North Texas HOA Effectively Bans Section 8 Recipients

The homeowners association of Providence Village, a community an hour north of Dallas, Texas, has effectively banned Section 8 voucher recipients from the neighborhood, reports Joshua Fechter in the Texas Tribune.

Section 8 tenants have to leave Providence when their current leases end, according to the new rule. The homeowners association and the town are legally separate entities but share much of the same territory. That means within a year, an entire Texas town will mostly be off limits to voucher holders.

“Soon after the rule was on the books, a trio of advocacy groups — Texas Housers, Texas Homeless Network and United Way of Denton County — called on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate whether the rule violated the federal Fair Housing Act.”

The problem isn’t limited to Providence Village. “A 2017 report by Inclusive Communities Project found that out of 1,900 properties surveyed in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, only 226 accepted vouchers — predominantly in areas that are poor and Black.” The same survey found that in 26 majority-white Dallas suburbs, no apartment complexes accepted vouchers.

“The Section 8 ban is part of a broader package of rules passed by the HOA board aimed at discouraging real estate investors from buying homes in the neighborhood and turning them into rentals,” but, the article notes, the Section 8 ban disproportionately affects Black households, who make up 93 percent of voucher recipients in Providence Village.