By Shapiro                                      S.B. No. 1833

      75R9457 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 participation in a housing assistance

 1-4     program.

 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-6           SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 301, Property Code, is

 1-7     amended by adding Section 301.028 to read as follows:

 1-8           Sec. 301.028.  HOUSING ASSISTANCE.  (a)  Except as provided

 1-9     by Subsection (b) or (c), a landlord may not refuse to lease a

1-10     dwelling and may not discriminate in the terms of the lease or the

1-11     provision of services or facilities under the lease because the

1-12     person receives funds under a housing assistance program, including

1-13     a housing voucher program or a housing certificate program, to pay,

1-14     in whole or in 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;

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; or

1-24                 (4)  who is unable to demonstrate the ability to pay

 2-1     any difference between the rental payment and the amount received

 2-2     under the housing assistance program.

 2-3           (c)  A landlord may refuse to lease a dwelling to a person

 2-4     because the person receives funds under a housing assistance

 2-5     program to pay, in whole or in part, for rental payments if the

 2-6     landlord has leased at least 15 percent of the landlord's dwellings

 2-7     to persons who receive funds under a housing assistance program to

 2-8     pay, in whole or in part, for rental payments.

 2-9           (d)  In addition to other standard application fees, a

2-10     landlord may collect a nonrefundable administrative fee of not more

2-11     than $10 from a person who satisfies the landlord's tenant

2-12     selection criteria and who receives funds under a housing

2-13     assistance program to pay, in whole or in part, for rental

2-14     payments.

2-15           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

2-16           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-17     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-18     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-19     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-20     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.