The Champaign City Council delayed consideration of a measure that would affect the city’s Human Rights Ordinance and change the way landlords were able to evaluate potential tenants.

If passed, the measure would have taken away the provision prohibiting landlords from excluding potential tenants who receive federal housing aid in the form of Section 8 vouchers. The council tabled the measure until October 2007.

Members of Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort and other community members gathered holding signs with pictures of councilmen Ken Pirok (District 5) and Tom Bruno (At-Large) with the word “Landlord,” in an effort to influence council members on the proposed amendment to the city’s Human Rights Ordinance. The amendment would delete Section 8 housing vouchers from the definition of “source of income.”

Section 8 housing vouchers subsidize rent for low-income families and the disabled. Under the voucher, tenants pay 30 percent of their income toward rent and utilities, while subsidies pay the rest to the landlord.

In action taken by the council in March, Section 8 vouchers were formally included in the definition of “source of income.” The inclusion prohibited landlords from discriminating against candidates for housing on the basis of payment by voucher.

Randall Cotton, a member of Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort, said that the housing voucher system affects a disproportionately high percentage of African-American people when compared to the general population. Cotton said that removing housing vouchers from the Human Right’s Ordinance is “de facto racial discrimination.”

The amendment appeared on the agenda at the request of Councilman Pirok through a council bylaw that allows actions to be included by the request of only one council member.

Pirok said he was absent from the vote held in March, but wanted the opportunity to vote on the issue.

Pirok said he is currently the landlord of one property and that he has always voluntarily accepted Section 8 tenants with no problems.

However, he said, doing so requires landlords to “agree to all kinds of things that are outside of normal business practices.”

He said that under the agreement, it is much more difficult for landlords to evict Section 8 tenants, even for legitimate needs. He also said that if the tenant leaves in the middle of a lease, the housing authority does not pay the remainder of the lease.

“All this does is replace one type of discrimination with another,” Pirok said.

Councilman Michael La Due (District 2) said he believed that Pirok’s concerns, along with the response of the public, shows that there is a need for dialogue on the topic.

Myths about what is and is not allowed under Section 8 agreements and concessions by both sides must be worked out in the time given by the extension, La Due said.

However, Councilwoman Gina Jackson (District 1) said she was “rather disturbed by the proposed repeal.”

“We have had (Section 8 vouchers) in Champaign since 1976, and you would think by now someone would have figured out the details,” Jackson said.

She said she felt that removing vouchers from the definition of income could lead to excluding other forms of government aid, such as Social Security disability benefits and veterans’ pensions and compensation.

Mayor Gerald Schweighart said he hoped that in the coming year, all misunderstandings in the program could be worked out so that the city can arrive at a win-win situation for both landlords and tenants.