only about 35-45% of voucher holders are able to secure housing within 120 days.
Both the 2020 Delaware Statewide Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice report developed by the Delaware State Fair Housing Consortium and the African American Task Force’s Infrastructure & Environment Subcommittee recommended that the Delaware General Assembly pass legislation to prohibit discrimination against tenants with housing vouchers.
Sen. Lockman and Rep. Moore introduced similar legislation to prohibit housing-voucher discrimination in 2021. Although that measure was passed by the Delaware Senate and released from the House Housing & Community Affairs Committee in 2022, the bill was never brought up for a final vote in the House.
Sen. Lockman and Rep. Moore continued to work with the Delaware Apartment Association and the Delaware State Housing Authority, leading to a report being released in May that recommended steps the state’s five public housing authorities could take to align their inspection and reporting requirements and make compliance easier for landlords.
The final version of SB 293 (S) passed by both chambers of the General Assembly on Sunday would make compliance with that report by the housing agencies that issued a voucher a prerequisite of any administrative or legal proceeding alleging discrimination based on source of income.
The reforms contained in SB 293 (S) also would not be implemented until January 1, 202, and Delaware’s five public housing authorities have adopted recommendations contained in the Delaware State Housing Authority report.
“For too long, discrimination has prevented people receiving government assistance from living in safe, affordable housing,” said Rep. Moore, the House prime sponsor of SB 293.
“Given the severity of the affordable housing crisis, we should be doing all that we can to remove the barriers that prevent families from finding security and stability in a place they can call home,” she said. “SB 293 will help us move closer towards that goal and I thank my colleagues in the Senate for taking this important step to remove barriers to housing for our most vulnerable neighbors.”
SB 293 (S) now heads to Governor John Carney for his signature.
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