San Jose Municipal Code Part 1 Purpose and Findings

The City Council finds and declares as follows:

A. The Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCV), commonly known as the Section 8 Program, provides rental subsidies to low-income residents so they can rent housing on the private market. Voucher holders across the U.S. experience difficulty finding housing where landlords will rent to them. Nationwide studies have estimated that at least 20% of all housing searches using an HCV are unsuccessful in obtaining housing.

B. As of June 2019, there are 6,549 HCV recipients who are renting in San José and approximately 1,000 HCV actively seeking housing in the County of Santa Clara. Compared to the average population, voucher holders in San José are more likely to have special needs, to possess disabilities, and to have experienced homelessness. Of these clients, 52% are disabled heads of household, 20% are families with a person with disabilities who is not the head of household, 31% are families with minor children, and 8% are formerly homeless.

C. The 2019 waitlist to participate in HCV last opened briefly in 2006 with 50,000 applicants and now has approximately 4,500 applicants. Because of the administrative burden to maintain the list, which includes tracking the status and address of each household, the list has been mostly closed since 2006. As of June 2019, the Housing Choice Voucher utilization rate for Santa Clara County was 88% with approximately 1,465 voucher holders without a lease.

D. A 2018 survey conducted by the San José Housing Department found that most landlords who listed apartments in San José on Craigslist.org and Apartments.com did not accept HCVs. The Housing Department found that 26.7% of the 559 listings reviewed explicitly stated "no section 8" and 39.4% verbally stated that they would not accept Section 8 or HCVs. In total, 66% of apartment listings indicated they would not accept vouchers. As of November 2018, over 2,000 housing choice vouchers went unused in San José and Santa Clara County.

E. As of December 2018, forty-two (42) jurisdictions nationwide, including Santa Clara County, have adopted policies or ordinances protecting voucher holders with the goal of increasing housing options for rental voucher holders. A 2011 study prepared for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) found that voucher utilization rates improved by 4 to 11 percentage points in localities with source of income ordinances.

F. The ordinance codified in this Chapter is being adopted pursuant to the City's police power authority to protect the health, safety, and welfare of its citizens. Preventing discrimination against those low-income households receiving rental assistance is intended to address a pervasive discriminatory practice disproportionately affecting the disabled, single-parent female households, as well as those formerly homeless. A housing payment equality ordinance will provide increased access to opportunity for residents with low incomes which includes residents in protected classes including, but not limited to, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, and familial status, in step with the City's duty of affirmatively furthering fair housing.

(Ord. 30304)

The purpose of this chapter is to enhance the public welfare by providing increased access to housing opportunities for low-income residents through a policy that prohibits different treatment of persons based upon whether they receive a rental assistance subsidy. This Ordinance is intended to promote equal consideration and treatment of Housing Choice Voucher Holders and other individuals who receive rental assistance through local agencies, Federal, State, or non-profit organizations. The adoption of a housing payment equality ordinance will enable tenants who are receiving financial assistance to be equally considered as candidates for housing and not systematically denied simply because of their source of income.

(Ord. 30304)