INDIANAPOLIS (HATE) — Year accidental fire destroyed its downtown Indianapolis shelter, Helping Veterans and Families of Indiana is fighting to rehouse 48 homeless veterans.

Many landlords who will not accept housing subsidies will not accommodate 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 learned that the same subsidies meant to help people find housing can hurt their chances of being accepted as a renter. “It’s almost like you’re asking them. “Please take me inside.” I have a voucher. They don’t want to take the risk.”

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

Emmy Hildebrand, executive director of HVAF in Indiana, also notes that housing subsidies can come with a stigma. “There is a huge amount of bias against people 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 almost half have the resources to pay their rent, but in Indiana it’s legal for landlords to refuse a tenant for using subsidies as payment.

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

In 2015, the Indiana General Assembly passed a law stopping any local authorities in the state from requiring landlords to accept subsidies as rent payments.

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

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

Nelson thinks it’s only gotten worse.

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

HVAF was raising money for the 48 displaced veterans, along with hundreds of other clients who use its programs each month, as it works to find properties and partners willing to accept 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 do that easily, we could solve the crisis for half of the veterans who were displaced by the fire.”