Minneapolis to investigate landlords for Section 8 rental discrimination

The city of Minneapolis has begun investigating landlords for discrimination against renters who receive Section 8 housing vouchers, even as the city continues its legal fight with landlords who have sued to block Minneapolis' income-discrimination ordinance.

Kaela McConnon Diarra, who leads complaint investigations for the city's civil rights department, said the city has received eight complaints in the past year and is now working to inform renters and landlords that the ordinance is in full effect after being temporarily halted by the legal dispute.

It's the latest twist in a legal battle that began in 2017, when Minneapolis tried to expand on state law — which already prohibits housing discrimination by race, religion, disability, sexual orientation and familial status — by making it illegal to exclude prospective tenants solely on the basis that they use public assistance to pay their rent.

One of the sponsors of the ordinance, former Council Member Abdi Warsame, is now executive director of the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority. On the council, Warsame represented the Sixth Ward, home to a large number of public housing tenants who would complain about the difficulties they faced getting landlords to meet with them.

"Imagine you've been waiting for to get this voucher for a long time ... and the landlord just slams the door in your face," Warsame said. "It's something that we couldn't really accept in the modern age."

The ordinance met pushback from the start, with more than 50 real estate companies suing to stop it just three months after City Council approval. The ordinance was held up for years.

Landlords involved in the suit argued the city was forcing them to participate in a program that the federal government considers voluntary, and which they believed would limit their profits and property values. They were also concerned about the "demanding" and "nonnegotiable" contracts they would have to enter into with the MPHA.

In 2018, a Hennepin County judge sided with the landlords on some of their claims and told the city to throw out the ordinance. The city got that decision overturned on appeal — affirmed by the Minnesota Supreme Court in 2020 — and reduced the order to a temporary suspension of enforcement while the parties continued to argue over the issues.

Last December, the district court ruled in the favor of the city, with Judge Patrick Robben writing: "It is simply not the case that the [ordinance] is attempting to commandeer [the landlords'] private property for public use … They are in the business of renting housing. The [ordinance] merely seeks to regulate their treatment of members of the public who hold vouchers."

The landlords appealed, and the legal fight continues. Oral arguments in the Court of Appeals are next month.

In the meantime, the city is allowed to enforce the ordinance.

Tenants can file complaints even if there wasn't something as explicit as "no Section 8" advertising at a property, McConnon Diarra said. If they have reason to believe there was implicit income-source discrimination, the city would help them draft a charge to send to the property owner, and the property owner would have defend against it.

The city has had success mediating between renters and landlords to resolve cases, she said.

"The expectation being if it's a part of their process — that they are not accepting folks with Section 8 housing choice vouchers — that process needs to change, or they can expect to receive continued complaints," McConnon Diarra said.

City staff will be at the Urban Research and Outreach Engagement Center (UROC), 2001 Plymouth Ave., from 2-7 p.m. on November 13 to answer questions about the ordinance.