logo
Bill overturning protections for Section 8 renters a step away from Missouri governor's desk

Bill overturning protections for Section 8 renters a step away from Missouri governor's desk

Yahoo23-04-2025

Sen. Nick Schroer, a Defiance Republican, speaks on the Senate floor in April 2025 (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent).
Local laws prohibiting landlords from discriminating against tenants who receive public assistance would be unenforceable under legislation approved by the Missouri Senate Tuesday night.
The bill takes aim at ordinances passed in several Missouri cities to protect tenants from discrimination based on the source of their income — especially tenants who use federal housing choice vouchers, known as Section 8 vouchers, to pay rent. It now returns to the House, which approved it earlier this year.
If the House approves of the changes made in the Senate, the bill would go to the governor.
CONTACT US
The bill was co-sponsored by state Reps. Chris Brown, a Republican from Kansas City, and Ben Keathley, a Republican from Chesterfield. In the Senate, it was carried by state Sen. Nick Schroer, a Republican from Defiance.
Schroer on Tuesday called the bill 'a common sense piece of legislation that prioritizes property rights over radical government overreach.'
Brown in a March Senate committee hearing called it a 'property rights bill.'
'Basically what has happened is [cities] are forcing people to take Section 8 housing,' Brown said. '…I would submit this kind of amounts to an illegal appropriation of private property. But there's a very practical reason why a landlord may not want to do Section 8 housing.'
Kansas City passed a source of income discrimination ban last year, though it was in large part paused by the courts in February.
Columbia, St. Louis, Webster Groves and Clayton have similar protections on the books. The laws make it illegal for landlords to discriminate based solely on the fact of renters' lawful sources of income, including Section 8, veterans' benefits and Social Security.
State Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern, a Kansas City Democrat, said Tuesday that the legislation would not only undo those local ordinances but exacerbate homelessness.
'But really the fear for those who are the most vulnerable is that this would lead to further problems, expanding the homeless population,' she said
The bill to override these local policies passed the Senate after Democratic Sen. Patty Lewis of Kansas City successfully added an amendment to carve out the portions of Kansas City that are in Jackson and Clay counties. Democratic state Sen. Stephen Webber of Columbia also successfully added an amendment to allow those who receive veterans' benefits to continue being protected from source-of-income based housing discrimination.
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Proponents have characterized localities' protections as overreach, forcing property owners' hands. The bill has the support of landlords groups, apartment associations, the realtors' association and the conservative think tank Show Me Institute.
During a hearing in January, Brown said proponents are 'not unsympathetic to tenants that have some housing insecurities.
'It's not about the Section 8 tenant,' he said, 'it's about the program that we do not want to be forced into.'
Not every property owner, he said, wants to undergo the bureaucratic hurdles to accept Section 8.
David Stokes, director of municipal policy at the Show Me Institute, said source of income discrimination bans are simply a 'violation of the property rights of landlords.'
Landlords, he said, shouldn't be required to participate in a voluntary federal program.
'Just as the State of Missouri has long forbidden cities from imposing rent control,' he said, 'this is just a very similar next step, and I think it will really benefit housing options and housing availability throughout Missouri.'
In January's hearing, Kansas City Councilman Johnathan Duncan emphasized that landlords under the ordinance can still screen tenants and deny individuals based on other reasons, just not for the sole basis of the source of their income. He said landlords could still deny applicants with violent criminal histories or low credit scores for instance.
'I hope that representatives understand that we're here to govern ourselves and definitely can pass our own laws,' Duncan said. 'And I think it is an affront to the city of Kansas City and the other municipalities in the state of Missouri — that the state would know better than how we know and how to govern ourselves.'
Opponents also said the bill could hurt affordable housing availability. The city of Kansas City has been opposed along with the anti-poverty nonprofit Empower Missouri and an association of public housing authorities in Missouri.
Mallory Rusch, executive director of Empower, said in the January hearing that the discrimination bans help vulnerable Missourians secure housing.
'Discrimination bans like the one passed in Kansas City and other places in the state are really a key tool for local governments to prevent homelessness and ensure that those with the least among us can put a roof over their heads,' she said, 'and we really believe that the state should not be preventing local governments from enacting these provisions when they know their communities best.'
Gavriel Schreiber, general counsel to Kansas City's mayor, testified in March that the bill 'targets some of our most respected citizens, veterans, seniors,' because those individuals who get most of their income from benefits often don't have their benefits counted toward their rent-to-income ratio mandated by landlords.
'The ordinance says at its base that if you have a lawful source of income, a landlord cannot refuse to rent to you simply because they don't like where you get your lawful money from,' Schreiber said.
Dozens of states and localities nationally have these protections, which cover around 60% of families with Section 8 vouchers, according to the federal government.
Enforcement in states and cities where the protections have been passed has been somewhat mixed, but studies have found that overall the protections modestly improve outcomes for voucher holders.
This story was updated at 10:20 a.m. to include an amendment that carves out most of Kansas City from the legislation, except for the portions in Platte and Cass counties.
SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Marines arrive in LA under Trump orders as protests spread to other cities
Marines arrive in LA under Trump orders as protests spread to other cities

