SAN ANTONIO — The issue of alleged veteran discrimination in Military City USA has made its way to the Texas Capitol, with one state representative saying he's filing a bill to combat it.
Advocates say that, right now, veterans in Bexar County who use VASH (Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing) vouchers can only apply to 7% of local rental properties. That's because the overwhelming majority of landlords don't accept them.
While state law prohibits a rule making landlords accept all vouchers, veteran housing vouchers are the only exception. Cities can pass their own ordinances requiring landlords to accept veteran housing vouchers, just like the City of Fort Worth accomplished in March. Any landlord in violation of Fort Worth's ordinance will face a Class C misdemeanor.
The City of San Antonio's Planning and Community Development Committee is reviewing the measure.
House Bill 617, filed by State Rep. Ray Lopez of District 125, wants to take this policy a step further by proposing it at the state level.
"It was brought to our attention by some veteran groups," Lopez explained. "Universally, people will say, 'Thank you for your service'...very respectful of veterans, but oftentimes when it comes to delivering protections for those veterans, people have a tendency of falling a little bit short."
The proposed policy would shatter barriers for low-income veterans who rely on housing vouchers to pay their monthly rent. It would mandate that landlords accept these vouchers, giving veterans a fair chance to live where they want.
"Where it's closer to family, jobs, their health care," said Richard Acosta, treasurer of the American GI Forum of Bexar County. "No one's asking you to lower your rent. The voucher is based on your zip code."
Acosta is an Air Force veteran who founded the nonprofit My City is My Home. The organization helps provide free and low-cost property tax protesting services. He also helped create the largest affordable housing map and apartment database in San Antonio.
He learned 800 veterans in Bexar County use the VASH housing vouchers.
"The mom and pop landlords are the easiest ones for us to work with. The people we have the hardest times with are the ones being run by a property management company," said Acosta. "Telling me that I can't even apply because I'm using [vouchers] to pay my rent, to me that's a form of discrimination."
Acosta says out of 250,000 rental properties in Bexar County, only 7% accept Section 8 vouchers.
"Anything north of 410, good luck finding housing if you have a Section 8 voucher," he explained. "We're talking about 800 people. We're not talking about 16,000."
Efforts in motion
The Housing Authority of Bexar County, Opportunity Home and San Antonio's Housing Commission are recommending to City Council more ways to accelerate voucher programs, Acosta said. A lot of the rules with an expedited process, however, already apply to veteran housing vouchers, he added.
"A lot of people tell me, 'There's the Robert E. Lee Apartments that accept veteran vouchers.' Not all veterans are single men. There are families that have vouchers. They want houses. Not every veteran with a mental disability and PTSD can live in an apartment with people all over them," said Acosta.
This proposed policy won't remove background checks for landlords. If a veteran who uses a housing voucher is caught breaking the law or destroying property, they lose voucher privileges. Veterans also have a case manager who will help ensure they're successful in the voucher program.
If a veteran in a low-rent property has a voucher that can afford higher rent, moving to another area will open the lower-rent property for other voucher recipients.
"We're kind of creating housing without development," said Acosta. "50% of voucher holders' vouchers expire just because they can't find the housing."
Representative Lopez, an Army veteran himself and vice chairman of the Committee on Defense & Veterans' Affairs, said the premise of the discrimination is stereotyping.
"Oftentimes, landlords would prefer to not rent to a veteran simply because of their concerns," Lopez explained. "Veterans have an unfortunate profile of maybe being maybe mentally unstable, maybe having a drinking problem. PTSD is very, very big."
Two situations brought to Lopez's attention involved single mothers—each with two children. Both had to wait for landlords to accept their housing vouchers, which left each family homeless for a bit longer.
"Under no circumstance are we wanting to put them in that situation," said Lopez. "If somebody is showing that they have some ulterior motives that are profit-driven, I'll have very little empathy or tolerance for that kind of an approach because, again, it's the law and I wholeheartedly believe we owe it to them."
In a previous KENS 5 report on this matter, the San Antonio Apartment Association (SAAA) cited several roadblocks to housing providers, including inconsistent unit inspections, delays in rent payments, certification of resident eligibility and other obstacles that "make it too expensive for a small private owner to rent to a voucher holder."
Ryan Baldwin, President of SAAA, spoke in opposition to the proposed policy in San Antonio, saying to city leaders in an April meeting that "all persons with housing vouchers already served Veterans, and... voucher programs should be voluntary, rather than mandatory because they could negatively impact housing providers and create more barriers."
"What we're trying to do here is to make sure that there are no indirect ways for them to be able to do the discrimination against these individuals that are in desperate need," Lopez added. "'Why should I do that?' Because it's the law."
To learn more about the proposed policy aiming to remove income source discrimination for veterans, you can visit My City is My Home's advocacy page or reach out to them directly at BexarAGIF@gmail.com.
The 89th Legislative Session begins Jan. 14.