Effective August 1, 2019, owners of residential rental properties located within city limits of San Diego will be prohibited from discriminating against an applicant solely by virtue of the fact that he or she is a participant in the Section 8 Housing Assistance Program with the San Diego Housing Commission and HUD.
Before this, many landlords have exercised their right to not accept the Section 8 program for a variety of reasons. They include failure to allow rental increases and difficulty in contacting Section 8 advisors.
In looking into this issue in detail, we have been able to determine that screening rules still apply for Section 8 applicants, but you must not have a blanket prohibition against acceptance of the Section 8 participant.
So what about verification of income? Here’s the way that Legal Aid explains this to us: Your policy regarding minimum income is still enforceable. Having said that, it must be based on the tenant’s portion to be paid under the Section 8 program and take into the consideration the Section 8’s portion of contribution. In other words, if the rental portion is $500.00 per month for the tenant (their income). If you have a three times rent standard for income, will be $1,500.00. That would include the Housing Commission’s portion in assessing gross income.
Indeed, the income requirements are stretched when it comes to that component of the screening process. Credit and rental history are still allowed for the Section 8 applicant. You may still screen based on those standards, evenly applied across the board as with other perspective tenants.