By Naishtat                                     H.B. No. 2802

      75R9145 PAM-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to prohibiting a landlord from discriminating against a

 1-3     person based on the person's source of income.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 301, Property Code, is

 1-6     amended by adding Section 301.028 to read as follows:

 1-7           Sec. 301.028.  SOURCE OF INCOME.  (a)  Except as provided by

 1-8     Subsection (b) or (c), a landlord may not refuse to lease a

 1-9     dwelling and may not discriminate in the terms of the lease or the

1-10     provision of services or facilities under the lease because of a

1-11     person's source of income or because the person receives funds

1-12     under a housing assistance program, including a housing voucher

1-13     program or a housing certificate program, to pay, in whole or in

1-14     part, for rental payments.

1-15           (b)  This section does not require a landlord to lease a

1-16     dwelling to any person:

1-17                 (1)  whose source of income is illegal;

1-18                 (2)  whose credit history, excluding an absence of a

1-19     credit history, does not meet the landlord's tenant selection

1-20     criteria; or

1-21                 (3)  whose household includes a person who has a

1-22     criminal history that does not meet the landlord's tenant selection

1-23     criteria.

1-24           (c)  A landlord may refuse to lease a dwelling to a person

 2-1     because the person receives funds under a housing assistance

 2-2     program to pay, in whole or in part, for rental payments if the

 2-3     landlord has leased at least 15 percent of the landlord's dwellings

 2-4     to persons who receive funds under a housing assistance program to

 2-5     pay, in whole or in part, for rental payments.

 2-6           (d)  In addition to other standard application fees, a

 2-7     landlord may collect a nonrefundable administrative fee of not more

 2-8     than $10 from a person who satisfies the landlord's tenant

 2-9     selection criteria and who receives funds under a housing

2-10     assistance program to pay, in whole or in part, for rental

2-11     payments.

2-12           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

2-13           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-14     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-15     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-16     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-17     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.