This Boise law aimed to house poor residents. The Legislature could take that away

The Idaho Legislature is considering a bill that could put more poor Boise residents on the streets, housing advocates say.

Deanna Watson, executive director of the Boise City/Ada County Housing Authorities, told the Idaho Statesman that the bill could force people who depend on federal housing vouchers into at least temporary homelessness as they search for landlords willing to accept the vouchers.

Here are answers to nine questions about the legislation and its impact:

1. What would the bill do?

House Bill 545 would bar local governments from enacting laws to force landlords to participate in a federal housing-assistance or other program, and it would bar them from passing ordinances to limit rent, fees or deposits landlords can charge.

The bill would jeopardize two Boise ordinances: one that caps apartment rental application fees at $30, and one that bans landlords from denying prospective tenants a lease based on their income sources, including so-called Section 8 vouchers.

2. What is Section 8?

Officially called housing-choice vouchers, they have long been known as Section 8 vouchers. The name comes from a section of the Housing and Community Development Act passed by Congress in 1974 to help low-income people find housing in the private marketplace as an alternative to public housing.

There are about 2,000 vouchers available in Ada County at any one time. People on the waiting list get vouchers as the people who have them start making enough money to cover their rent and stop needing them.

3. Why don’t landlords like Section 8?

Last year the Statesman reported that with the high demand for apartment rentals in the Boise-area, many landlords were deciding not to accept tenants who applied with federal housing assistance vouchers because voucher holders are low-income and may be seen as less reliable than other tenants.

“As our families search, we know from their search efforts that many landlords and property managers routinely have responded that they don’t take Section 8,” Watson told the Statesman in an email.

4. Why did Boise insist that landlords accept vouchers?

To help protect people who cannot afford rent from becoming homeless.

“That blanket denial is what the ordinance is after,” Watson said. “Denying a subset of the population from even entering the application screening process has significantly reduced the supply of available housing for our families and contributes to a longer process of finding a home.”

No other cities or counties in the Treasure Valley have laws like the one in Boise that bans landlord discrimination against a potential tenant’s source of income. The sponsor, Rep. Brandon Mitchell, R-Moscow, said his bill is not specifically targeting Boise but making sure that cities in the future can’t pass bills like Boise’s.

Ada County has about a 10% turnover rate of people exiting the Section 8 program each month, either because they now make too much money or they cannot find an apartment where vouchers are accepted.

5. Did voucher proponents get to speak?

Yes. Opponents of the bill included housing advocates like Watson, Jesse Tree and the city of Boise.

Kathy Griesmyer, director of government affairs for the city, spoke against the bill. She said Mayor Lauren McLean and the City Council were thoughtful in their approach to the source-of-income-discrimination ordinance.

“This ordinance was adopted because we have been hearing from community members consistently about the needs to address Boise’s rental and housing market,” Griesmyer said.

The council met with the Idaho Apartment Association, Boise Regional Realtors and the Idaho Realtors before considering the ordinance, Griesmyer said.

6. Why are landlords fighting back?

Mitchell told the House Business Committee on Monday that the bill was about protecting the “rights of small businesses and property rights.”

Other bill proponents included property managers, heads of apartment associations and real estate agents.

Lynn Bradescu, a property manager in Boise’s North End, supported the bill because she disagreed with Boise’s ordinance to ban landlords from denying prospective tenants based on their sources of incomes, including if their income comes from housing vouchers.

“Boise’s decision to require private property owners to accept Section 8 as payment runs in the face of our state legal tradition of freedom of contract,” Bradescu said during the committee meeting.

Mitchell said that the bill does not prohibit landlords from accepting Section 8 vouchers. He argues that if the bill becomes law, landlords can still accept Section 8, and many will.

7. How do the vouchers work?

Voucher holders are responsible for contributing rent, usually 30% to 40% of their income, Watson said. The voucher pays for the rest of the rent up to a maximum set by the federal government.

“The voucher signifies that they are eligible for rental assistance,” she said. “The voucher is good throughout our jurisdiction and with it, applicants can demonstrate to potential landlords that they have the means to pay rent.”

The vouchers are funded by Congress but managed locally around the country by agencies designated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

In Ada County, Section 8 vouchers are distributed through the Boise City/Ada County Housing Authority in Ada County. In Canyon, Boise, Owyhee, Elmore, Gem, Payette, Adams, Washington and Valley counties, they’re distributed through the Southwestern Idaho Cooperative Housing Authority. Elsewhere in Idaho, vouchers are managed by the Idaho Housing and Finance Association.

Voucher holders are monitored throughout the process, Watson said.

8. Who gets these vouchers, and am I eligible?

Tony Torres, a housing navigator for Jesse Tree, a nonprofit that helps homeless Treasure Valley residents and those facing eviction, told the committee that four out of five Section 8 voucher holders are seniors, children and people with disabilities.

In Ada County, 75% of Section 8 applicants must have income that does not exceed 30% of the median area income. That translates to $18,750 for a single person and $21,400 for two. The remaining 25% of applicants may have incomes up to 50% of the area median income, which translates to $31,200 for a single person and $35,650 for two.

HUD gives local housing authorities the authority to set their payments for Section 8 vouchers between 90% and 110% of the official “fair-market rent” set by HUD. Fair-market rents represent the cost of a “moderately priced” home in a local housing market. Both the Boise City/Ada County Housing Authority and the Southwestern Idaho Cooperative Housing Authority set their payments at the maximum 110%.

To apply for Section 8 vouchers in Southwest Idaho, visit either the Boise City/Ada County Housing Authority at bcacha.org/programs/subsidized-housing/housing-choice-voucher-section-8 or the Southwestern Idaho Cooperative Housing Authority at sicha.org. Residents of other counties can apply at idahohousing.com/rental-assistance/rental-assistance-application.

9. What comes next?

After over an hour of testimony on the bill from both sides of the argument, the committee sent the bill to the full House with a recommendation that the House pass it. It would then go to the Senate.

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