Committee debates adding citizenship and immigration status to Vermont housing and public-accommodations protections; lenders and landlords carve-outs discussed

Legislative counsel Cameron Wood told the Vermont Senate Economic Development Committee on Oct. 12 that the bill originally introduced in the House as H.169 would add “citizenship and immigration status” to the list of protected classes for both public accommodations and unfair housing practices, and portions of that language are now under consideration as an amendment in the Senate housing bill, S.127.

The change would add the two classifications across several subdivisions of the state’s unfair-housing and public-accommodations provisions, Wood said, and the draft being discussed also includes caveats aimed at financial institutions and federal-program compliance. “The bill that was introduced would add citizenship and immigration status into the protected classes for both public accommodations and unfair housing practices,” Wood said.

The central policy questions before the committee concern two tensions: whether banks and other lenders may be permitted to consider an applicant’s immigration status when making credit decisions, and how landlords should be allowed to validate applicants’ identities without effectively excluding people who do not have Social Security numbers.

To address the banking issue, Wood described a drafted carve-out…