Available soon for Section 8 housing.
The City of Denver has found a way to make housing even more unaffordable for people who can’t afford it.
They’re going to make it illegal to discriminate against people who can’t afford the apartments they want to rent. Or buy.
Just because someone has a sketchy work history and might end up wholly relying on Section 8 checks that come late for rent, and deposits, and don’t cover damages, is no reason to turn down a prospective renter. Or buyer, the Denver City Council says.
Councilmembers argue other states like Oregon do it, so why shouldn’t Denver make it illegal?
Because it will backfire, that’s why.
Section 8 vouchers only cover a portion of the rent, and is no guarantee the holder can keep up payments.
If landlords can’t count on getting reimbursed for damages after someone moves out, deposits are going up.
And if landlords really, really want to keep out Section 8 housing, rents might go up to make it unaffordable.
If a person relies on Section 8 help and holds down a job bringing in steady income can can show, like the rest of us, they can make rent payments without any problems, that alone should make them eligible to rent an apartment.
We don’t need government making it illegal to discriminate against someone based on their income.
We live in a Capitalist society, and the rules are fairly simple — if you have the money, you can buy things. If you don’t have money, you can’t get it for free.
If you rely on the government to give you money to buy things, the government must pay on time just like the rest of us.
The solution to renting out more units to Section 8 housing is not in making it illegal for the private sector to say “no” because the program is broken, the solution is to fix the damn program.
Turning law-abiding citizens into criminals because government can’t do its job is just bu!!$hit.