Anna Luft, NYLAG’s Director of the Public Housing Justice Project, and Deborah Berkman, NYLAG’s Director of the Shelter and Economic Stability Project, raised concerns with Brick Underground about how delayed Section 8 payments from federally-subsidized vouchers could worsen discrimination against tenants:
It’s illegal for a landlord to refuse to rent to someone because they use a housing voucher, or to evict a tenant solely because the government paid its subsidy late. But late payments are still distressing to Section 8 tenants, said Anna Luft, an attorney at New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG).
Payment delays are “still going to show up on your rent ledger, and it’s still going to be very stressful and scary for you as a renter, especially as a low-income renter,” said Luft, who serves as project director for NYLAG’s Public Housing Justice Project.
[…]
Unfortunately, discrimination still happens, said Deborah Berkman, the director of the shelter and economic stability project at NYLAG.
“The more unstable the payments are, the less likely that unregulated apartments will accept these vouchers, and it doesn’t matter if they have to,” Berkman said. “Every day we have clients who report instances of source of income discrimination.”
Read the full piece published in Brick Underground on March 21, 2025.
