Housing Community Forum

Do you have a rental assistance program, like LINC, HASA, FEPS, SEPS, or Section 8? Are you having trouble finding housing? Thousands of homeless New Yorkers who can pay the rent with a voucher or subsidy keep hearing landlords and brokers say, "Sorry, we don't accept programs." That's illegal!

On December 19th, we're hosting a community forum to discuss how to confront this issue. We will learn about the law, how to identify and report discrimination, and how to move to action as a community. We must work together to stop source of income discrimination (SID)!

BACKGROUND

The New York City housing market has earned the reputation for being one of the worst markets for affordable housing. In response to the crisis, both New York state and city have issued housing vouchers that give low income New Yorkers the opportunity to afford their own apartments. Unfortunately, this solution has created a new problem; source of income discrimination. While vouchers are considered a lawful source of income, landlords across the city are denying people housing based on the way they plan on paying rent. This type of discrimination is widespread in the New York City housing market, and instead of enforcing the law, city officials are turning a blind eye at the expense of New Yorkers attempting to stabilize their lives.

Neighbors Together, VOCAL-NY and Partnership for the Homeless realize that it is time to move to action. If the city will not take the appropriate measures to enforce the law against source of income discrimination, the community will. At the community forum, we will share information with effected community members about the scope of the problem, their rights as voucher holders and introduce tools people can use to report and track cases of discrimination.