State Bill Aims at Outlawing HOAs From Banning Section 8 Renters

A bill filed in the state legislature is taking aim at an embattled North Texas homeowner’s association.

Providence Village in Denton County came under fire last summer when it all but banned Section 8 renters in its HOA.

The rarely seen practice led a state lawmaker to take action as soon as the new legislative session began.

“I have serious concerns that this is simply a backdoor way to engage in racial discrimination,” said State Representative Chris Turner who represents Tarrant County.

The Providence Village Homeowners’ Association adopted a rental and leasing rules resolution stating "a rent house may not be used for a publicly financed or subsidized housing program, such as Section 8 Housing."

Turner says he has not heard of any other HOAs with such rules.

“I was surprised to learn about it,” said Turner. “I’ve talked to stakeholder who represent homeowners’ associations, they too have been surprised by it and I do think there will be broad support for hopefully ending this practice.”

If passed, House Bill 1193, would prohibit all HOAs from prohibiting or restricting property owners from renting to a person based on their payment method, including the use of rental vouchers, rental assistance or rental subsidies.

The bill has been filed in the legislature.

“This is a fairly unusual practice,” said Turner. “I don’t want people to think that all HOAs are out doing this type of thing. They are not, but in this one isolated instance it needs to be addressed and that’s what the bill does.”

The Denton County Housing Authority released statistics last year that found the majority of affected residents in Providence Village were Black and women.

“I cannot think of any other to sum it up besides discrimination,” said resident Stephen Smith in 2022.

The father of three explained he was only on the housing voucher program after getting hurt on the job.

“I extended their lease with them through May to get their kids through school,” said his landlord Alecia Bowen-Mackey.

Bowen-Mackey says she owns three homes in the community, all three tenants receive housing assistance.

“It’s been a really sad situation,” she said about the impact this battle has had on the community.

The landlord tells NBC 5 the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development launched an investigation into claims of discrimination and has been interviewing residents and tenants.

Bowen-Mackey says as of now, the rules have not been enforced. Weekly fines of $300 for violators have also been tabled as the federal government investigates the allegations.

“We just received a letter from HUD stating that the investigation is so widespread and there are so many people to interview that it will be extended at least another year into October 2023,” she said.

NBC 5 reached out to the HOA and the town’s mayor but has not yet heard back.

Turner says legislative committees have yet to be formed, once that happens, the bill will make its way into committee hearings for consideration.

It could take several weeks to learn the bill’s fate, he said.

Turner says it is especially important to ban the practice statewide as 1,000 people move to Texas every day and more housing developments with HOAs are built.

“If this type of practice is allowed, you could see a situation where it would affect more people around the state and that’s why the legislature needs to outlaw it,” he said.