Lawsuit: California law forcing landlords to accept Section 8 unconstitutional

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(Legal Newsline) - California is trampling the rights of property owners by requiring them to accept Section 8 vouchers if they wish to rent an apartment or other home, a new lawsuit alleges.

On July 17, a Sacramento-area manager of about 300 rental properties filed suit in Sacramento federal court against the state, seeking to strike down as unconstitutional a state law that requires him and other landlords to accept vouchers from prospective tenants who receive low-income rental assistance from the government through the program commonly known as Section 8.

In the lawsuit, plaintiff Thomas Manning and his company, Tower Bridge Property Management, assert the California state laws mean they and other rental home owners and managers must agree to surrender their constitutional protections against illegal warrantless searches and seizures to maintain their right to rent property in the Golden State.

Manning and his company are represented in the action by attorneys with the Pacific Legal Foundation, a nonprofit constitutional legal advocacy organization, based in Arlington, Virginia.

“California is using civil rights laws to dragoon property owners into surrendering their own rights — like the right to be secure against warrantless searches,” said Manning's attorney Austin Waisanen, of the Pacific Legal Foundation. “But no state can force residents to surrender their constitutional rights merely because they participate in the rental market. This lawsuit aims to hold California accountable for trying.”

The lawsuit specifically takes aim at California over state laws enacted by the state's Democratic legislative supermajority and signed into law by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2019.

Under those laws, which amended the state's Fair Employment and Housing Act, California essentially has mandated that all rental home owners cannot refuse to rent properties to certain tenants, solely on the basis of their desire to pay their rent using vouchers. In enacting those laws, California Democratic lawmakers and activists said the laws were needed to combat discrimination in housing against tenants based on race, family size and other characteristics, as well as to allegedly combat poverty and homelessness.

However, in the lawsuit, the plaintiffs assert the laws trample not only their private property rights, but also their Fourth Amendment rights to be free of warrantless searches.

Specifically, the lawsuit notes the law requires property owners and their agents to "agree to a housing assistance payments (HAP) contract with the local Public Housing Agency (PHA)" whenever they are forced to rent a property to a Section 8 tenant.

And those HAP contracts, in turn, require landlords and property owners to "agree that 'the PHA may inspect the contract unit and premises at such times as the PHA determines necessary, to ensure that the unit is in accordance with the (housing quality standards)."

But more so, the HAP contracts further afford federal government agencies the same access to the properties, without warrant or notice, as well as "the right to examine or audit" all of the landlord's records and documents related to that rental property.

Attempting to sidestep those requirements, the lawsuit said, means landlords risk "investigation, prosecution, and civil penalties," which the lawsuit said would be "ruinous," if imposed.

The lawsuit asserts that one particular unit that Manning and his company have rented to a Section 8 tenant has been inspected several times by the Sacramento Housing Authority since 2021.

Manning said he has filed suit to attempt to end the allegedly unconstitutional governmental interference in his properties and violations of his constitutional rights.

The lawsuit seeks court orders declaring the California laws unconstitutional, and blocking the state from continuing to enforce them and compelling Manning and other property owners and landlords to choose to either participate in the California public housing programs or surrender their rights to rent their properties.