Discrimination toward Section 8 tenants goes unchecked in NJ

By: Kayla Canne
Asbury Park Press
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... The Woodbridge apartment looked like a fresh start: A large two-bedroom condominium with vaulted ceilings and a skylight, in-unit laundry and new kitchen appliances. It was a step up from where Tonya Wood and her daughter live in Edison.
..... The hallways of her 1970s apartment building smell of stale cigarette smoke, and neighbors regularly dump trash outside the shared entrance. Rain leaks through a ceiling vent. It stained a brand-new ottoman with rings of water damage. Only routine pest control keeps cockroaches from scurrying in from the hall.
..... "I thought that this would be a better opportunity for me," Wood said of the Woodbridge condo. "I don't like to move around every year when my lease is up. I saw this as something that might be long term, until I decide to purchase."
..... New Jersey's rental market is pricey and competitive. So, without even visiting the unit, Wood submitted a $29 Zillow application that included her rental history, proof of income and credit report.
..... A few days later, the apartment's landlord called the 39-year-old Rutgers University criminal justice graduate student.
..... The conversation started nicely - the complex was in a quiet neighborhood, close to major highways, and included a pool, playground and green space.
..... And the Wood mentioned the voucher.
..... Wood received federal rental assistance through the Housing Choice Voucher program, more commonly known as Section 8, which subsidizes housing for low-income tenants through direct rent payments to landlords.
..... "Yeah, we don't take that," the landlord said in a recording of the call provided by Wood to the Asbury Park Press and the Atlantic Group of the USA TODAY Network.
..... On the call, Wood asked who "we" meant.
..... "The complex, or us," the landlord stated.
..... "So because of that, I think this might not work out,: the landlord continued about a minute later, ending the call.
..... The rejection wasn't surprising to Wood; this wasn't the first time a landlord took issue with her housing voucher. But the cavalier discrimination didn't make the search for clean, safe housing any less frustrating.
..... "It was like, 'Here we go again. another dead end," Wood told the Press after the call. "I'm so used to it at this point. It doesn't matter if I sell myself (as a good tenant) or not - the minute I go there, none of that matters. And when it's crunch time, and my back is against the wall, and the clock is ticking to find housing - it's hard. That's why I'm so adamant in advocating that someone has to be held accountable for this."
..... For nearly 20 years, the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination has barred housing discrimination based on an individual's source of income, such as rental assistance like Section 8 vouchers. But the buzzsaw Wood ran into - a landlord who explicitly rejected her application because of her voucher - is widespread and blatant and often occurs with impunity, according to the Press's investigation of income discrimination in New Jersey.
..... The Housing Choice Voucher program was designed to give low-income tenant freedom in choosing where they live, equalizing access to opportunity instead of relegating impoverished citizens into large public housing communities.
..... Yet the same program that intended to break economic segregation has infect boosted it - putting a scarlet letter on the shoulders of vulnerable tenants looking for a fresh start, while government agencies ignore the landlords who illegally turn them away.
..... In a state with 83,214 Section 8 housing vouchers, where renters are theoretically able to live anywhere they choose, about 54% live in New Jersey's cities, according to 2020 data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
..... among them 15% live in three of the state's lowest-income areas: Newark, Trenton and Camden. And of the Section 8 tenants living in the three cities, 44% are single mothers and 94% are Black Native American, Asian or Pacific Islander, or Hispanic, according to the data.
..... Meanwhile, suburban towns like Lakewood and Brick are home to mostly white Section 8 tenants, HUD reported.
..... Craig Gurian, executive director of the Anti-Discrimination Center in New York City, said discrimination by landlords in traditionally segregated districts is one of the reasons voucher holders might be concentrated in cities, despite the intention of the Section 8 program to allow tenants the freedom to choose where they live.
..... But there are additional factors: Zoning decisions also determine whether affordable housing in a community even exists, and developers have historically built other subsidized housing options close together.
..... Gurian said lawmakers nationwide often try to promote development of more affordable housing in areas of poverty - arguing that's where the need is when he believes it should be pursued widely. Part of the group's efforts are to challenge exclusionary housing practice in New York City, Gurian said research from the group found that nearly 85% of affordable housing applicants were looking to move outside of their home district.
..... Discrimination limits that opportunity.
...."This is a pattern," Gurian said of restrictive development. "It completely ignored the fact that people have interest in a wide range of neighborhoods. One issue is, you have a voucher issued by a large jurisdiction, but within the jurisdiction there are neighborhoods where either there aren't apartments or there are landlords who are not taking them. So, housing choice vouchers are not being able to achieve their purpose.
..... "There hasn't been a sustained commitment to busting open the barriers that exclusion communities put up."
..... Stronger enforcement of discrimination laws is a key part in expanding housing choice, Gurian said.
..... But the Press found that New Jersey takes a passive approach to enforcing income discrimination - hampering housing opportunities for Section 8 tenants.
..... Here's why:
..... The impact of income discrimination can be harrowing and affects some of New Jersey's most vulnerable residents.
..... In New Jersey, 77% of voucher holders are considered extremely low-income, meaning their total household earnings are less than 30% of the area median income, according to the HUD data.
..... About 65% of voucher holders earn less than $20,000 a year.
..... Individuals who are Black, Native American, Asian or Pacific Islander, or Hispanic make up 75% of voucher holders statewide. White tenants account for the rest.
..... One-third of voucher holders are single mothers. Another 22% have a disability, and 34% of voucher holders are over the age of 62.
..... Sofia Karimi, a housing advocate who coordinates fair housing testing for the nonprofit New Jersey Citizen action, said where someone lives affects the job opportunities, education and resources they receive throughout their life.
.... "I don't think that people necessarily understand that someone that was given the opportunity to be raised in a more privileged community ,,, might be getting a much better start to life than someone who wasn't," Karimi said. "And that all just starts from where they live.'
..... She said the Housing Choice Voucher program intended to level the playing field by creating equal access to housing in wealthier neighborhoods with better schools and career opportunities. Discrimination limits that access and affects the ability of families to rise out of poverty, Karimi said.
..... "When we turn (voucher holders) away, and we turn people away from these opportunities - I just feel like we're forcing them to never really be able to get out of cycle that they're in," Karimi said.