Yahoo

time10 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Marines arrive in LA under Trump orders as protests spread to other cities

By Brad Brooks, Jorge Garcia, Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Hundreds of U.S. Marines arrived in Los Angeles overnight and more were expected on Tuesday under orders from President Donald Trump, who has also activated 4,000 National Guard troops to quell protests despite objections from California Governor Gavin Newsom and other local leaders. The city has seen days of public outrage since the Trump administration launched a series of immigration raids on Friday, though local officials said the demonstrations on Monday were largely peaceful. About half of the roughly 700 Marines that Trump ordered to Los Angeles arrived on Monday night, and the remaining troops will enter the city on Tuesday, a U.S. official told Reuters. The U.S. military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told KABC that more than 100 people had been arrested on Monday but that the majority of protesters were nonviolent. Over the weekend, protesters threw rocks and other objects at officers and vehicles and set several cars ablaze. Police responded by firing projectiles like pepper balls as well as flash bang grenades and tear gas. Trump has justified his decision to deploy active military troops to Los Angeles by describing the protests as a violent occupation of the city, a characterization that Newsom and Bass have said is grossly exaggerated. Newsom said that Trump's deployment of National Guard troops has only inflamed the situation and made it more difficult for local law enforcement to respond to the demonstrations. In a statement on Monday, Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said the department had not been notified that any Marines were traveling to the city and that their possible arrival "presents a significant logistical and operational challenge" for police. Trump's decision to mobilize 700 Marines based in Southern California escalated his confrontation with Newsom, who filed a lawsuit on Monday asserting that Trump's deployment of Guard troops without the governor's consent was illegal. The Guard deployment was the first time in decades that a president activated the Guard absent a request from a sitting governor. While the Marines are only tasked with guarding federal property temporarily until the full contingent of 4,000 Guard troops arrives, the use of active military to respond to civil disturbances is extremely rare. "This isn't about public safety," Newsom wrote on X on Monday. "It's about stroking a dangerous President's ego." The top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Jack Reed, said he was "gravely troubled" by Trump's deployment of active-duty Marines. "Since our nation's founding, the American people have been perfectly clear: we do not want the military conducting law enforcement on U.S. soil," he said. In a post on Tuesday morning on Truth Social, Trump claimed Los Angeles would be "burning to the ground right now" if he had not deployed troops to the city. DEMONSTRATIONS AND ARRESTS The raids are part of Trump's sweeping immigration crackdown, which Democrats and immigrant advocates have said are indiscriminately breaking up families. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem pledged on Monday to carry out more operations to round up suspected immigration violators. Trump officials have branded the protests as lawless and blamed state and local Democrats for protecting undocumented immigrants with sanctuary cities. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered on Monday outside a federal detention center in downtown Los Angeles where immigrants have been held, chanting "free them all" and waving Mexican and Central American flags. National Guard forces formed a human barricade to keep people out of the building, and late on Monday, police began dispersing the crowd using gas canisters and arrested some protesters. At dusk, officers had running confrontations with protesters who had scattered into the Little Tokyo section of the city. As people watched from apartment patios above street level and as tourists huddled inside hotels, a large contingent of LAPD and officers and sheriff's deputies fired several flash bangs that boomed through side streets along with tear gas. Protests spread to neighboring Orange County on Monday night after immigration raids there, with demonstrators gathering at the Santa Ana Federal building, according to local officials and news reports. Protests also sprang up in at least nine other U.S. cities on Monday, including New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco, according to local news reports. In Austin, Texas, police fired non-lethal munitions and detained several people as they clashed with a crowd of several hundred protesters.

Fetterman rips ‘anarchy and true chaos' in LA, warns Dems not to cede ‘moral high ground'
Fetterman rips ‘anarchy and true chaos' in LA, warns Dems not to cede ‘moral high ground'

New York Post

time13 minutes ago

  • New York Post

Fetterman rips ‘anarchy and true chaos' in LA, warns Dems not to cede ‘moral high ground'

Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman has denounced the riots in Los Angeles and warned his party about the pitfalls of failing to adequately condemn the 'anarchy and true chaos. 'I unapologetically stand for free speech, peaceful demonstrations, and immigration—but this is not that,' Fetterman (D-Pa.) wrote on X on Monday evening. 'This is anarchy and true chaos. My party loses the moral high ground when we refuse to condemn setting cars on fire, destroying buildings, and assaulting law enforcement.' Advertisement The Keystone State Dem included a photo of cars being scorched in a fiery blaze with a shirtless masked man waving a Mexican flag in the background. 3 President Trump has deployed several thousand National Guard troops to Los Angeles to try to help quell the violent protests over his illegal-immigration crackdown. Toby Canham for NY Post Advertisement 3 Sen. John Fetterman, a Dem from Pennsylvania, isn't mincing words about his condemnation of the riots in Los Angeles. Getty Images Around the time of his post, Fetterman was spotted at Butterworth's, a top MAGA hangout in Washington, DC — dining with Trump ally Steve Bannon and Breitbart's Matt Boyle, Politico Playbook reported. Tech mogul Elon Musk commended Fetterman's condemnation of the 'anarchy and true chaos' unfolding in LA, replying with an American flag emoji. Fetterman's post came amid a feud between President Trump and top California Democrats over the prez's decision to federalize the California National Guard and bring in troops to tame the unrest in Los Angeles. Advertisement Protesters had flooded the streets in droves Friday to demonstrate against the Trump administration's immigration enforcement efforts in the city. The ICE agents' targets have included a Home Depot in Paramount. 3 Democratic Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has stressed that the violent destructive rioting has largely been limited to downtown. Toby Canham for NY Post By Saturday, some of the demonstrations devolved into violent clashes with federal authorities in Compton and Paramount. The Trump administration mobilized another 2,000 troops to respond to the mayhem, after previously ordering an initial 2,000 troops to the region over the weekend. Trump's secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, said Monday he also was deploying 700 Marines to the area to help try to contain the chaos. Advertisement Top leadership in California, including Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass — both Democrats — slammed the GOP White House for the troop mobilization and pleaded with the public not to turn to violence to protest Trump's immigration policies. Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta, also a Dem, filed a lawsuit Monday against the Trump administration seeking to void the president's memo to federalize the state's National Guard. Fetterman hasn't been afraid to punch the left in his own party, particularly when it comes to Israel. Near the end of the Biden administration, he had also favored measures to strengthen border security.

Georgia Supreme Court makes ruling on changes to elections
Georgia Supreme Court makes ruling on changes to elections

Yahoo

time23 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Georgia Supreme Court makes ruling on changes to elections

The Georgia Supreme Court ruled that multiple proposals by election officials to change how elections are run in the state were not allowed by state law. Seven changes, proposed by several members of the Georgia State Election Board, led to a lawsuit by several groups, including the organization Eternal Vigilance Action, over claims that they went beyond what state law allowed. In the latest ruling, members of the state's highest court said efforts to require hand counting of ballots, make county election officials make a 'reasonable inquiry' before they could certify results, required voters show identification before dropping a ballot off and that officials 'examine all election' documents that are created during elections were not legal. Separately, a rule proposing surveillance of drop box locations was allowed. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Two additional rules proposed for poll watchers and daily reporting requirements were ones that plaintiffs could not challenge 'as voters, community-stakeholders or organizations.' The ruling said that while a trial court had ruled Chatham County Board of Elections member James Hall had standing as a member of that body to sue, it was 'not based on correct legal analysis.' RELATED STORIES: Lawsuit filed against State Election Board by Republicans to 'rein in unelected' members' authority Raffensperger says voters 'should be concerned' over new, possibly illegal, Election Board rules Secretary of State say State Election Board has overstepped legal authority over new rules State elections board votes to require hand-counting of ballots at polling places Georgia AG says new rules from State Election Board may 'conflict' with state election laws Brad Raffensperger calls Georgia Election Rule Changes misguided, criticizes state board Judge says new Georgia election rules are 'illegal, unconstitutional and void' Georgia Election Board member's appearance at Trump rally sparks debate over code of conduct As a result, the court chose to vacate those two decisions blocking the rules and send them back to a lower court for further hearings. Those contesting the rules, including Eternal Vigilance Action and its CEO Scot Turner, said previously that they were going to court to prevent 'empowering the administrative state to act with the force of law.' They said Georgia's state constitution does not allow rules from unelected appointees on the State Election Board to supersede our laws. Responding to request for comment, one of the Republican board members told Channel 2 Action News in September that they would 'continue to do the work of the people with the goal of restoring faith in our election process.' Previously, Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger came out against some of the proposed changes, particularly the hand counting proposal, saying the board was 'misguided.' He has also said the recent actions by board members should have voters 'concerned' and that they might not even be legal. Should a lower court rule that Hall does have standing in his official capacity, it would then have to rule on the two proposals the Supreme Court declined to make a decision on. In response to the latest decision at the Georgia Supreme Court, Turner said in part that the ruling was a major victory, adding that 'this ruling makes clear: the legislative power belongs to the General Assembly, not executive agencies operating without proper constraints. The Georgia Constitution means what it says, and thanks to this decision, the nondelegation doctrine is once again alive and well in our state.' Channel 2 Action News has reached out to members of the State Election Board and the Secretary of State's Office for comment and are waiting for their responses. The Associated Press contributed to this report. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store