On September 27, the Tucson City Council voted to amend the city Fair Housing laws to make “source of income” a protected class. This means that a Tucson property owner cannot have blanket prohibitions against residents based solely upon where their funds for rent come from. In other words, an owner can no longer refuse a resident because that resident uses a Section 8 housing voucher to pay the monthly rent. A resident must still meet all other rental criteria, but anything related to their source of income, cannot be used as a basis to deny an application.

It is expected that this law will be challenged in court or in other venues, given a state preemption on fair housing laws.  While Section 8 and similar programs serve an important purpose, mandating that owners participate will entirely change the landlord-tenant relationship as a two-party contract. Leases will now be a contract between the landlord, tenant and the government.  

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Rentals America provides full-service property management for residential rental properties. Our team is dedicated to property management, and we’re here to help landlords navigate the rental market.