Vets Housing Rights Bill Introduced By Calif. Senator Hill

SAN MATEO, CA -- California Senator Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, has introduced a bill designed to give new life to legislative efforts to end housing discrimination against veterans and military personnel.

Senate Bill 222 ensures that veterans and military personnel are not discriminated against in housing. It also intends to ensure they won't be denied housing because of how they pay their rent. The California Fair Employment and Housing Act includes veterans and military personnel as a protected class regarding employment discrimination but does not include them in the provision providing protection from housing discrimination.

SB 222 would add veterans and military personnel as a protected class in the state’s Fair Employment and Housing Act and other statutes relating to housing discrimination. In addition, SB 222 would specify that vouchers issued by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development Veterans Affairs Supported Housing program are considered income – a move that enables the law to prohibit discrimination against people who use the vouchers to pay part or all of their rent.

Gaps in the law have resulted in veterans and active military personnel being denied housing, as was the case for a military family to whom a landlord refused to rent a condominium because a member of the household is a marine. Veterans who try to use the vouchers also experience discrimination. Almost 1,900 supportive housing vouchers were available in California in 2018, but homeless veterans who receive them say that landlords use the loophole in the law to refuse to rent to them because they intend to use the vouchers to cover all or part of the rent.

“Rental subsidies, such as the HUD-VASH voucher, are an essential tool in providing affordable housing to California’s homeless veterans,” said Chuck Helget, executive director of the California Association of Veterans Service Agencies. “SB 222 will ensure these subsidies are not used as a discrimination tool by landlords to deny a veteran housing.”

John Haramalis, legislative director for the National Guard Association of California, said: “Current law does not specifically include veterans or military personnel among those who are protected from housing discrimination. SB 222 would address the gap by adding veterans and military personnel as a protected class in statutes relating to housing discrimination. We fully support and applaud Senator Hill's efforts to ensure veterans receive fairness in housing practices across the state.”

SB 222 mirrors Hill’s 2018 effort to address housing discrimination against veterans and military personnel. That bill, SB 1427, was vetoed by California Gov. Jerry Brown.

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