MC 4: Montgomery County - Tenant Credit Check Restriction Act

[UPDATE 3/24/2010]: Good News! This bill passed the House Environmental Matters Committee delegation by a vote of 20-2. Democrats voted for it 16-0. Republicans voted for it 4-2. Now onto the Montgomery County Senate Delegation.

[UPDATE 2/19/2010]: Good News! This bill passed the Montgomery County House delegation by a vote of 20-4. Now onto a hearing in the House Environmental Matters Committee.

[UPDATE 2/18/2010]: Good News! This bill passed the County Affairs Subcommittee of the Montgomery County House delegation by a vote of 7-0 after this amendment was attached to make it fairer on landlords. Now onto the full Montgomery County House Delegation for a vote tomorrow...

You may be aware that many residents of Montgomery County (especially those who earn less money than the Federal poverty threshold) receive government subsidies to help cover their monthly housing rental payments. Montgomery County's Housing Opportunity Commission (HOC) is the agency responsible for providing this subsidy. And in some cases the HOC subsidizes 100% of tenants' rent.

It has come to my attention that in some cases, even when the HOC is paying 100% of the rent, prospective landlords are running credit checks on applicants. And those applicants are being rejected for having undesirable credit. This really doesn't make sense because those tenants (whose entire rent is being paid by the HOC) are not participating in the financial transaction with the landlord. I'm concerned that a few bad-apple landlords are grasping for an excuse to reject the applicants and the credit-reports provide a convenient foil.

In fact, Montgomery County's HOC website has a published guideline that says:

"Credit checks may be conducted on Section 8 subsidy holders, but if the entire rent is paid by the subsidy, there is no reason to reject the tenant if the credit check is negative because the tenant is not responsible for paying the rent."

You can see that guideline for yourself by clicking here and scrolling about halfway down the page.

Unfortunately, that guideline is being ignored. Since it is just a "guideline" (instead of a law), it has no teeth. Landlords that violate that guideline face no consequences.

For this reason, I have introduced MC 4: Montgomery County - Tenant Credit Check Restriction Act. This bill simply makes the existing guideline law by mandating that any prospective tenant with a 100% subsidy should not face a credit check from a landlord. This is a "local bill", so it applies only to Montgomery County, not the entire state.

To read the full text of the bill, click here.