Rent regulation & tenants
Source of income protection
FEHA protection (SB 329, 2019) making housing subsidies like Section 8 vouchers a protected source of income — categorical refusal is unlawful in California.
Definition
Source-of-income protection is California's fair-housing rule — the Fair Employment and Housing Act as amended by SB 329 (2019) — that a landlord may not refuse to rent, or advertise a refusal, because an applicant's rent is paid with a housing subsidy. The change swept federal housing choice vouchers into the protected definition, ending lawful "No Section 8" policies statewide as of 2020. Federal fair-housing law (24 C.F.R. Part 100) does not itself list source of income — the protection is state law.
Screening mechanics are covered too: income-to-rent ratios must be computed on the tenant's share of rent rather than the full contract rent when a subsidy pays the difference. Owners may still apply lawful, uniformly applied criteria — credit, references, prior tenancy — to voucher holders like anyone else, and the voucher program's own machinery under 42 U.S.C. § 1437f still applies.
Why it matters in an underwrite
Voucher acceptance is no longer an owner election in California, so the underwriting question is operational: PHA lease-up timelines, rent-reasonableness and payment-standard caps on collectible rent, and inspection readiness. Enforcement is real — testing organizations and the state civil rights agency pursue advertised or scripted refusals, with damages and fee exposure. Train leasing staff on the tenant-share income math; it is the most common inadvertent violation.
Sources & related guides
See also
See the term in the law itself
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Last reviewed 2026-07-29. General information, not legal advice.