Could Atlanta take a page from Charlotte’s fair housing playbook? – Atlanta Civic Circle

Atlanta officers may be taught a factor or two from a good housing coverage adopted final week by their North Carolina neighbors.

The Charlotte Metropolis Council handed laws on July 14 that prohibits residence complexes benefitting from metropolis subsidies from discriminating based mostly on earnings supply by disqualifying renters utilizing Part 8 or different hire subsidies—and fines them after they violate the regulation.

The brand new ordinance is just like one championed by Atlanta Metropolis Councilmember Amir Farokhi and former councilmember Antonio Brown in 2020, however Charlotte’s anti-discrimination coverage seems legally enforceable, not like the native one.

Atlanta’s regulation is extra broad–barring all landlords from refusing government-subsidized hire funds–however attorneys instructed Atlanta Civic Circle earlier this month that it’s unlawful. That’s as a result of it conflicts with a state regulation that prohibits native goverments from increasing the state’s honest housing code, which doesn’t prohibit discrimination based mostly on renters’ earnings supply. 

May the Atlanta Metropolis Council make its effort to guard lower-income renters enforceable by taking a web page from Charlotte’s playbook?

As a substitute of making an attempt to mandate that all landlords should settle for housing vouchers—a coverage that may demand severe political will within the Georgia legislature to enact statewide—Atlanta metropolis officers may extra narrowly focus their laws to focus on solely residential properties owned, managed, or backed by metropolis companies, resembling Atlanta Beltline, Inc., Make investments Atlanta, and Atlanta Housing, as the brand new Charlotte regulation does. 

Charlotte’s regulation additionally permits the town to levy fines in opposition to landlords who skirt it and switch away voucher holders. 

Violators will first obtain a written warning and be required to bear “necessary compliance coaching,” in line with the Charlotte Observer. After that, the town will positive scofflaw landlords $500 a day till the matter is resolved—plus mandate extra coaching. For a 3rd violation, landlords are thought of in default on their metropolis subsidy offers and get a brief grace interval to treatment the violation.

Housing consultants have known as Atlanta’s try to forestall discrimination based mostly on supply of earnings forward-thinking, however adopting Charlotte’s new strategy may spur laws with actual tooth.