[Peace] Champaign Council to Consider Repeal of Section 8 Discrimination Protections Tuesday

[Robert Naiman]

This is an issue that many members of these lists have spoken up about in
the past. I would particularly encourage Champaign residents to attend this
meeting tomorrow. Note that in the article below, Esther Patt explains the
falseness of the "compromise" that Deb Frank says she intends to propose.
Arguably, it would be better that they openly repeal the protection than do
so underhandedly as DF proposes; it would lay a better groundwork for
restoring the protection in the future. On the other hand, the
clarifications proposed by the human rights commission seem quite
reasonable: as far as I can tell, they just clarify the status quo under the
law, in contradiction to the scare stories spread by some of the landlords
and their advocates.
Champaign council looking at Section 8 issue again By Mike
Monson<http://www.news-gazette.com/news/reporter/mmonson/> Monday
October 8, 2007

CHAMPAIGN – The city council appears poised to eliminate or significantly
weaken a provision in the city's human right's ordinance that prohibits
discrimination against people who use the federal Section 8 rent subsidies.

The council meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday in study session at the Champaign City
Building, 102 N. Neil St.

In March 2006, the city council voted 5-2, with two members absent, to
define Section 8 vouchers as a "source of income." The city's human rights
ordinance prohibits discrimination based on source of income.

But in the intervening 18 months, two supporters of Section 8 protections,
Giraldo Rosales and Kathy Ennen, have left the city council and been
replaced by two more conservative members, Deborah Frank Feinen and Karen
Foster.

Mayor Jerry Schweighart said it now appears that five or six council members
favor repealing or weakening Section 8 protections, including himself.

He said that Congress doesn't require landlords to participate in the
Section 8 program and that the city council doesn't need to create a local
mandate.

"We went beyond what federal law says we need to do," Schweighart said.

No complaints alleging landlord discrimination have been filed with the
city's Community Relations office since the protection was enacted,
according to a city memo.

Feinen said that while she opposes discrimination, she can understand that
certain landlords might not want to sign a federal contract with the Housing
Authority of Champaign County, as well as a tenancy addendum. The federal
contract must be signed for the landlord to receive Section 8 payments. In
cases where the contract conflicts with a landlord's lease, the federal
contract prevails.

"I'm still concerned about discrimination," Feinen said. "I don't want to
send a message discrimination is OK. But my concern involves landlords who
don't want to participate. If you completely choose not to participate, I
think that should be allowed."

Feinen said she's working on ordinance language that would make it OK for
landlords not to participate in the Section 8 program at all, but otherwise
would prohibit discrimination against Section 8 voucher holders.

Don't bother, says Esther Patt, coordinator of the University of Illinois
Tenant Union and one of the primary proponents of Section 8 protections.

A compromise along the lines of what Feinen is considering would simply be a
face-saving way to repeal Section 8 protections, she charged.

"It gives landlords permission to discriminate," Patt said. "I don't see
that it's any different than an outright repeal."

Section 8 primarily benefits low-income families with children and the
disabled, Patt said, and those are the people who will suffer with a council
repeal.

Council member Ken Pirok, a landlord himself, said he'll be among those
supporting repeal of Section 8 protections.

A Section 8 contract "contains a number of provisions that are outside the
scope of normal business practices of the industry," he said.

For example, Pirok said that if a Section 8 tenant moves out in the middle
of a lease period, the housing authority is not obligated to pay for the
remaining months left on the lease.

"Getting a tenant in the middle of a lease period isn't easy," he said.

The city's human rights commission has proposed language to clarify what
landlords can and cannot do under the current Section 8 discrimination ban.
It specifies that landlords aren't required to keep a unit vacant, or
refrain from renting a unit, while waiting for a Section 8 inspection.
Landlords also aren't required to perform repairs, lower the amount of rent
or damage deposit or change their standards for application approval, so
long as the same standards apply to all tenants.

The city council is scheduled to consider Section 8 issue again at its
regular meeting on Oct. 16.
------------------------------
Find this article at:
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/2007/10/08/section__issue_resurfaces
-- 
Robert Naiman
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