Landlord Must Accept Section 8 Vouchers

The NY Attorney General sued landlord and sought an injunction barring landlord from not accepting federal housing subsidized vouchers as a form of rent. The AG claimed that landlord's refusal to accept the vouchers violated the town of West Seneca's fair housing code, which prohibited discrimination based on income source. The court granted landlord's request to dismiss the case and vacated the injunction.

The AG appealed and won. The appeals court found that rent subsidy vouchers were a source of income under the town's fair housing code prohibiting discrimination. So landlord was required to accept the vouchers. Recent amendments to the State Human Rights Law prohibited discrimination based on "lawful source of income." That law specifically includes Section 8 vouchers as a lawful source of income. The state law also didn't preempt the local law because the State Human Rights Law wasn't intended to preempt the field of antidiscrimination legislation. 

People v. Ivybrooke Equity Enterprises, LLC: Index No. 594/18-01433, 2019 NY Slip Op 06299 (App. Div. 4 Dept.; 8/22/19; Whalen, PJ, Smith, Carni, Curran, JJ)