RACINE - The Housing Authority of Racine County issues more than $7 million per year to provide housing assistance to more than 1,500 low-income county residents.

But there is a catch.

Landlords do not legally have to accept people on housing assistance, which the city's fair housing director feels is discrimination and contributes to clustering of low-income renters.

Declining vouchers is a choice that landlords say they make because they don't want to deal with paperwork or inspections, or with tenants who are not paying their own rent.

Wisconsin landlords' participation in the federal Section 8 Housing and Urban Development voucher program is voluntary, according to spokesman Richard Jones of the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development's Equal Rights Division.

The state housing law has already been through the federal court system and courts have ruled it is legal to deny vouchers, he said.

Neighborhood clusters

In 2000, 73 percent of Racine County's housing vouchers were used on Racine's south side, according to Racine's 2001 south side neighborhood strategic plan.

The neighborhood is roughly bordered by 8th Street on the north, Memorial Drive on the west, 24th Street on the south and Lake Michigan on the east.

According to current housing authority data, 502 vouchers are used within the 53403 zip code that includes south Racine, and 336 vouchers are used within the 53404 zip code that includes the area between Douglas Avenue and the Root River.

When you look at the pattern of where vouchers are utilized, they are concentrated in particular areas, said Morris Reece, director of Racine's Fair Housing Department.

The voucher program is supposed to allow people the

mobility to live wherever they choose in Racine County, said Reece.

But when someone is denied housing simply because they have a voucher their living choices are limited, he said.

"Does it limit the quality of housing? It does, period," Reece said.

He receives several complaints a month from people who feel they have been discriminated against because landlords would not accept their housing vouchers and they could not live in their home of choice.

Linda Ring Weber, Housing Authority of Racine County executive director, has tried to make some partnerships with landlords outside the city, she said. But ultimately people have to be willing to move outside city limits, a choice that people sometimes don't make because they feel more comfortable in one area or need the public transportation that the city offers, she said.

Racine Alderman Robert Anderson, whose 2nd District jurisdiction runs roughly from Racine Street to Lake Michigan, is aware that there are a lot of people on housing assistance in his district.

He attributes it to the number of rental properties available in his district compared to home-owner houses. He has been working on the issue, he said, in an effort to improve the neighborhood.

"For a healthy neighborhood," he said, "you need more owner-occupied homes."

In other areas where there are less rental properties, houses may be too expensive for people on housing assistance, and landlords can be more particular about who they rent to.

Brian Walton owns about 70 properties himself and helps manage another 100-plus properties with the real estate company Guy Lloyd Inc. He personally rents to people on housing assistance because everyone deserves housing, he said. However not all of the landlords he works with do the same and he understands that.

"It becomes tedious for a lot of people and they just don't want to deal with it or they don't want to deal with the type of clientele that you are dealing with, which is generally low-income. But there are a lot of good people that are on it."

One of his best tenants, who has been with him since 2003, is on housing assistance. And he doesn't want to lose her.

Even though he likes the tenant, he says the paperwork and inspection process can be a headache.

"They come through, they inspect your property, they will give you a list of required repairs," Walton said.

Is it discrimination?

Besides causing clustering, Reece believes that denying housing to people on assistance is "a smokescreen for discrimination."

He understands that it is legal for landlords to deny housing to people receiving a housing voucher, but he thinks people use that law as a way to legally discriminate against low-income and non-white tenants.

But he can't prove it, he said.

Working with a two-person staff, himself and one secretary, doesn't give him the time, he said. He doesn't even record the names of the people who complain because he doesn't have time to look into their cases, he said. All he can do is tell voucher holders that landlords are acting legally and forward them on to federal officials, he said.

His dilemma about alleged housing voucher discrimination is the same problem he hears every year from other fair housing departments around the county at their national convention, he said.

Landlords refusing people on housing assistance is not discrimination, said Peggy Robbins who manages and leases 70 units in the Racine area.

"It's pretty unfair to (deny housing) strictly on the fact they are just low income people," Robbins said.

Many of the properties that Robbins manages in the Racine area are upscale and are priced above the housing voucher limit, she said.

Some other landlords would rather rent to people earning their own rent instead of people receiving a government check, Robbins said.

"(Owners) think they are going to get more respect for their property if the people had to earn the money to pay the rent," she said.

That is stereotyping, said Chuck Tyler.

"They are assuming someone will come in, not maintain the property and be bad neighbors," Tyler said.

Tyler, 71, and his wife, Juanita, were victims of housing discrimination in the 1960s, and can relate to people who are rejected from renting a home.

Tyler, Racine's former director of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services, knows the housing environment is different than it was in the 1960s. Still he said he is concerned.

"Discrimination is more discrete nowadays, you have to read between the lines," Tyler said.

But Ring Weber believes denying housing assistance has little to do with the discrimination or even the program itself, she said.

"My suspicion is it has very little to do with them being on the housing program," Ring Weber said. "That's just an easy thing for me as a landlord to say. For a landlord to say, 'Oh, the credit is bad.' That is a hard thing to say to somebody."

Racine Attorney Gai Lorenzen initially questioned the state housing discrimination law and felt landlords denying vouchers were discriminating, she said.

But after reading case law and talking to her colleagues at the Legal Action of Wisconsin she concluded that forcing landlords to accept housing vouchers could be detrimental, she said.

"I don't know how you can make people participate in a program," Lorenzen said.

Landlords could take the properties off the market altogether because they don't want to deal with paperwork and regulations, Lorenzen feared. Or, she said, good landlords might sell their properties to bad landlords just to avoid vouchers.

What is the federal housing choice voucher program?

The federal housing choice voucher program provides assistance to help very low-income families afford rental housing. The voucher pays a portion of the rent and the renters make up the difference based on their income.

The Housing Authority of Racine County is the agency that operates the program locally and helps provide housing for county residents in need.

Over 2,000 Racine County residents are on the waiting list for housing vouchers and it has been temporarily closed to new applicants since Jan.1 because of the number still waiting.

If you feel you are a victim of housing discrimination

Every case is different and anyone with concerns can contact the Equal Rights Division.

Milwaukee: (414) 227-4384

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