HB1709

Housing is difficult enough to find without greater barriers and burden put on owners who are renting their property. How is a Landlord to know what a person's status is?

This bill is discriminatory.

Discriminatory bill and UnAmerican!! Do not pass

Landlords cannot be in a position to verify a potential tenant's immigration status. The reality is that this bill would result in discriminatory decisions by landlords, opting to deny tenants from entire ethnic backgrounds - in violation of fair housing laws. You can't ask conscientious landlords to choose between potentially violating federal fair housing laws and state housing laws. This is impractical and hurtful to both renters and landlords.

HB1709 would make a class B felony of anyone who didn't disclose their immigration and citizenship status when applying for rental housing in NH. However, it provides no guidance whatsoever to landlords or property managers as to what they're supposed to do if the applicant indicates that they are not lawfully present, or do not have the necessary paperwork. Landlords would be prohibited from attempting to "independently determine an applicant's immigration status", which puts them in a real bind. Landlords are likely to profile applicants and refuse to rent to those who 'look' foreign, which is likely the point of this bill. NH has no business doing anything related to federal immigration law, much less implicating NH-based property owners. If you really care about housing for New Hampshire residents, I suggest you look into DSCR loans that are attractive to foreign investors that are BUYING rental property in the state and pocketing the profit. Why should oligarchs from Russia* (or proxy states) or Saudi Arabia get a pass on buying property and jacking up rental prices for NH renters? there's a public policy problem you could look to solve that actually puts NH first.

This is a disgusting attempt to treat people differently based on their race, ethnicity and citizenship. It's unconstitutional and shouldn't even be a discussion.

If the landlord fails to verify the tenant is legally in the US shouldn’t there be consequences for the landlord? A basic amount of due diligence would catch someone if they tried to lie, why is the property owner absolved of any responsibility in this process? If y’all don’t want undocumented immigrants around maybe you should try doing something about the property owners and employers who exploit them instead of punishing people seeking basic needs.

I strongly OPPOSE this bill. It is a violation of a person's rights to be discriminated against in this way. Not only is it unethical to ask housing providers to conduct screenings related to lawful immigration status, but it is impractical and illegal. Screening based on nationality and immigration status is prohibited under federal and state housing discrimination laws. Landlords are, by law, not permitted to treat tenants differently based on citizenship, nationality, or ethnicity. This is a bill that contradicts existing discrimination law and it has no place in New Hampshire – or any other US state.

The sole purpose of this bill is cruelty. Do you people have any shred of decency left? You should be ashamed. Not only have you lost your sense of decency, but you are out of touch with the desires of your constituents who are sick of seeing racist law after racist law be floated in this House. Enough is enough. We don't want this.

Life's hard enough. I know this bill is meant as a deterrent, but it will have detrimental effects which change little in practice except enhancing the cruelty of humans towards one another.

As a landlord myself, I oppose this bill. We should not be required to expend valuable time and resources to sus out illegal immigrants. This is a function of national government. Not local/state. And certainly not landlords.

Please ITL this discriminatory, reckless bill. Enacting such a law would place housing providers in the legally precarious position of screening people based on nationality and immigration status – practices that are definitively prohibited under federal and state housing discrimination laws. Landlords cannot and should not screen tenants to establish citizenship or immigration status. They may not treat tenants differently based on citizenship, nationality, or ethnicity. They are certainly not in the position to determine whether a prospective tenant is lawfully present, whether they had an obligation to report their status, and whether they reported their status accurately

I have a feeling this will lead to racial and ethnic profiling by potential landlords. Also, home-owners should not have the legal right to request someone's citizenship status, this seems unconstitutional. I also imagine it will add to our housing crisis if home-owners decide to discriminate based on citizenship status of an applicant. We should be protecting and caring for our neighbors, not making it more difficult to have a roof over their head.

This bill would legalize discrimination. Likely, landlords would be hesitant to rent to minorities especially individuals without English Proficiency. The intent of the bill is malevolent.

