State and Local Laws Banning Source-of-Income Discrimination

Most states and many localities have civil rights laws that are substantially equivalent to the federal Fair Housing Act ( FHA ),\u27 which means they at least ban discrimination based on the seven factors outlawed by the FHA (i.e., race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status, and disability). Many of these state and local laws also include other protected classes, such as age, marital status, sexual orientation, and source of income. This Article reviews state and local efforts to outlaw source-of-income discrimination.4 (For its part, Congress currently has multiple bills before it that would add such a prohibition to the FHA.) Part I of the Article provides an overview of the growing number of states and localities that have banned housing discrimination against Section 8 voucher holders and others based on their source of income. Part II then considers the legal challenges that have been mounted against such laws. Finally, Part III describes some of the cases and litigation issues that these laws have generated