DAYTON — The Dayton City Commission has passed an ordinance that would stop what the city thinks could be discrimination for people looking for housing who get assistance.
On Wednesday, all five commissioners voted to approve the ordinance that would widen anti-discrimination laws and keep landlords from discriminating against potential tenants based on their source of income.
The task force that worked on this ordinance for the city estimated that there are at least 400 tenants that want to use housing choice vouchers and can’t get into an apartment, News Center 7 previously reported.
While many landlords only want to accept income from jobs, the new ordinance will make landlords consider alternative sources of income as well and prohibit them from discriminating against people using alternatives sources of income, like social security, disability payments, veteran’s benefits, child support payments and housing choice vouchers.
Marty Gehres, Dayton Municipal Clerk of Courts, was one of a group of individuals who spoke on the ordinance during its second reading Wednesday.
“This legislation is an important first step in ensuring everyone in our community has equal opportunity to quality housing,” Gehres told commissioners.
Those against the ordinance, like Dayton Realtors president Greg Blatt, told commissioners that passing the legislation would put a “redline” around the city and “send a message” to investors that “Dayton is closed for business.”
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“If this proposed ordinance is passed at this time, I feel that this will result in unintended consequences, such as rental properties being sold to home owners which will exasperate limited supply of rental houses even further,” Peter Julian, owner of Pathfinder Realty, said.
Commissions said that the ordinance didn’t mandate housing providers to always accept housing vouchers and that those who wouldn’t be able to satisfy the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s minimum property standards wouldn’t be in violation of the city’s ordinance if they were to deny a possible tenant because of that reason.
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