What Can Dallas Do To Motivate Landlords to Accept Housing Vouchers?

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Voucher holders in Texas can sit on a waiting list for almost two years before entering the program. But even after securing a voucher to help pay for housing, they have to find a landlord that will actually take it. A new report aims to change that.

Denton’s Providence Village homeowner’s association made national headlines when it attempted to oust tenants who were using Housing Choice Vouchers, also known as Section 8, in June. But the problem is more widespread and often lacks such a clear villain: because state law prohibits cities and counties from requiring landlords to accept vouchers, the vast majority do not. A new report reveals just how difficult it is for low-income renters to find a rental residence even after the government agrees to pay for most of it.

A new report by Dallas-based nonprofit Child Poverty Action Lab and IDEO.org examines the difficulties voucher holders face in finding housing in North Texas, where only 7 percent of the surveyed apartment complexes in four counties—Denton, Dallas, Tarrant, and Collin—reported taking vouchers. (The survey included “1,413 reasonably priced private market apartment complexes.”) Market rent is up 12 percent year-over-year in Dallas County, but household income has only increased by 4.4 percent.

Voucher holders in Texas can sit on a waiting list for almost two years before entering the program. Dallas County’s list, for instance, is currently closed. (That’s different from the Dallas Housing Authority, for the record.) But even after securing a voucher to help pay for housing, renters have to find a landlord that will actually take it.

Vouchers are often the only way very low-income Dallasites can afford leases on apartments renting for market rates, which is most of the available housing stock in the city. Twenty states prevent landlords from refusing Section 8 vouchers, but Texas isn’t one of them—in fact, state law includes only an exception for veterans who have secured vouchers.

The premise of CPAL’s report is this: How can the experience of renting to someone with a voucher be made the same or better as renting to someone without one? That question may sound simple, but the report finds that the problem requires overcoming neighborhood opposition, misconceptions about who is in the program, and reluctance by potential landlords to accept federal housing dollars.