In 2015, the Texas Apartment Association, along with the Austin Apartment Association and the Apartment Association of Greater Dallas, successfully lobbied for the passage of a statewide pre-emption of source of income, as a result of the passage of source of income protections by the Austin City Council and the consideration of such ordinance by the Dallas City Council. The state law went into effect on September 1, 2015, which provided that local governments could not adopt ordinances that prohibited an owner from refusing to lease or rent to a person because the person’s lawful source of income to pay rent included funding from federal housing assistance programs.
The state law contained an exception, however. Cities are permitted to enact an ordinance that prohibited the refusal to lease or rent housing to a military veteran because of the veteran’s lawful source of income to pay rent. This exception would require housing providers to accept Veteran Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) vouchers, Housing Choice Vouchers (HCV) or any other lawful source of income from veterans.
Following the passage of the pre-emption by the Texas legislature, the City of Dallas passed an ordinance that added source of income as a protected class. The City defined source of income in Chapter 20A of the Dallas City Code as, “…lawful, regular, and verifiable income from whatever source derived (including housing vouchers and other subsidies provided by government or non-governmental entities, child support, or spousal maintenance), except as prohibited by Texas Local Government Code, Section 250.007, as amended,” omitting the specification of veterans in the revisions of the code.
Texas owners and operators should remain vigilant for fair housing testing and enforcement as the North Texas Fair Housing Center is targeting apartment owners and operators who refuse to rent to veterans who are utilizing an HCV voucher. Despite the state pre-emption, in a place like Dallas that passed SOI protections, the law is ambiguous and being interpreted to mandate that owners accept veterans' "lawful sources of income" including VASH vouchers or HCV vouchers.
Source of income remains a hot topic for NAA, as more states consider solutions to housing affordability and seek ways to find safe and affordable housing for the low-to-middle income population. To better assist our affiliates, NAA has a plethora of information that can be found on the Source of Income policy page. If you are aware of any new source of income proposals or have questions about the issue, please contact Jodie Applewhite, Manager of Public Policy.