AUSTIN — Denton County was the inspiration that led a North Texas lawmaker to draft a bill prohibiting homeowners associations from refusing to rent to tenants who use housing vouchers.
House Bill 1193, introduced in January, went to committee and hearing last week. A number of organizations and advocates, including the Texas Tenants Union, supported the bill during last week’s hearing. No one testified against the bill.
Rep. Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie, said that while his bill was drafted after the Providence Homeowners Association attempted to restrict Section 8 renters, his proposal would prevent anything similar from happening in the future.
“This bill is simply about preventing blatant housing discrimination and also protecting private property rights,” Turner said during the bill’s first hearing on April 3.
Turner’s bill comes after the Providence HOA attempted to ban landlords last summer from leasing to tenants who participate in the federally subsidized Section 8 housing program.
“It’s simply wrong,” Turner said in an interview. “Private property owners should be able to accept whatever form of payment they want if they choose to rent their home, and this rule clearly has the effect of being racially discriminatory.”
At the time, Black families accounted for 91% of the 81 affected families in Providence Village.
The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits housing discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, gender, disability or familial status, and these protections extend to recipients of housing vouchers.
Denton City Council also passed its first comprehensive nondiscrimination ordinance last summer that protects against housing discrimination for a variety of factors. Still, the ordinance makes no mention of the method of payment that Turner’s bill is targeting.
The bill would make it illegal for homeowners associations to ban property owners from renting to tenants who pay in whole or in part with a Section 8 voucher or “any other federal or state or local housing assistance.”
Texas Tenant Union representative Dewey Marshall, a Denton County resident, said at the hearing that “HOAs could potentially racially segregate residential areas without intending or knowing.”
According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Section 8 program provides low-income families, the elderly and the disabled with quality and safe housing options.
Eligibility requirements for the program include factors like family size, citizenship status and a low annual income.
In Denton, a family or participant’s annual gross income may not exceed $48,000, according to 2021 census data. However, at least 75% of approved applicants make less than $28,800 in Denton.
Section 8 is funded by HUD, and vouchers are administered on the local level by public housing agencies.
Under the program, landlords and property owners are generally allowed to choose whether to accept vouchers or not, but, under Turner’s bill, HOAs could not ban property owners from accepting them.
David Mintz, who represents the Texas Apartment Association before the Legislature, said his group supports the legislation because it still gives property owners a choice.
“We believe it ought to be the property owner’s decision whether or not to participate in the program,” Mintz said in an interview.
Turner is optimistic about the bill, which he said has bipartisan backing.
“I am not aware of any opposition in the Legislature as of right now,” Turner said.
He said he is expecting the bill, currently pending in the House of Representatives’ Business & Industry Committee, to be voted out of committee soon.
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