William Maddocks

Dear House Housing Committee. I OPPOSE this bill. NH property owners have no role in policing immigration status in the selection of tenants. Passed along from our immigrant rights network friends - OPPOSE HB 1709, relative to prohibiting the rental of residential property to individuals unlawfully present in the United States. 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. William Maddocks