Appellate Court Upholds Protection for Chicago's Voucher Holders

Though it took more than a year to reach a decision, the First District State Appellate Court has ruled in Godinez v. Sullivan-Lackey that Chicago’s fair housing ordinance protects families with Section 8/Housing Choice Vouchers from source-of-income discrimination.  At issue was an admittedly broad definition of source-of-income in Chicago’s local fair housing ordinance: “the lawful manner by which an individual supports himself and his or her dependants.” 

Since 1995, the Chicago Commission on Human Relations has interpreted source-of-income to include Housing Choice Vouchers, and allowed complainants to prove such discrimination by showing that they were denied a rental opportunity because they intended to use a voucher.  

Despite the Commission’s rulings, a circuit court reversed the Commission’s decision, which found that Julio and Carlos Godinez discriminated against June Sullivan-Lackey when they refused to rent an apartment to her because she had a Housing Choice Voucher.  Sullivan-Lackey ultimately lost her Housing Choice Voucher when she was unable to find other housing before her certificate expired.

The circuit court relied on a prior opinion from the Seventh Circuit, Knapp v. Eagle Property Management Corp., which found that Housing Choice Vouchers did not fall under the source-of-income protection definition enumerated in Wisconsin’s Open Housing Act.  There, the court found that the language evidenced no legislative intent to include Voucher Holders and the court did not consider how lower courts and administrative agencies have interpreted “lawful source of income.”

Though not bound by Knapp’s interpretation of Wisconsin law, the Appellate Court noted that state courts reviewing source-of-income anti-discrimination statutes in New Jersey and Connecticut have distinguished Knapp.  The Court also took into consideration the Commission’s own construction of its fair housing ordinance to protect Housing Choice Voucher holders from source-of-income discrimination.

Kathy Clark, executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing and author of a 1999 study that found continuing pervasive discrimination against Housing Choice Voucher holders in spite of Chicago’s law, said the court’s ruling “affirms the right of voucher holders to seek housing in Chicago without fear of discrimination solely because their rent is partially subsidized. Landlords should take notice that such protection exists, and it is enforceable.”

Clark’s group along with the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law and a host of other organization have sought to add source-of-income as a statewide protected class to the Illinois Human Rights Act since 2002.

For more information, contact Kate Walz , 312.263.3830 ext. 232.