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- Discrimination in awarding Section 8 housing describes alleged or confirmed cases of illegal discrimination in the housing market of the United States of America, "Section 8" being a portion of a 1937 law that provides financial assistance for housing costs of several million low-income Americans. Advocates for individuals who have been unfairly denied usage of their housing voucherargue that "racial and economic segregation" in Section 8 housing is "a major problem." In 1968, Congress enacted the Fair Housing Act (FHA) as Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 to combat racial segregation. In 1974, to further combat the concentration of poverty and racial segregation in housing, the government developed the Section 8 Housing Voucher Program (now known as the Housing Choice Voucher Program), which supplies vouchers to low-income tenants to assist with rental payments. However, despite receiving vouchers to help with rental payments, participants in the program are said to still experience substantial difficulties obtaining housing. A noticeable "disparate impact" within the Section 8 Housing Voucher Program has been noted by Rotem (2010). Under the Section 8 Housing Voucher Program, participants can use the voucher to pay a portion of their rent. However, participation in the Section 8 Housing Voucher Program is voluntary for landlords. Landlords participating in the program are free to withdraw for many reasons. According to the Fair Housing Act. 42 U.S.C. ยง 3604, an owner who refuses to sell or rent after the making of a bona fide offer, or to refuse to negotiate for the sale or rental of, or otherwise make unavailable, or deny for reasons associated with their tenant's "race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin" would be an illegal act of discrimination. As neighborhoods have gentrified, holders of housing vouchers may find that property owners who might have taken their vouchers in the past are no longer doing so. A common excuse used by landlords in order to technically legally dismiss individuals with housing vouchers is to tell them that they, the landlord, are not sure about the rules and conditions regarding section 8. By responding with an unsure answer, the landlord displaces the discrimination as a technical matter. (en)
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