Source of Income Discrimination is one of the most significant barriers to housing people experiencing homelessness, right behind lack of affordable housing. The concept behind a housing voucher is, essentially, to make housing that is unaffordable become affordable. There is already a significant shortage of affordable housing[1] throughout Illinois, and not enough serious policy effort aiming to affect this shortage.

Meanwhile, since the pandemic’s beginning, we have seen a huge influx of financial resources to organizations working to end homelessness. These new programs are often authorized with very little consideration for how they will interact and compete with one another, let alone the needs of the clients they are expected to serve. Yet, the dollar amounts attached to them are tremendous. Here’s a short list[2]:

• Emergency Solutions Grants–CARES – $4,000,000,000

• Treasury Emergency Rent Assistance – $25,000,000,000 (ERA1)

• HOME-American Rescue Plan (ARP) – $5,000,000,000

• CDBG-CARES – $5,000,000,000

• Emergency Housing Voucher Program – $5,000,000,000

Why does banning Source of Income Discrimination have anything to do with these programs? There are two primary ways of operating homelessness assistance today: preventing homelessness by direct payments to landlords (or rarely to clients, if landlords refuse funds), or providing tenant-based vouchers (TBV) to tenants and expecting them to find their own housing.[3] Treasury ERA focuses on prevention, CDBG-CARES and HOME-ARP focus on development (with some preventative assistance or vouchers like TBRA through HOME). ESG-CV and EHV offer vouchers, vouchers that currently can be and are discriminated against.

Implementation of TBV programs can vary widely. Some programs assign case managers to assist recipients in finding housing and meeting other needs. Some do not provide this, and further still, some do not even maintain basic lists of landlords open to accepting vouchers in the area. Many, especially those offered through Public Housing Authorities (PHAs), keep strict timelines for recipients to find housing or lose their voucher.

The application and processing period to even receive a voucher can be arduous and onerous for low-income/homeless folks, sometimes disabled, and frequently totally without support in navigating it. These programs often have documentation requirements, initial referral phases followed by long applications that must be filled out, background checks (sometimes multiple), all connected frequently by tight deadlines. These programs are suited for attrition – get things done right and quick, or you’re out. Some programs, especially Rapid Rehousing Programs (RRH), are less arduous and more supportive, but those vouchers tend to max out at 24 months of support (only 12 for those funded by ESG-CV). Both will ultimately lead to trying to find suitable housing.

For those who make it through obtaining a voucher, the time comes to find a landlord willing to accept it. Programs that offer case management (generally not included with HCV) may have a caseworker who knows local landlords. Some may benefit from Housing Navigators who maintain lists of properties and openings, but this is not so everywhere.

In those cases, the lists are frequently similar community-to-community—large or medium-sized apartment complexes in specific parts of town that generally are underserved by public transportation, employment, childcare, and education. Frequently, the housing is sub-par, and only just can pass the required Housing Quality Standards inspection (low standards, to begin with). While there are exceptions, landlords generally provide the minimum amount of support to tenants in these properties, move to evict at the drop of a hat, and assume they can move on to another voucher-backed tenant. That assumption is safe, too, because Source of Income Discrimination is so prevalent that it is not uncommon for vaguely predatory properties to focus on housing voucher-backed tenants and cycling through them. Because there is no competition, there is no incentive for those landlords to work with tenants, no incentive to add amenities, and no incentive to maintain properties to high standards.

There are always exceptions in communities, especially for clients who have ‘clean’ backgrounds free from evictions or who meet demographic marks that are more ‘acceptable’ to some landlords. Those who have prior evictions can face even more difficulty in finding housing, voucher, or not.

When I’ve worked with clients in the past, trying to find housing was a difficult task. We frequently worked with and had good relationships with a set of landlords. When those landlords would not work with a particular client, it was nearly impossible to find decent housing to accept a voucher. I have observed voucher recipients be rejected by more than five landlords; this occurred in the midst of an eviction moratorium – a landlord chose to turn down essentially guaranteed rent payments for wanting to avoid serving a recipient of a voucher.

Housing is a critical need – it is nearly impossible to reach stability in any other sector of life without suitable housing. Ideally, Source of Income Discrimination will one day be amended into the Fair Housing Act to address the racist decisions that are often truly behind it. In the meantime, Illinois should join the 18 States, D.C., and localities across the country that currently protect their citizens from this predatory practice.

HB2775 is presently in the Illinois General Assembly and seeks to extend that protection. While the bill passed the House, it floundered in the Senate. The bill continues to add sponsors in the Senate, and there may be an opportunity to pass the measure in the October veto session. If you are working in social services with clients who could benefit from increased housing protections, if you have friends or family who do or may ever benefit from access to affordable housing by way of a voucher, this bill supports those protections.

The Illinois Coalition for Fair Housing has a website describing the campaign to end Source of Income Discrimination. If you’d like to learn more about the hundreds of thousands this change will protect immediately, as well as the numerous folks on Housing Authority waitlists who may someday benefit from this change, please head over to their website and read more.

Please consider writing your State Senator and voicing your support for this bill – you can find info on your elected representatives here.

[1] National Low Income Housing Coalition – https://nlihc.org/housing-needs-by-state/illinois

[2] Not all of these are homeless-specific, but all are key players in managing a diversified homeless response during COVID.

[3] There are also Project-Based Vouchers (PBV), but I focus on TBV, as PBV are operated intentionally either by or in close collaboration with Housing Authorities.