Committee begins hearings on H.169 after testimony on Social Security number ban, credit checks and immigration protections

The General & Housing committee began testimony March 28 on H.169, a bill that would add citizenship and immigration status to certain anti‑discrimination protections and would, in one section, restrict landlords from collecting Social Security numbers for tenant screening.

The move “commence[s] hearing” on the measure, Committee chair said at the start of the session, calling H.169 “a complicated bill, an interesting bill that’s gonna require a considerable informed testimony.” The committee took several hours of witness statements and indicated it will continue hearings.

The first witness, Chris Donnelly, director of community relations for Champlain Housing Trust, told the committee his organization supports the bill’s inclusion of citizenship status and that the proposal “commits the state to more inclusivity.” He described how Champlain Housing Trust screens applications and said the trust looks back six months for payment history and flags applicants who were more than $1,500 past due in that period. Donnelly said the trust typically has a long lead time between application and unit availability — “it takes 14 months in time that someone fills out an application or pre…