Omaha Fair Housing Campaign: We Can End Source of Income Discrimination
May 27, 2025
What is a source of income (SOI) protection law?
Everyone deserves a safe place to live, regardless of what lawful income they use to pay for it. SOI laws prevent landlords from discriminating against people solely because they use disability benefits, social security, veterans benefits, housing vouchers or any other lawful source of income to help pay for housing.
Why does Omaha need SOI protections?
- Nearly half (48%) of Omaha renters are cost-burdened and have little hope of saving to become a homeowner.1 In such a difficult time, it’s essential that one of the City’s largest affordable housing programs be fully functional.
- In a recent survey, only 6% of Omaha landlords said they accepted housing vouchers,2 far lower than most other cities.3
- SOI discrimination was the number one issue participants brought up at the Redress Movement’s 2024 listening tour.
- Vulnerable and elderly neighbors are stuck in deplorable conditions because they can’t find other landlords that will accept a voucher.4
- Data also shows that 40% of families with vouchers fail to find a landlord who will accept their voucher within the time they are allotted (usually 60 days).5
- SOI is not protected at the federal level and the state legislature refuses to act, but 60% of all voucher holders are protected by laws in 22 states (including nearby OK, ND, and MN) and at least 128 local jurisdictions.6
- Lincoln, NE became the most recent city to pass SOI protections on May 6, 2025 with an overwhelming 66% voting in support of the ballot initiative.7
- SOI protections are also recommended by the City’s Housing Affordability Action Plan.8
SOI protections can help redress segregation
Families with Housing Choice Vouchers (HCVs) are overwhelmingly segregated in North Omaha. Omaha is only 13% Black, but 45% of all voucher holders are concentrated in North Omaha census tracts that are more than one-third Black. In contrast 37 census tracts don’t have any voucher holder families and all but one are majority white, with many 80% white or more.9
Voucher Segregation in Omaha
SOI protection laws are an important part of voucher mobility programs that help families with vouchers access well-resourced neighborhoods they have previously been shut out of.
Housing Choice Vouchers benefit tenants and landlords
- Vouchers guarantee that most, if not all, of the rent always arrives on time.
- Voucher landlords report far less turnover. Only 13% of Omaha families with vouchers moved in the last year compared to 32% of all renters.10
- Landlords who accept vouchers have the right to choose tenants based on their own criteria (credit or background check, etc.) regardless of whether an SOI protection law is in place.
Join the campaign!
Contact The Redress Movement’s Senior Campaign Organizer for Omaha, Clarice Dombeck at cdombeck@redressmovement.org or 404-242-6871.
The Redress Movement is a nonprofit that organizes in Omaha and three other metro areas to redress the harms of housing segregation.
Endnotes:
1American Community Survey, 2023 1-year estimates for Omaha city, Table B27070.
2Omaha Housing Affordability Action Plan Appendix A: Market Assessment Report, Omaha City Planning, 2022, pg 31, https://planninghcd.cityofomaha.org/images/HAAP/Att._3_HAAP_Market_Assessment.pdf.
3Mary K. Cunningham, et. al., A Pilot Study of Landlord Acceptance of Housing Choice Vouchers, The Urban Institute, August 20, 2018, www.urban.org/research/publication/pilot-study-landlord-acceptance-housing-choice-vouchers.
4Christopher Burbach, “‘Horrible' conditions in Omaha apartment building prompt city to consider closing,” Omaha World-Herald, January 26, 2025, https://omaha.com/news/local/government-politics/article_0e5f2f86-d2cd-11ef-ac7e-bb05ca3a7d86.html.
5Ingrid Gould Ellen, et. al, Success Rates in the Housing Choice Voucher Program: 2018-2022, NYU Furman Center, April 2025, https://furmancenter.org/files/Success_Rates_in_the_Housing_Choice_Voucher_Program_508.pdf; “Housing Vouchers,” Omaha Housing Authority, 2025, https://ohauthority.org/housing-vouchers/.
6Appendix B: State, Local, and Federal Laws Barring Source-of-Income Discrimination, Poverty & Race Research Action Council (PRRAC), January 2025, https://www.prrac.org/pdf/AppendixB.pdf
7Amber Little, “Lincoln voters approve ban on source-of-income housing discrimination,” 1011Now.com, May 6, 2025, www.1011now.com/2025/05/07/lincoln-voters-approve-ban-source-of-income-housing-discrimination/
8Omaha Housing Affordability Action Plan, Omaha City Planning, 2022, pg 30, https://planninghcd.cityofomaha.org/images/HAAP/Att._3_HAAP_Core_Document.pdf.
9HUD, Picture of Subsidized Households, 2022 and U.S. Decennial Census, 2020.
10HUD, Picture of Subsidized Households, 2022 and American Community Survey, 2023.
