Although the District of Columbia law prohibits housing discrimination based on income, activists say that many landlords are refusing to accept Section 8 housing vouchers, a government subsidy which allows low-income residents to access housing all across the city.

Sczerina Perot, staff attorney at Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, said that many housing management companies turn away city residents who hold a housing choice voucher because of stereotypes about low-income people.

She added that the D.C. Housing Authority (DCHA), the agency that administers the voucher program, has largely contributed to the stereotypes held by many landlords.

Despite the benefits of guaranteed rental payments from the government, Perot said the process that both landlords and tenants have to go through makes the situation unappealing to housing companies. She described how tenants must receive a deed of the property, be present at an inspection, and have a "special" signing of a three-way lease among the tenant, landlord, and housing agency

"There is over a month of bureaucratic process," Perot said. "Many landlords would rather take the fast cash from a person without a housing voucher."

However, Isabelle Thabault, director of the Fair Housing Project at the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, said that landlords must look at people with housing vouchers as individuals and assess them solely as potential tenants.

Thabault pointed out that D.C. law requires that housing companies not discriminate against residents based on race, gender, sexual orientation or income.

In 2005, the Washington Lawyers Committee filed lawsuits against Gelman Management Company, E&G Group, and Sawyer Realty Holdings, Inc. for discrimination against prospective tenants on the basis of race and source of income.

Since then, Thabault said that there have been 15 lawsuits against housing property management firms, real estate businesses, and housing companies and all but "a couple" have been settled.

The lawsuits were filed based on results from an effort brought by the Equal Rights Center (ERC), which investigated many area management companies and landlords. According to the investigation results, a third of the companies surveyed rejected the tenants' application or said their company did not accept vouchers.

Section 8 housing vouchers allow low-income resident to pay about a third of their income to rent in the privately owned market, while the government covers the remainder.

Julie Becker, senior staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society, attributed the landlord's hesitation and the difficulty for many tenants to rent to the "hassle" of the bureaucratic process. She said that many landlords refuse to participate in the housing voucher program.

Andrew Silver, a law clerk with the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, said the most housing vouchers (53%) are used in District neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River. The area west of Rock Creek Park only has eight vouchers.

Silver conducted a study in 2003, which showed that in the upper Northwest neighborhood Friendship Heights the average family income is above $100,000 while it has a the lowest poverty rate throughout the city at 3.5%. Out of the 8,439 voucher recipients in the city, 4,500 are in neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River.

Perot said DCHA is not a "finely tuned" agency and that the department needs to change the voucher process so that tenants with vouchers can compete in the tight market.

DCHA gives voucher recipients 180 days to find an apartment that meets the agency requirements. If the time has lapsed and the voucher recipient did not obtain a lease, the voucher is then given to the next person on the waiting list.

Perot said DCHA, a federally funded agency and independent of the D.C. government, needs to do more to assist its voucher tenants in finding places to live and attracting landlords to participate in the voucher program. She said the goal of the program, which is to integrate low-income tenants into mixed-income communities, is not being met.