Confusion reigned Tuesday after the Champaign City Council deadlocked on whether landlords should be allowed to refuse to rent to tenants receiving money from the government, leaving little chance of the issue being decided anytime soon.

After over three hours of debate, the council tied 4-4 in a straw poll. Councilwoman Marci Dodds did not attend the meeting, and has publicly said she would abstain from any vote that impacts her husband, a landlord. If she abstains, City Attorney Frederick Stavins said there is no precedent for how the issue would be settled.

“This isn’t something that happens very often,” Stavins said.

The debate focused on Section 8 vouchers, which come from the federal government, and pay about 70 percent of a tenant’s rent, and the city’s Human Rights Ordinance, which prohibits discrimination based on “source of income.” Last year, $7.5 million was spent in Champaign County through Section 8 handouts.

For 24 years, Section 8 was interpreted as being covered by the Human Rights Ordinance. But in 2001, a circuit court ruled in a case involving a Champaign apartment owner, Royse & Brinkmeyer Apartments, that the Human Rights Ordinance could be interpreted to not include Section 8.

Bob Glasa, chief operating officer of Royse & Brinkmeyer, argued that Section 8 vouchers required an extra burden on the part of the landlord, including mandatory inspections from the government and a greater chance of lost money. Glasa said over all the closed leases in the six years before the 2001 court case, Royse & Brinkmeyer lost more than twice as much money per lease in Section 8 cases.

Supporters of making Section 8 compliance mandatory argued that under the current standard, many Section 8 tenants have trouble finding quality housing that will admit them. Gladys Hunt, the former assistant executive editor of the Champaign Housing Authority, said the benefits of the program were being diminished by landlords who would not accept disadvantaged lessees.

“The saddest thing I saw was people who were trying to find housing before their Section 8 ran out,” Hunt said. “We look the other way as they get discriminated against.”

Councilmen Ken Pirok and Tom Bruno, the only landlords on the council, said they could not justify the changes because it was unfair to help certain people at the expense of landlords.

“I think all landlords should accept Section 8,” Pirok said. “I want to make this a mandatory program . but I can’t do it. It doesn’t seem right to me to discriminate in one way to end discrimination in another.”

Proponents of the change, including Councilwoman Gina Jackson, argued the change would not take away landlords’ ability to accept tenants based on their finances.

“It’s not saying that every Section 8 person that comes to them, they have to accept the voucher,” Jackson said.

Jackson, Kathy Ennen, Michael La Due and Geraldo Rosales voted for the change. Pirok, Bruno, Vic McIntosh, and Mayor Gerald Schweighart voted against it.