Discrimination makes it hard for tenants

..... In an interview with the Press, the landlord of the Woodbridge apartment Tonya Wood was seeking to rent rebuffed the idea hat her actions were discriminatory, saying the unit was "private property" and doesn't "qualify for Section 8.
..... But the state law draws no such distinctions.
..... Fair housing advocates say property owners oftentimes sue deceptive language to try and skirt the law with tenants who don't know any better. The Section 8 program requires a housing safety inspection that can sometimes come with hefty repairs, but a landlord's resistance to this bureaucracy cannot be sued as a reason to deny a Section 8 tenant, according to the law.
..... In fact, nearly every rental unit in New Jersey is legally accessible to voucher holders.
..... David Brogan, executive director of the New Jersey Apartment Association, a group that advocates for the interest of housing providers, said there is an obligation for landlords to understand and comply with all housing laws. He said the group provides about a dozen fair housing, workshops each year in partnership with the state.
..... The only exemption to the state Law Against Discrimination is for property owners who are renting a room or unit in an apartment or two-family dwelling in which they also live. The Woodbridge unit does not qualify for either exemption.
..... Section 8 only partially covers a tenant's rent; voucher holders are also expected to kick in 30% of their total income to housing costs. And the amount of the voucher varies based on unit size and the fair market rent for the area.
..... The Woodbridge unit was listed for $1,900 a month. wood's Section 8 voucher covers up to $1,893 a month for a two-bedroom apartment.
..... Monitoring and enforcement of the law falls to the state Division on Civil Rights, under the New Jersey Attorney General's Office.
..... Violators face up to 410,000 in penalties for a first-time offense and up to $50,000 for multiple offenses, along with damage paid to victims.
..... But voucher holders and housing advocates complain that the state is a paper tiger in enforcement of income discrimination, largely waiting for victims unaware of their rights to bring complaints to investigators.
..... Further, the plodding complaint process often offers no immediate relief for tenants facing discrimination - in a market where available rentals are snatched up within days.
..... Most Section 8 tenants spend several years on waiting lists to receive their rental assistance to sue beefer the federally funded offer expires. An illegal denial becomes another barrier to securing housing in a hurried search.
..... So far in 2021, the Division on Civil Rights has received 28 income discrimination complaints, according to state data. Five complaints originated in Monmouth and Ocean counties.
* State officials closed four cases with finding considered favorable to the victim of the alleged discrimination
* Of the four, three were closed through settlement, a process wherein the tenant and alleged discriminator mutually agrees to resolve the issue with no admission of wrongdoing recorded.
* One was closed through a consent order, which comes after state investigators issued a finding of probable cause for a complaint, meaning sufficient evidence of discrimination was found. when this is issued, the case moves toward either voluntary resolution or civil prosecution.
* Both instances - voluntary resolution or prosecution - often result in finds paid to the state and financial relief for the alleged victim.
* another five cases were closed due to lack of evidence the discrimination accursed - known as a finding of no probable cause - or because the tenant became unavailable or withdrew their complaint.
* Nineteen cases remain under investigation.
..... In 2020, the division fielded 16 complaints statewide; nine were closed with favorable consent order. Ten cases stemming from 2019 remain under investigation lodged.
..... In all, half of the 44 cases heard by the state cover the last three years resulted in no action against the alleged discriminator, after they were closed due to lack of evidence or an unavailable tenant.
..... "Don't think it's anywhere close to the actual amount of discrimination," Matt Shapiro, president of the New Jersey Tenants Organization, said about the state's record.
..... By contrast, apartment-seeker Wood found 16 alleged victims of income discrimination in a single day - this after posting to a Facebook group for New Jersey voucher holders asking if this was a common experience. Four of the tenants who responded contacted the Press to share their evidence.
..... Wood along has numerous examples of the discrimination she's faced.
..... "Sorry the landlord is not accepting section 8," one property owner wrote when Wood asked about a listing on Facebook Marketplace.
..... A Zillow listing for another unit was upfront right in the description: "We don't accept section 8 or social services," it read.
On several occasions over the last three years, Wood withheld rent to fund repairs in the Edison apartment she shares with her 17-eyar-old daughter. And she has still more motivation to find a new beginning. She is pregnant with her second child.
..... She takes a purposeful approach when inquiring about housing trying to sell herself as a good tenant before mentioning her voucher: She has ambitions to study law following graduation in January. [2021] She doesn't party, doesn't smoke and has no pets.
.... It's just Wood and her daughter until November, [2021] when the new baby is born. Someday, she'd like to own a house - maybe in Maryland so she can work in Washington, D.C., as a lawyer.
..... "I mention my accolades so they kind of you know, not just see me as the person who holds the Section 8 voucher, because there's a lot of stigma behind having a Section 8 voucher unfortunately," wood said. "And the conversation will be going smoothly, and the minute that I mention the Section 8 voucher, immediately I can tell the tone in the other person's voice - everything just changes."

Kayla Canne covers affordable housing along the Jersey Shore. Her work is funded in part by Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project. Get in touch at kconne@gannettnj.com or on twitter @kaylacanne.

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