Source of Income Protections
It is a City of Charlotte priority to promote opportunities for individuals and families to obtain safe, quality, affordable housing. This includes prioritizing support of affordable housing development to expand access to housing opportunities for low-to-moderate income households and aligning resources and policies that support housing vouchers and other rental subsidies, as recommended by the Housing Charlotte Framework.
The Source of Income Protections in the City Supported Housing Policy (the policy) establishes that prospective residential tenants in City supported developments will not be disqualified from renting a housing unit based on a refusal by the housing operator to consider any lawful source of income.
What is Source of Income Discrimination (SOID)?
Source of income discrimination' refers to the practice of refusing to rent to a housing applicant because of that person's legal form of income. Examples of legal income sources include wages, investment income, child support, alimony, spousal maintenance, foster care subsidies, Social Security, and public assistance.
What is Source of Income Protections (SOIP)?
Source of income protections refer to municipal or state laws that protect residents from housing discrimination based on their source of lawful income. July 11, 2022, Charlotte passed a policy prohibiting discrimination against households based on their lawful source of income. The policy applies to housing developments that receive city-provided financing or subsidy. Mecklenburg County passed a similar policy on September 18, 2022.
Protected Developments
Developments accepting city subsidy after August 22, 2022, must comply with the policy.
How to file a complaint
Additional fair housing information and instructions on filing a complaint are provided by the Community Relations Committee.
In additional to the source of income protections discussed here, It is a violation of the Federal Fair Housing Act, the Charlotte Fair Housing Ordinance (Chapter 12, Article V of the Code of the City of Charlotte), or the Mecklenburg County Fair Housing Ordinance to deny you housing rights for any of the following protected classes: race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability or familial status (being pregnant or having children under 18 years old).