Federal Fair Housing Act baseline plus South Carolina-specific additions under S.C. Code § 31-21-40 (South Carolina Fair Housing Law).
South Carolina has no source-of-income protection at the state level and no major local SOI ordinance has been verified. Landlords statewide may decline Section 8 voucher applicants for reason of payment source alone, but cannot use voucher status as a pretext for discrimination based on a protected class such as race, family status, or disability.
Federal classes apply uniformly. The classes shaded green below are South Carolina-specific additions under S.C. Code § 31-21-40 (South Carolina Fair Housing Law).
South Carolina mirrors federal FHA, no statewide additions.
Start with the question most South Carolina landlords actually ask: can you turn down a Section 8 voucher holder? Yes — South Carolina has no source-of-income protection, so declining an applicant because rent would arrive by voucher is legal statewide. The critical caveat is that payment source can never be a cover story. Refusing a voucher from a Black applicant while accepting one from a white applicant is not a source-of-income decision; it is race discrimination under federal law.
The governing statute is S.C. Code § 31-21-40, the South Carolina Fair Housing Law, enforced by the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission. It mirrors the federal Fair Housing Act — the same seven protected classes, no statewide additions — which makes South Carolina simpler than most states, but no more forgiving.
South Carolina keeps its fair housing framework deliberately lean. The operative provision is S.C. Code § 31-21-40, the discrimination section of the South Carolina Fair Housing Law, and it tracks the federal Fair Housing Act rather than expanding on it. Enforcement runs through the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission, the state's civil rights agency, which accepts housing discrimination complaints from tenants and applicants. A renter who believes a denial was really about race, disability, familial status, or another protected trait can file with the Commission or go straight to HUD — and a landlord should expect a complaint lodged in either forum to be investigated on the same substantive standards. The mirror structure means there is no separate state rulebook to learn: master the federal Act and you have mastered the state law. It also means there is no state-level shortcut around it.
South Carolina's recent legislative story is the absence of one: the state continues to mirror the federal FHA with no statewide additions. That leaves exactly seven protected classes — race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, and disability. What the mirror status does not mean is that anything on that list is negotiable. The federal floor applies to every South Carolina rental it covers, backed by federal civil penalties, and since 2021 HUD has read the FHA's "sex" protection to include sexual orientation and gender identity under the Bostock reasoning — so those categories are enforceable in Charleston or Greenville even though the state statute never names them. Local ordinances can also layer on requirements the state has not, so a multi-market landlord should verify city rules rather than assume the statewide baseline is the whole story.
Because there is no source-of-income class, a South Carolina landlord may adopt a no-voucher policy — but the policy only protects you if it is written down and applied to every applicant without exception. The moment a voucher refusal is waived for one applicant and enforced against another who happens to belong to a protected class, it stops being a payment-source decision and becomes evidence of discrimination. If you do accept vouchers, apply your income and screening standards consistently: decide in advance how you count the subsidy toward any income requirement and document it. With average rent statewide at about $1,002, the voucher population overlaps heavily with the ordinary applicant pool here, so an unwritten, case-by-case approach is where small landlords most often drift into trouble.
Most complaints against small operators come from habits, not policies. Watch for these:
Fair-housing complaint rates correlate with overall tenant-protection enforcement. View landlord risk and tenant-law profile by city:
This page is maintained by the Eviction Risk Map research team and is based on S.C. Code § 31-21-40 (the South Carolina Fair Housing Law), enforcement guidance from the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission, and the federal Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3604. Last reviewed July 2026. This material is provided for general informational purposes only and is not legal advice; consult a South Carolina attorney about your specific situation.
Yes. South Carolina has no source-of-income protection, so a landlord may decline an applicant statewide because rent would be paid with a Housing Choice Voucher. Two cautions: apply the policy identically to every applicant, because a voucher refusal that only ever lands on applicants of one race, one national origin, or families with children will be read as pretext for a federal Fair Housing Act violation; and confirm no local ordinance in your city or county has added its own payment-source rule before relying on the statewide answer.
Seven. S.C. Code § 31-21-40 mirrors the federal Fair Housing Act, so the protected classes are race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, and disability. South Carolina has added no state-level classes on top of that list, which makes it one of the pure federal-mirror states. The seven that do apply carry full federal enforcement weight, including HUD complaints and federal civil penalties.
Not by name in the state statute, but effectively yes through federal law. Since 2021, HUD has interpreted the Fair Housing Act's ban on sex discrimination to include sexual orientation and gender identity, following the Supreme Court's reasoning in Bostock. A South Carolina tenant turned away for being gay or transgender can file a federal complaint with HUD even though S.C. Code § 31-21-40 never mentions those terms. Landlords should screen as if both are protected, because in practice they are.
Through two doors. The South Carolina Human Affairs Commission accepts and investigates housing discrimination complaints under the state Fair Housing Law, and HUD accepts complaints under the federal Act; a tenant can also sue privately. A landlord should not assume the mirror statute means lighter enforcement — the same conduct that violates S.C. Code § 31-21-40 typically violates the federal FHA, and federal civil penalties apply. Keeping written screening criteria and dated records of every denial is the practical defense in either forum.
Federal authority: 42 U.S.C. § 3604; 24 C.F.R. Part 100. State authority: S.C. Code § 31-21-40 (South Carolina Fair Housing Law). Last updated July 14, 2026. For informational purposes only, not legal advice. Fair-housing determinations are highly fact-specific; consult a licensed South Carolina attorney before making a screening, denial, or eviction decision.
