Section 8 is now a protected class in NY

[Brian Zaug]

My agent just emailed me this news. "Lawful source of income" is now a protected class. Just a heads up to NY investors. I could see a lot of discrimination lawsuits because if this. My local craigslist is loaded with apartments for rent that indicate we do not accept section 8 tenants.....

[PJ M.]

Lawful source of income has been a protected class in a lot of places for a while.  It's been that way in Philly for years.  To be clear, Section 8 is not the protected class.  When someone asks if the we take Section 8 the correct answer is that we "take in to account all sources of income however the unit has not been inspected to be included with the Section 8 program".  That lets the person know that they probably won't get it unless you have a unit that no one wants...in which case Section 8 is probably something you should be looking at as a potential customer base.  Occasionally we get a person that pushed further to ask if we would allow the place to be inspected as part of the program and we reply that we have no issues with that but we rent to the first qualified candidate that can move in.  Section 8 is not speedy, at least around here, for their inspections.