“I can envision a time in the not-too-distant future when the law will be changed to open the landlord to discrimination lawsuits for refusing to rent to Section 8 certificate holders.”
The whole concept of asking for references will be criminalized. A friend has a rental property in Sussex County NJ (”the hills”); the Section 8 people trying to get in are all white. The references screen them.
Since we've got 3, count 'em 3, methadone clinics in our small city there's a large contingent of drug addicts and healthy young layabouts with various "disabilities," usually defined as "anxiety."
They can't make it to work, but frequent trips to the store to re-up the liquor supply seem to be no problem.