This is truly unamerican and not what we the people support here in NH.

Under federal and state discrimination laws, landlords may not discriminate based on nationality, citizenship, or immigration status. This bill tells landlords to break that law, so I strongly oppose this bill.

I oppose this bill. Find it unnecessary. Typically, you need to show identification anyway to apply for an apartment. It should not be a felony to not do so.

I oppose any collusion with ICE, a lawless group of untrained people attacking and killing U.S. citizens. Deport them and keep immigrants.

This is an invasion of privacy and frankly not a matter the state should be enforcing, this is a federal issue.

NH has a vibrant population of refugees, international students. A bill like this sets to stage for worsening racism and division. It also sets property managers into a precarious legal position.

Dear Representatives, Please oppose HB1709. I am a 56 year old native born U.S. citizen who has lived in NH for most of my adult life. I moved to Denver for 2 years during Covid and when I returned, in 2022, I went through the process of looking for housing in the Seacoast, since I had been hired to work at a Portsmouth company. Based on this experience, I am strongly against adding more hoops and barriers to the housing search process. Trust me: it is already hard enough to find a place and sign a lease. They already ask for all kinds of things. I had a landlord ask to see my bank account balance, including the account number. They want managers to verify employment, employers to verify salaries, vets to write testimony about dog breed and vaccinations, character references from 3 people... I prepared to sign a lease and was asked for first and last month's rent: $2400.00 security deposit for me, and an additional $2400.00 security deposit for my dog, for a total of $9200.00. The place filled up with mold when it rained, there was standing water in the basement, and no one was willing to do anything, so they gave my deposit back. If you think this new bill is going to take care of some significant problem in NH, I disagree. We have only a handful of immigrants in this state, here legally or not (and based on the dictates of my heart and human decency, everyone needs housing). The problem is, as you know, a dearth of affordable housing (thank you, to all who are working on making more housing available - I know it takes time and diplomacy). AND - this is important - the problem with this bill is that it asks landlords to do something that is beyond their expertise. They are not legal experts. They are not qualified. "Landlords" encompasses a wide variety of people, quite a few of whom are biased in favor of people who look like me (white, with blond hair) and against people who look like my friend Hisham, who became a U.S. citizen after legal entry here from Sudan and eventually got a job at a National U.S. agency. While legally in our country, he was pulled over 5 different times in one month on days he was driving to visit me, and was let go each time because there was no basis for pulling him over. When my biracial stepkids were in the car, we were pulled over for no reason, too. HB1709 would further encourage biased thinking by putting housing providers in a legally precarious role of evaluating people based on their immigrant status and their nationality. This is prohibited under federal and state housing discrimination laws. This bill could put landlords in a double bind. Perhaps property management companies can afford lawyers to deal with legal fallout. Please consider that *many* housing providers in our state are not property management companies. The people I've rented from have often owned 1-3 buildings, and were renting out the other half of their duplex, a downstairs apartment, or a second small house on the same property. No matter who they are, landlords cannot and should not screen tenants to establish citizenship or immigration status, based on Federal law. Please vote against this bill so that our state doesn't become complicit in encouraging housing providers to treat tenants differently based on citizenship, nationality, or ethnicity. Doing so will also put them in a bind because they may incorrectly determine whether or not a potential tenant is lawfully in the U.S. and incorrectly report their status, opening them up to potential for other legal challenges. This bill has the potential to harm a lot of people - from housing providers, to tenants of many varieties, to the state itself, which may find itself facing future lawsuits. Thank you for reading. Respectfully, Jennifer Whitten

This would place housing providers in the legally precarious position of screening people based on nationality and immigration status – practices that are prohibited under federal and state housing discrimination laws. Landlords cannot and should not screen tenants to establish citizenship or immigration status. They are not allowed to treat tenants differently based on citizenship, nationality, or ethnicity. They are certainly not in the position to determine whether a prospective tenant is lawfully present, whether they had an obligation to report their status, and whether they reported their status accurately.