INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — After an accidental fire destroyed its shelter in downtown Indianapolis, Helping Veterans and Families of Indiana is struggling to rehouse 48 homeless veterans.

Many landlords won’t accept housing subsidies, shutting out HVAF clients. The practice is entirely legal in Indiana, and some housing advocates believe it’s becoming more common.

When Marine Corps veteran and HVAF client Dion Donnell moved to Indianapolis with his four children, he found out the same subsidies meant to help people find homes can actually hurt their chances at being accepted as a tenant. “It’s almost like you’re begging them. ‘Please, take me in. I have a voucher.’ They don’t want to take the risk.”

Donnell isn’t one of the 48 displaced vets, but understands the challenge ahead for them.

“Give them a chance and keep some people off the streets,” Donnell said.

When a renter uses a federal subsidy, the property must get an inspection and meet minimum standards of health and safety. If a landlord refuses to accept a voucher, they can avoid basic upkeep of the apartment.

Emmy Hildebrand, the chief executive officer of HVAF of Indiana, says housing subsidies can also come with a stigma. “There’s a tremendous amount of bias against individuals using a voucher as a form of payment.”

Of the 48 veterans displaced by the October fire, Hildebrand says, 10 have housing vouchers in hand and another nine are in the process of getting them. So nearly half have the resources to pay their rent, but, in Indiana, it’s legal for landlords to deny a renter for using subsidies as payment. 

“Because they come with all kinds of negative perceptions,” Hildebrand said. 

In 2015, the Indiana General Assembly passed legislation stopping any local governments in the state from requiring landlords to accept subsidies as rental payment.

Amy Nelson, executive director of Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana, said, “Most states have gone the other way in adding in that protection, identifying that this is a very vulnerable population that includes a number of veterans.”

The Fair Housing Center ran an audit in 2014, finding that 82% of surveyed Marion County housing providers refused to accept housing vouchers.

Nelson believes it’s only gotten worse. 

“Unfortunately, it drives people back at the high-crime, poor neighborhoods, where landlords will rent to them,” Nelson said.

HVAF has been raising money for the 48 displaced veterans, along with the hundreds of other clients who use its programs each month, while working to find properties and partners willing to accept the veterans’ vouchers.

“But by far, one of the hardest challenges is finding a landlord who will accept that voucher for payment,” Hildebrand said. “If we could easily do that, we could resolve the crisis for half the veterans that were displaced by the fire.”