DENVER — The Denver Metro Fair Housing Center says more than 27,000 Coloradans depend on housing vouchers to rent an apartment. The organization says it's been getting complaints from people with vouchers, saying they've been discriminated against.
“To this day, I still experience discrimination because I’m an ex-con,” said Sage Sigman.
While Sigman, 24, says having a history of attempted arson hasn't made it easy for him to get housing, he believes being a housing voucher holder and having multiple disabilities, including chronic pain, arthritis and autism, hasn't helped either.
“When I got my voucher, I was rejected from a number of apartment complexes I applied to,” said Sigman.
"The number one complaint coming from persons with disabilities and within that, it has to do with service animals and emotional support animals,” said Outreach and Education Coordinator with Denver Metro Fair Housing Center John Paul Marosy.
Marosy said they receive about 800 calls a year, many of them complaints, which is why the center launched a statewide campaign to end housing discrimination based on the source of income on Tuesday at CU Denver’s Tivoli Student Union.
"Can't discriminate against the person with a Social Security check, welfare check, housing voucher, person with veteran's check coming in every month,” said Marosy.
A large part of the campaign is a five-minute video called "A Place Called Better", which Marosy hopes will educate consumers and landlords about the housing discrimination struggle. There are other parts of the campaign, too.
"Of all the 12 organizations on board, they will collaborate with the Denver Metro Fair Housing Center to hold community forums between landlords and tenants all around Colorado,” said Marosy. “The future depends on all of you.”
While Sigman hopes to move to a first-floor apartment at some point, he says it's easier to stay put for now because of the struggle to find a new place to live.
"Going back to homelessness would be far worse than the occasional stair fall that happens to me,” said Sigman.
The Denver Metro Fair Housing Center says it plans to meet at the end of November to discuss the impact of the campaign and the next steps to take.
