North Texas HOA accused of racism cannot ban low-income renters, per new Texas law

A North Texas homeowners association that voted to kick out residents who receive government assistance for rent will back off the policy due to a new Texas law.

The law, pushed by Texas Rep. Chris Turner, a Grand Prairie Democrat, will prohibit HOAs from discriminating against tenants based on their method of payment. It will go into effect Sept. 1.

The move is considered a big, if rare, win for low-income Texans.

In 2022, Providence Village Homeowners Association in Denton County passed a rule prohibiting residents from paying rent with government subsidies, known as Section 8 vouchers. It would also fine landlords $300 a week until those renters are gone. The HOA’s board said the policy aimed to address the “unprecedented uptick in egregious crimes in our community committed by Section 8 tenants.”

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The move would have displaced more than 600 residents from 157 households. Roughly 93% of those affected were Black, and all but five households were led by women.

Providence Village drew the scorn of HBO’s John Oliver, who dedicated a lengthy segment in April to HOAs on his show Last Week Tonight. Calling it a “segregation loophole,” Oliver noted there was no state or federal law forbidding HOAs from implementing such bans.

“I know that those HOA officials might not think of themselves as racists,” Oliver quipped, “but 93% is a pretty solid A for racism.”

The master-planned community in eastern Denton County has about 2,200 homes, a swimming pool, pavilions, a clubhouse, small lakes and trails, according to its website.

Housing voucher recipients in the neighborhood said some homeowners did not want low-income neighbors. One tenant, Revisha Threat, said she and her family did not feel welcome or safe in the area and have received death threats.

“It’s gotten a little dangerous to the point where I can’t let my kids go to the pool or go anywhere outside of the home because of all the threats I’ve received,” Threat told WFAA-TV (Channel 8) at the time. But she also feared housing insecurity: “I sit in my living room and cry because I just don’t know what to do.”

The HOA’s decision sparked outrage among fair housing advocates. Several groups, including Denton Housing Authority and United Way of Denton County, asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate whether the HOA’s leasing rules violated the Fair Housing Act.

In August 2022, Providence Village told residents it would not enforce the new rule until investigations by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Justice Department were completed. Those investigations are still pending. Facing uncertainty, dozens of families still moved out, according to the housing authority.

Both residents and fair housing advocates have said they worried other homeowners’ associations would copy the ban. HOAs are increasingly common, with some 360,000 in the U.S. More than a quarter of Americans live in an HOA, and 82% of new homes sold in 2021 belonged to one.

“We simply cannot allow these associations to become a vehicle for discrimination, even in isolated cases,” Turner, a Democrat, said in a statement. “Section 8 Vouchers assist low income Texans in affording decent, safe, and sanitary housing. There is no reasonable justification for banning these residents from living in any neighborhood.”

Providence Village’s HOA board said that it passed the policy to protect its residents, but that it will comply with the new state law.

“Our residents urged us to take action and while our mission has always been to remain welcoming to all, we could not sit back while our families were in danger,” the board’s statement said. “We will continue to fight for our homeowners every day because every resident deserves security and comfort in their home and community.”