Court ruling on law prohibiting income discrimination against prospective tenants could shut many low-income New Yorkers out of housing, advocates say

"The challenged statute reflects a deliberate and laudable legislative effort to address those interrelated concerns, the judges wrote. Nonetheless, as a consequence of this law, landlords are now forced to consent to governmental searches of their rental properties and records. Given that the source-of-income discrimination law violates landlords' Fourth Amendment rights to be free from unlawful searches, we are constrained to conclude that the law is unconstitutional on its face."

"An appeals court has struck down a state law prohibiting landlords from discriminating against tenants who use government assistance to pay rent, finding that the requirements might infringe on landlords' civil rights. Even though source-of-income discrimination is often a proxy for discrimination against other protected classes, like race, it was left with no choice other than to rule against it because it forced landlords to consent to warrantless safety inspections."

"Tenant advocates say they fear the Third Department's ruling might embolden landlords to not rent to the roughly quarter million New Yorkers who receive federal assistance through Section 8 vouchers. Evan Henley, a lawyer with the Legal Aid Society, said he believed the decision was fundamentally wrong, not only because he believed it would create additional hardship for Section 8 voucher recipients, but because the legal theory the court relied on is flawed."

New York's Appellate Division, Third Department invalidated a state statute that prohibited landlords from refusing tenants using Section 8 housing vouchers. The court acknowledged the law's legitimate purpose of addressing source-of-income discrimination, which often serves as a proxy for racial discrimination. However, the judges determined the law unconstitutionally infringes on landlords' Fourth Amendment protections by requiring them to consent to warrantless safety inspections and property searches mandated by the federal Section 8 program. Landlord representatives praised the decision as protecting privacy rights, while tenant advocates expressed concern the ruling would discourage landlords from accepting Section 8 vouchers, potentially harming approximately 250,000 New Yorkers receiving federal rental assistance.

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