Can I force a landlord to accept my HASA Voucher? 

If you hold a HASA voucher, local, state, and federal laws legally guarantee your right to fair housing. Knowing your rights and how to enforce them will help ensure you receive the support you deserve.

Your HASA Voucher is a Valid Source of Income:

Landlords must treat your voucher as a valid form of payment. They cannot refuse to accept vouchers as rent payments. However, sometimes, landlords will try to get around this requirement by using subtle methods to discriminate. Keep an eye out for the following discriminatory practices:

• Demanding Financial Requirements:
  
  
  • Landlords sometimes use high income-to-rent ratio requirements to incorrectly declare voucher holders ineligible by either not factoring vouchers into rental payment contributions or by incorrectly subtracting tax deductions.
    
  • Landlords sometimes use credit scores or history, financial records, or rental payment history as reasons to reject your voucher holders. If your voucher covers 100% of your rent, landlords may not use any of this information to assess your application; if you have a partial voucher, landlords who require these terms may still be violating your rights, depending on how they weigh that information.
    

• Coded Language and Practices:
  
  
  • Advertisements and forms that mention preferences for “working professionals” or “working voucher holders” indicate that the landlord is illegally trying to dissuade voucher holders from applying.
  • Your landlord may have illegally rejected you for discriminatory reasons if your rental application or renewals has been rejected, despite having a voucher meets the payment requirements, due to “no contact,” “failure to meet minimum income requirements,” or if no reason is provided at all.
  • Landlords trying to steer you towards a different apartment than the one you chose indicate they may be discriminatorily segregating voucher holders.
  • Maintaining a “waitlist” for voucher holders is a sign of illegal discrimination.

You Have a Right to Privacy:

Landlords cannot inquire about your HIV/AIDS status or discriminate against your applications or lease renewals based on that status. Examples of discriminatory questions include asking what your HIV/AIDS status is, asking about its severity, asking if you can live “independently,” or requesting medical records. Additinally, landlords and housing personnel who you make aware of your status as a HASA voucher holder must keep that information confidential and store any records relating to your status securely. And landlords must provide advance notice before entering your rental unit, except in emergencies.

You Have a Right to Reasonable Accommodations:

Landlords must work with you to make reasonable modifications to accommodate your health needs. This includes:

• Altering rules and policies (for example, allowing you to have an emotional support animal or altering visitor policies to provide access to a caregiver), and
• Modifying your apartment and building common areas as needed for accessibility.
• All multi-family housing built after 1991 must comply with the disability-accessibility requirements. If your housing was built before 1991, the landlord must let you modify your unit to accommodate your needs.
• Landlords must maintain your unit and building in a habitable condition and make repairs promptly.

Protect Yourself and Your Community By Documenting Everything:

• Avoid confrontation or accusations but be persistent in making inquiries: focus on gathering evidence.
• Ask questions about housing voucher acceptance during the rental application process so that you can uncover and document discrimination.
• Review your lease with an attorney or fair housing worker to ensure it does not contain discriminatory provisions.
• Ask about data privacy policies and practices to ensure your landlord keeps your personal information secure and confidential.
• Make and retain dated records of your reasonable accommodation requests in case your landlord delays or attempts to deny those requests.
• Take photos of building and apartment conditions that create accessibility problems for you, and keep records of policies that conflict with your needs.
• Make dated records of all communications with landlords and building personnel, including emails, texts, leases, and rental applications. Especially note discriminatory language, improper questions, refusals to accommodate your needs, and invasions of your privacy.
• Take screenshots of discriminatory language or suspicious policies on websites, advertisements, and application forms.
• If you speak over the phone or in person with a landlord or housing personnel, keep dated records of your conversations, and write down any discriminatory remarks or improper questions.

Seek Legal Assistance:

Call or email one of the many housing rights organizations around the city, including the Fair Housing Justice Center, GMHC, Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME), the Housing Rights Initiative, Housing Works, and Legal Services NYC.

Also, keep statutes of limitations in mind. You have three years from the most recent discriminatory incident to file a complaint with the city or state or to bring a source of income discrimination claim in state court. You have two years from the most recent discriminatory incident to file a disability discrimination claim in federal court.

For free legal help, call Legal Services NYC at 917-661-4500 Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Learn more about our intake process here.

* The information does not constitute legal advice. You should always consult an attorney regarding your matter. Legal help subject to capacity and location.