Please send in your support for SB 1053! Use this sample support letter and add your voice to Senator Leno’s efforts to end affordable housing discrimination.
On Tuesday, February 16, 2016, Senator Mark Leno introduced SB 1053, the Housing Opportunities Act. NPH, under the direction of policy director Michael Lane, and the Western Center on Law and Poverty have teamed up to co-sponsor this bill in the hopes of increasing rental housing options for low-income families and veterans.
SB 1053, the Housing Opportunities Act, ensures that all Californians have a fair opportunity to seek and retain housing, particularly when they use a federal rental subsidy as a method of payment. Current law allows landlords to deny prospective low-income tenants the ability to apply for housing simply because they receive a housing voucher.
“All tenants should have a fair opportunity to apply for housing, regardless of whether they receive a housing voucher,” said Senator Leno, D-San Francisco. “Denying families the right to find affordable homes or remain in their existing homes puts peoples’ lives in upheaval and severely exacerbates our housing crisis.”
“Denying a tenant the opportunity to apply for housing conflicts with the central aim of the housing voucher program, which is to alleviate the affordable housing crisis,” said Michael Lane, policy director with the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California. “Housing vouchers are especially critical in our efforts to end chronic homelessness among veterans.”
View the press release from the Office of Senator Mark Leno here.